Grind (2003)

Director:

Casey La Scala

Writer (WGA):

Ralph Sall (written by)

Release Date:

15 August 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Sport

Tagline:

This Summer the underdogs have their day.

Plot:

Four skaters follow their idol on his summer tour in an attempt to get noticed, get sponsored, and become stars themselves.

Plot Keywords:

Skate | Skateboarding | Skater | Road Trip | Friends

Cast

Mike Vogel	...	Eric Rivers
Vince Vieluf	...	Matt Jensen
Adam Brody	...	Dustin Knight
Joey Kern	...	Sweet Lou
Jennifer Morrison	...	Jamie
Jason London	...	Jimmy Wilson
Summer Altice	...	Winona
Bam Margera	...	Bam
Erin Murphy	...	Hot Mama
Baron La Scala	...	In Utero
Stephen Root	...	Cameron
Sasha Jenson	...	Greg (as Sasha Jensen)
Brian Posehn	...	Orville the Scraggly Guy
Christopher McDonald	...	Mr. Rivers
Donte Calarco	...	Buxom Girl #1

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for crude humor, sexual content and language.

Runtime:

USA:105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Brazil:14 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #40015) | Australia:M | Canada:PG | Finland:K-11 | Singapore:PG (cut) | UK:12

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

900 Films

Trivia:

The 12-year-old who challenges the skate team when they perform their own demo at the skate park is actually pro skater Ryan Sheckler.

Goofs:

Continuity: When they are skating the pool at the Pink Hotel, there is an "ambulance parking" sign taped to the bottom of the deep end. There are alternating shots with the sign there and gone.

Quotes:

Matt: [after seeing the hideous scar on Jimmy Wilson's bus guard] No.

Movie Connections:

References Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966)

Soundtrack:

I'm Just A Kid

Harmless fun

Funny road trip movie about four skateboarders shadowing a major tour, hoping to compete. A variation of those endless ski comedies we endured in the 80s and 90s. Some truly funny bits. The four young actors prove reasonably talented, especially Joey Kern of "Cabin Fever" as Sweet Lou, a shades-wearing, Starsky & Hutch-type throwback who proves irresistible to all but one woman -- the one exception being an amply endowed brunette who proves to be hugely pregnant. The film does not over-rely on the skateboarding, which is excellent by the way, instead concentrating on the four young men and their efforts to overcome a series of comic and some not-so-comic mishaps along the road to skateboard stardom. Gross-out jokes are kept to a minimum in favor of character development, which ironically may not play with the 15-year-olds who are the primary audience for this kind of film. Wait until you get a load of the parents of one of the quartet: The father is played by the one-and-only demented Randy Quaid, and the story is that they ran off years ago to become circus clowns. So the son understandably has come to hate clowns. Some of the sequences involving these two push the movie into near-surreal territory, sort of like "Pee Wee's Big Circus" without the circus. Bam Margera fans take note: He has a quick cameo at the beginning of the flick, and is seen briefly in a later sequence. Put your mind on hold and enjoy this silly but enjoyable comedy romp. It's no worse, and a heckuva lot funnier, than that Disney TV flick a couple of years back that was, if memory serves, a teen-oriented update of HANS BRINKER, substituting skateboards for skates.