|
BLUE CRUSH
"... a surfer-babe movie so tactile it practically
dunks the audience in the water...as the waves arrive, many of them
30 or 40 feet tall, we're invited to suddenly stare upward, the
shiny aqua walls of water looming like Godzilla, as the surfers
rise to their feet and stand tall on their boards, drawing on that
most singular of athletic qualities...the willingness to plunge
into a moment of absolute topsy-turvy, torso-ripping chaos...The
camera shows us just what it looks like, and more important what
it feels like, when you're standing on a surging carpet of water
that is breaking up into an avalanche of liquid force...The movie
provides staggering underwater views of a 'hold down,' when you're
plunged, with total spatial disorientation, into the surf, submerged
and trapped by the wave above, the coral reefs rising up to meet
your head, the water exploding like a bomb...The trick, for once,
isn't that we're watching superhuman stunts; it's that we're watching
deeply human stunts." --
Owen
Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"'Blue Crush knows something most surfing movies don't acknowledge--that
many non-pro surfers endure blue-collar jobs as a way to support their
surfing, which is the only time they feel really alive...the movie
ends with the big showdown, with waves of awesome strength and feats
of great surfing, with all the necessary dangers and setbacks. Even
here, it doesn't settle for what we thought was the predictable outcome...I
expected another mindless surfing movie. 'Blue Crush" is anything
but." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"...the kind of movie that's not five minutes old before you know
what the last five minutes are going to be like...Acceptable in general
outline, and helped by excellent surfing footage, 'Blue Crush' nevertheless
can't seem to sustain any momentum. A lot of what happens on screen
plays like marking time until the conclusion, and even that doesn't
play out in an optimal way...'Blue Crush' overcomplicates its plot
and spends a lot of time floundering around in the shallow end." --
Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times
"-- boasts more than enough spectacular big-wave sequences set against
the gorgeous seascapes of Hawaii to take its place in the pantheon
of cult surfing movies...Although its choppy visual style caters to
kids raised by MTV, 'Blue Crush' is also surprisingly smart and satisfying...Bosworth,
who at first seems like just another pretty girl next door, turns
out to be an impressive, endearing actress...You care about what happens
to her even though chunks of 'Blue Crush' are painfully predictable...unlike
most surf movies, 'Blue Crush' thrillingly uses modern technology
to take the viewer inside the wave." -- Jonathan
Foreman, The New York Post
"It is unfortunate that the nonwhite characters serve as sidekicks
or comic foils, especially since Ms. Rodriguez, so fierce and lovely
in 'Girlfight,' has more charisma pouting in the corner than Ms. Bosworth
does radiating in the center of the screen...But still, it's hard
to resist being swept up in 'Blue Crush,' not least because David
Hennings's shimmery photography carries the breeze and spray of the
island right into the theater."
-- A.O. Scott, The New York Times
|
