SYNOPSIS:
Longboarding soul surfer Steve Addington (Matthew McConaughey) returned to Malibu for the summer to find his cool hometown vide corrupted. New sponsorship demands Addington to expand into Virtual Reality Video Games and Reality TV. Unwilling to participate in this new digital reality, he chooses to spend his summer surfing his home break. But in a twist-of-fate, the waves go flat. Out of money, his expense accounts cancelled, and betrayed by his buddies, Addington is backed into a harsh corner.
Aided by his manager (Woody Harrelson), his mentor (Scott Glenn), his guardian angel (Willie Nelson), and his summer lover (Alexie Gilmore), Addington has a chance of keeping his cool, but it's not going to be easy. The dude needs a wave, and there's never been a drought like this.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Surfer, Dude is not an easy film to like or dislike.
On one hand, this movie was quite cool in the ways it tried to advocates a hippie surfer 'Love and Waves' lifestyle that does shun consumerism. It tried to expand a higher consciousness that surfing (or even other sports) could not be experienced through reality shows or video games and the only way would be to actually ride the waves. To a certain degree, the manner that the hero tried to reject the financial machinery and sought to embrace the spontaneity of life and nature’s gifts were admirable. It makes one wonder if more people embrace such 'come what may' in pursing life’s passion and refusing to be a slave to money attitude, the world might actually becomes a better place.
However, Surfer, Dude also managed to grossly misinterpret the mannerism and attitude of cool surfers till a point that it became rather uncool. It generally pegs those surfers as stoners that are constantly high on drugs and generally a bum who does nothing enriching except to catch the next waves (or party with the hot looking bikini babes).
The legendary surfer Steve Addington (played by Matthew McConaughey) was constructed as a clueless protagonist that does very little to solve the predicament that he is in. While the clueless protagonist angle was done on purpose to promote the admirable elements of this movie, it’s really easy to identify him as a loser who does not know how bad the situation was for him and behaves like a child with only one track mind for surfing. The difference between being cool (without a care for money) and being a himbo (the male version of a bimbo) is vaguely defined, making it hard to get behind his unconventional 'wisdom' for life.
The wave’s drought in this movie certainly didn’t help either. Viewers, who are hopping for some cool surfing videos segments, had to wait alongside Steve Addington. It became rather unbearable, dry and draggy as nothing happen. As the wait grew longer, the title "Surfer, Dude" seems to morph into "Dude, where’s my Surf?"
The worst bit of this movie would be how the matter at hand was solved in the most predictable and fairy tale manner. In my opinion, it cheapens the admirable elements of anti establishments in this movie by resolving the matters so quickly and easily. It seems to unconsciously overturn such noble notion as unfeasible in reality and could only occur in a Hollywood film.
It’s not hard to see why this 2008 film did not received a wide release and took about a year to reach our dvd retail rack. On one hand, some of the notions are too far out to be understood or appreciated by the general masses. On the other, it sort of insulted those who embrace the hippie/surfer simplified idealize lifestyle.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 DVD contains no extra features.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Surfer Dude has a groovy presentation in the visual and audio department of this dvd. The skies, waves and sands look great and inviting while the various surf music sound were decently reproduced.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Richard Lim Jr
Posted on 12 September 2009
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