'Crush' rides out waves of praise and criticism

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Actress Kate Bosworth received only so-so reviews for her surfer role in Universal Studios' "Blue Crush." Universal Pictures

The movie follows the story of a young North Shore surfer struggling to overcome the trauma of a near drowning while training for a major surfing event, taking care of her little sister, working at a hotel and falling in love with a visiting NFL quarterback.

Got that? Audiences did, but they weren't sure they liked it all. While everyone The Advertiser talked to agreed that the surf scenes were top flight, there were questions and quibbles aplenty.

Do women really wear bikini tops in big surf? Why are all the local guys jerks? Since when is Kamehameha Highway empty on a workday morning?

Here's what critics, surfers and island theater-goers had to say about some of the major issues.

The surfing

Critic: "Anyone who has ever been pummeled by an acre of ocean, submerged in a hurricane of salt water and pulled inexorably away from the surface by a greedy riptide will tell you that this film gets it right. It puts the "wahoo" in O'ahu." (Colin Covert, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune)

Critic: "The camera shows us just what it looks like, and more important what it feels like, when you're standing on a surging carpet of water that is breaking up into an avalanche of liquid force." (Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly)

Surfer: "This is cool because you get these crazy wide helicopter shots that show you the full picture of what you don't see when you're riding, then it gets right in there inside the wave, which is so personal to the surfer." (Todd Heel, amateur surfer, Hale'iwa)

Movie Fan: "The surf scenes were the best part of the movie by far. I would get the DVD and just watch the surf stuff." (Maya Perkins, Waikiki)

Lead actress Kate Bosworth as surfer Anne Marie

Critic: "Kate Bosworth has such a perfect, American cheerleader-goddess look that it's easy, at first, not to register the character in her face. Yet she's playful in a brisk, no-nonsense way that grows on you; she gives Anne Marie the graceful, determined obsessiveness of an athlete who knows that she's fated to compete forever with herself." (Gleiberman)

Surfer: "I already knew that Rochelle (Ballard, professional surfer) was doing the surf scenes, so I wasn't expecting (Bosworth) to be surfing. In some of the surfing shots you see her body with full muscle, and then when they come back to (Bosworth) she doesn't have it. I would have liked them to cast someone who was a real surfer, not just an actress." (Heather Hughson, Hans Hedemann Surf School)

Movie Fan: "She could be from Hawai'i, but she must have gone to Punahou." (Shelly Cambra, Kapahulu)

The Love Story between surfer Anne Marie and NFL quarter-back Matt

Critic: "Matt asks her for surfing lessons (a nice reversal in gender roles), and before long, they're kissing with the standard glorious sunset behind them — though they're both so boring and have so little chemistry, the sunset is more interesting than the kiss itself." (Christy Lemire, Associated Press)

Critic: "Fed up with her job, (Anne Marie) agrees to give him surf lessons, and they fall into bed. The trouble is ... well, actually, the only real trouble is that this movie has to trump this up into some sort of bogus class/money/commitment issue, otherwise there wouldn't be a movie." (Gleiberman)

Surfer: "I thought (the love story) was lame, but I guess you have to have that for the people that aren't into surfing." (Heel)

Movie Fan: "I just never got the feeling that there was a real relationship between them. I guess (Davis) was supposed to be the sensitive guy or something, but he acted like a player. And when the two of them were together, it was like the movie didn't have anything to do with Hawai'i anymore." (Wendy Nakanishi, Moanalua)

Depiction of Hawai'i

Critic: "Putting realism to the test, (director John Stockwell and producer Brian Glazer) handed out copies of the script to an extensive crew of locals, who filled nearly all the jobs on location. They made changes to dialogue and plot — the film now shows Hawaiians as mostly poor and wary of Mainlanders, and it gives glimpses of what real localism and sexism is like in the water — so the film has a distinctly Hawaiian look and sound." (Shawn Price, Orange Country Register)

Critic: "Matt (Matthew Davis) gets pushed around by bullies for the crime of surfing at a locals-only beach, at which point it may start to dawn on you that the movie is basically killing time before the contest." (Gleiberman)

Surfer: "They got the North Shore look and feel down solid. I went to parties just like that and I've crashed out on some of those crappy sofas before." (Brian Tsang, amateur surfer, Kane'ohe)

Movie Fan: "I wanted to laugh when the three girls (Bosworth, Michelle Rodrigues and Sanoe Lake) lined up for work with all those Filipino ladies at the hotel. (The three characters work as maids at a posh hotel called the Lanikai.) That's like all my aunties right there." (Corelle Lapitan, Kihei, Maui)

Movie Fan: "I think there's going to be a lot of people who don't like the way Hawai'i is made out, but overall, it's pretty good. Just remember this is not a documentary about Hawai'i, it's a Hollywood movie. I wish they had some positive male characters that were local, but it could have been worse. Overall, it was good." (George Wong, Nu'uanu)

Final take

Critic: "The final 20 minutes of "Blue Crush" can stand alone as one of the few highlights in a movie summer of mostly hollow action-carnival fireworks. The trick, for once, isn't that we're watching superhuman stunts; it's that we're watching deeply human stunts. ... As the waves arrive, each one mightier than the last, 'Blue Crush' invites us to acknowledge, and triumph over, something blockbusters like 'Attack of the XXX-Spider-Clones' merely fantasize their way out of: the fear of flying." (Gleiberman)

Surfer: "It was killer. It wasn't just the way the waves look, but you could hear everything — the spray, the crash. Unreal. I think people who surf are going to appreciate this movie, and people who don't are going to go nuts. They're going to go out and buy a board." (Laela Peters, recreational surfer, Kailua)

Movie Fan: "The stuff that bugged me was minor. Just small stuff. I think it was enjoyable. You've got to have the love story and all that. But the surf scenes are really dramatic, and you can feel the fear and the emotion that they feel. To me, that's the movie right there." (Glenn Choi, Nu'uanu)