James Hitchcock "Blue Crush" was not based upon a novel, a short story or a play but upon a non-fiction journalistic article ("Life's Swell" by Susan Orlean). This is not an unprecedented phenomenon- "Saturday Night Fever", for example, was also based upon such an article- but it is nevertheless an unusual one. Non-fiction is a highly important part of the publishing and broadcasting industries, but the same is not true of the cinema. There have been occasional exceptions ("March of the Penguins" being a recent one), but in general film-makers have taken the position that documentaries are something best left to television. So, despite its provenance, the story told in this film is a fictitious one. (As, of course, is the story told in "Saturday Night Fever").The film's surfing sequences have been much praised, and rightly so. Like most Britons I have never tried surfing- weather conditions here are hardly conducive to it- but the exhilarating sequences in this film capture something of the sport's excitement and beauty and go some way towards explaining just why its devotees can get so fanatical about it. You cannot, however, make an entire feature film out of surfing sequences alone. (Well, you probably could, but you would have difficulty getting it shown anywhere except for a few art-house cinemas). So the film-makers had to come up with some sort of storyline to fit around them.What they came up with is a sort of double love story, "girl loves boy" plus "girl loves surfing". The main character, Anne Marie, is a young woman living in Hawaii where she works as a hotel chambermaid. Her great ambition is to be a champion surfer and the film explores the story of how she fares when she enters a prestigious surfing competition, with a subplot about the progress of the relationship between Anne Marie and her boyfriend Matt, a professional footballer whom she meets while he is staying in her hotel.Unfortunately, this plot is banal and uninteresting. It doesn't help that Kate Bosworth, who plays Anne Marie, gives such a poor performance; she mumbles so much that I had difficulty understanding a lot of what she is saying. The rest of the cast are not much better, except perhaps Matthew Davis as Matt; he may not be a great actor, but at least he speaks clearly and distinctly. Yet beneath the bland, feelgood plot there are hints of something deeper and more interesting struggling to get out. We hear of two traumatic events in Anne Marie's past, of how she nearly drowned during a previous competition and as a result abandoned the sport temporarily, and of how she was abandoned by her mother who ran off with a boyfriend. As a result Anne Marie has been forced to care for her younger sister Penny herself, with some help from her friends Eden and Lena. (Don't they have children's services in Hawaii?)The trouble is that we merely hear about these events in retrospect. It might have been if they had actually been shown to us, possibly in flashback, which would have given us a more rounded picture of Anne Marie's personality and the forces which produced it. This would have made for a more interesting film, a story of a woman's triumph over adversity rather than a standard love story against a sporting background. Such a film would probably have needed a more accomplished actress than Bosworth in the main role, but it might have been more rewarding. 5/10. (3/10 for the film itself, with two bonus points for the surf scenes).

smatysia This was a very formulaic athletic/sports movie which hews closely to all of the genre's conventions. That said, however, it is all done pretty well. There were no real false notes on the acting, which means that the script had to be pretty decent, as even great actors can rarely overcome bad dialog. Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sanoe Lake also all looked very nice in swimwear. The cinematography had to be very challenging and looked great, even though surfing footage can be a bit monotonous, going all the way back to "Endless Summer". Interesting portrayal of the surf spots where a hundred or more surfers are competing for waves. There were some annoying rap "songs" on the soundtrack which detracted from the movie a bit.

John Holden This should have been compressed down to a TV episode in bad TV dramaland.Some girls surf. One is a good surfer. Three friends work, room, giggle, room, work, laugh, and do other girl stuff together. One has a young sister who's doing young-teen stuff and being time-consuming. Their jobs suck. They like to meet boys. They like to surf. And do girl stuff.The lead could be a great surfer but is restrained by life and her little sister and a previous accident and and. This offers plenty of opportunities for her to pause and think about things; for her friends to give her advice; for her little sister to say naïve but meaningful things.And for her new boyfriend to give her a few great pep talks. What a guy he is: a quarterback in a tough sport but so gentle and sensitive.And then a famous surfer gives her yet another talk, right there on a board in the water; right there behind the BIG wave and, yup, she does it.Character development of the non-mains? Motivation for the fight at the beach? Lives of the 2 girlfriends? Naw. Instead, there's plenty of pausing and staring and looking within. All this talking and plotting and girling pepping and thinking around keeps everyone away from the surf. Thois is unfortunate because when the camera goes to the beach, it's awesome: great action, great scenes, great scenery, great drama.The rest of the movie is a bad soap opera.

shanfloyd This is one of those films that you tend to like without any apparent reason. "Blue Crush" is a quite flawed film, in fact. The story is too simplified. I wish there could be a little tension between the three girls in some places. The occasional bits of humor are not that clever. The ending could be more dramatic.What I liked about the film is its smart no-nonsense screenplay and the characters. Anne Marie is a brilliantly written character with so many aspects of quality and natural shortcomings... and Kate Bosworth captured her image quite effectively. All the girls are nicely shown in a cool, stylish yet somehow very non-sexual simple manner... and they were portrayed by very capable actresses.And of course the surf scenes are extremely well shot. The film didn't open in theatres in my country and now I regret that fact. All those huge waves, and those sunny beaches, and the surfers and the music... I wished I could be a part of that scenario. That's one of the reasons why the film left a lasting impression in my mind.