Lords of Dogpoop

Rating: 3/10 (22 November 2005)

Okay, I rented this movie the other day in high hopes of seeing a good true story on the lives of the skateboard legends from Venice but I was wrong, very wrong. We will do this Sergio Leone style: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
-----The Good------
-The cinematography is the best part about this film. This film has a documentary look and a very high contrast color tone. The camera is shaky and realistic looking. It makes this film seem more like a true story than the acting does.
-The skate boarding in this film was mostly done by the actual actors. It was fast and true to the 70s era of extreme skating.
-Heath Ledger. Undougtingly the best actor in this film. But he really reminded me of Jim Morrison more than anything else. Oh yeah, he was pretty much drunk the entire film.
------The Bad------
-The Story. It seemed like this story of the Z-Boys really needed more dialog. Most of the film is them skateboarding, then pissing someone off, breaking car windows and then running off. This film did delve into their careers as professional skateboarders but did it in a lagging 107 minute running time, when this story could have been told in 80.
-The Acting. If you had seen director Catherine Hardwicke's last film "Thirteen" you would think that she knows how to push actors to their breaking point, but this film really lacks emotion and effort. The acting is as childish as watching a school play. I guess that the actors were cast for their skateboarding skills rather than their acting.
------The Ugly------
-Rebecca De Mornay. *shutters*. What happened to that hot girl from "Risky Business"? Maybe she got old. Or its the fact that she was suppose to be a crack head in this film, or it is because nobody cared.
-John Robinson. Playing Stacy Peralta looks like he needs some sort of toner on his cheeks. The whole way through the movie I was thinking, "who smacked him in the face?".
So there it is, my analysis on "Lords of Dogtown". If you want to see the true story of the Z-Boys, watch "Dogtown and the Z-boys". This movie was a shot and miss on all fronts.