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).

Samiam3 Some sports movies are about sports (Remember the Titans) some are about the people who play them (Girl Fight). Blue Crush makes a huge mistake of choosing the latter approach, and it asks the viewer to invest in a handful of characters who are largely under fleshed, and never amount to much more than bodies in bikini's or shorts. The story is choppy and lacks fluidity, resulting in rushed characterization, a lack of explanation, and worst of all, The movie is not very exiting.Blue Crush's sole effectiveness, is that director John Stockwell has designed some phenomenal shots. He is able to work the camera behind the waves, below them or up atop them, sometimes onto the surfboard itself. Blue Crush may have some effectiveness as a sea spectacle but it is a superficial one. It's a flimsy story about flimsy people, frequently predictable. Offering a few laughs and few smiles, in an otherwise bland motion picture.

Jackson Booth-Millard I think it is obvious why most boys will watch this film, but there is a good theme to be seen too, so I decided to try it and see which I'd be paying more attention to, and the conclusion, both. Basically, set in luxury Hawaii, Anne Marie Chadwick (Superman Returns' Kate Bosworth) is a surfing enthusiast, along with her friends Eden (Michelle Rodriguez) and Lena (Sanoe Lake). The days are counting down to the Pipe Masters surf competition, and Anne Marie is determined to conquer the waves that she had an incident on last time she tried two years ago. Her practising and determination for this competition are being distracted by both her young Penny (Mika Boorem) she has to look after, and her falling for professional quarterback Matt Tollman (Matthew Davis). But when it does come to the day of the competition, determination hasn't changed one bit, and she is willing to do it both for her Penny, her friends and Matt together. She may not have got through the full competition and won, but she still got high praise and her photo on the cover of a surfing magazine. Also starring Chris Taloa as Drew, Kala Alexander as Kala and Ruben Tejada as J.J. The surfing and ocean sequences are brilliantly shot, and of course the boys (me included) will enjoy the sight of three great looking girls in bikinis, so an enjoyable romantic (water) sports drama. Worth watching!

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.