Blue Crush
The concept of Blue Crush is one that film makers simply could not ignore, lets take surfing (cool), Hawaii (pretty) and girls in little bikinis (sexy) and put them all together. What do you get? A pretty cool sexy film of course. So if you like sexy girls, pretty scenery and some really stunning cinematography then this film could be just your cup of tea. The central premise is that junior surf champ Anne Marie (Bosworth) wants to win the big wave riding competition; unfortunately she has lost her confidence, after nearly drowning, and her job, after an incident with a condom. So enters love interest Matt in search of surfing lessons to solve her all her problems… The rest of the plot, what little there is, you can probably work out.
But is it any good? Well like 1991’s extreme action flick Point Break, Crush includes a role-reversal love story where the girl teaches the guy how to surf, but while Break fits in plenty of fights, guns, sky diving and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, the latter has little else to flesh out its hour and a half but a clichéd surf competition. Does she get the sponsorship? Does she find true love? And do all her dreams come true? Well I won’t ruin the *surprise* for you… So there’s no story to talk of, but in a movie where no one wears more than two items of clothing is that really important? Will stunning cinematography like this are you really interested in why her mother left? The purpose of the plot in Blue Crush is to move from the scenes from semi naked girls to big blue waves and back to more semi naked girls, and that’s just fine with me. Some of the female members of the audience might find the strong female main characters empowering somehow, but its nothing that we haven’t seen before, and like Bring It On and its contemporaries the empowerment of the female characters is hard to take seriously when they’re in bikinis and hot pants.
I may have overemphasised the importance of the bikinis, well they are important that’s true, but what I really enjoyed was the incredible surf scenes. They might not be as amazing as watching the world champs on a surf video, but the cinematography was at times quite breathtaking. From the crushing 20ft waves, the inside of clear blue pipes, to the silhouettes of surfers waiting for the last wave of the day in front of the setting sun, there are some really beautiful moments to savour. Unfortunately if this isn’t enough for you then I suggest looking for some surf flicks with a bit more soul, particularly 1978’s classic Big Wednesday, and if you want to swap the golden beaches to the subzero temperatures of Cornwall then the awesome Blue Juice (1995) is a great British surf film.
So to summarise, Blue Crush is a nice distraction, is pretty, sexy and cool. Like a Charlie’s Angels film or an MTV video it’s the presentation that rules over the content, and if you like surfing, beaches, waves and girls and don’t want to test your brain then this could be the film for you.
The story is clichéd but the surf scenes are great.
6.8
DS 14:36 26/08/2003