Blue Crush (2002)

Director:

John Stockwell

Writers (WGA):

Susan Orlean (magazine article "Surf Girls of Maui")
Lizzy Weiss (story)

Release Date:

16 August 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Sport

Tagline:

If you want to feel the rush you have to take the risk.

Plot:

As a hard-core surfer girl prepares for a big competition, she finds herself falling for a football player.

Plot Keywords:

Beach | Surfer | Wave | Surfer Girl | Hawaii

Awards:

1 win & 6 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Wed. Dec. 2	9:00 PM	OXYGEN
Wed. Dec. 2	11:00 PM	OXYGEN

Cast

Kate Bosworth	...	Anne Marie Chadwick
Matthew Davis	...	Matt Tollman
Michelle Rodriguez	...	Eden
Sanoe Lake	...	Lena
Mika Boorem	...	Penny Chadwick
Chris Taloa	...	Drew
Kala Alexander	...	Kala
Ruben Tejada	...	JJ
Kaupena Miranda	...	Kaupena
Asa Aquino	...	Asa
Faizon Love	...	Leslie
Fiji	...	Fiji (as George Veikoso)
Shaun Robinson	...	Omar
Paul Hatter	...	Paul
Tamayo Perry	...	Tamayo

Also Known As:

Blue Crush (Germany)
Surf Girls (USA) (working title)
Surf Girls of Maui (USA) (working title)
Untitled Surf Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, teen partying, language and a fight.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Finland:K-11 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Australia:PG (VHS rating) | Brazil:12 | Canada:PG | Germany:6 | New Zealand:PG | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Taiwan:PG-12 | UK:12A | USA:PG-13 (certificate #39064) | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Hawaii Film Studio - 18th Avenue & Diamond Head Road, Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company:

Imagine Entertainment

Trivia:

Former surfing world champion Tom Carroll appears early in the film as a surfer with a cut eye. According to producer Brian Grazer, this is a real injury - Carroll had wiped out on the reef just seconds earlier - and it made the three cast members (Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez and Sanoe Lake) nervous about going in the water. The footage was shot for a surf video Carroll was part of and Grazer used it in the film, presumably because it added to the characters' anxiety at entering the surf and validated how dangerous it was.

Goofs:

Continuity: In an early scene, Ann Marie is brushing her teeth, looking in the mirror. Her eyes are natural: one hazel, one blue. During the surf competition, her eyes are both hazel. On the movie poster, her eyes are blue.

Quotes:

Drew: [to Matt] Sorry if my pits stink man, but that's just the way it goes!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Gilmore Girls: Eight O'Clock at the Oasis (#3.5)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

Walk About

A "must have" DVD if you also have a surround sound system with subwoofer.

Critic Ebert has a very complete and accurate review, and I will not repeat any of it here. I bought "Blue Crush" as a used rental DVD, real cheap, and it is a perfect disk. The basic story has been told many times, but it is done here better than many. However, there is one thing that moves it from the "ordinary" to "outstanding - the cimematography and the sound.

After most of the first hour of the film sets up the characters and the situations, we are treated to surfing the Hawaii "pipeline" by surfers. One DVD extra shows how they do "face replacement" so that the pro surfer appears to be star Kate Bosworth. With many cameras in the waves, and sometimes under them, we get a unique perspective of being on top of a giant wave, or being inside the wave as it is breaking. All the while a very aggressive sound mix makes you feel like you are there also. This is definitely a good DVD to have for demonstrating the quality of your digital 5.1 surround sound system with good powered subwoofer.

I suspect anyone who saw "Blue Crush" at home, on VHS or DVD, with sound fed into the TV speakers has seen a different movie. That's because the sound track plays such a key role. This isn't a great movie, but a very good one. I believe its most realistic IMDb rating is somewhere around "7" or "8".