Blue Crush [P&S] [Collector's Edition]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Move over, Gidget -- a new breed of female surfers with style, guts and attitude hit the screen in this feature, which combines romance with a sports drama. Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth) is a young woman living in Hawaii who has been surfing since she was a little girl, and over the past year has been training for the prestigious Pipe Masters surfing competition. But Anne Marie is still dealing with emotional baggage that's holding her back -- her mother abandoned her years ago, leaving her to raise her younger sister Penny (Mika Boorem) while having to guide herself through adolescence, and Anne Marie nearly drowned while trying to surf the famous Maui Pipeline three years ago, and has yet to shake the anxieties of this traumatic event. Anne Marie and Penny share a house with Anne Marie's friends Lena (Sanoe Lake) and Eden (Michelle Rodriguez), both fellow surf enthusiasts, and the three friends work as maids at a hotel, a job which offers them flexible hours for riding the waves. When a pro football team checks into the hotel, Anne Marie meets Matt (Matthew Davis), a promising quarterback who has his eye on her. Anne Marie is just as attracted to Matt as he is to her, but will Anne Marie have to choose between the man of her dreams and the recognition as a surfer she's worked for years to receive? Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sanoe Lake did all their own surfing in Blue Crush; Bosworth and Rodriguez went into training to learn the sport before shooting began, while Lake, a native Hawaiian, was already a confirmed surf enthusiast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Screen: Pan and Scan
• Features:
  • cc
  • The making of featurette
  • Deleted scenes
  • "If I Could Fall in Love" music video by Lenny Kravitz
  • Filming Blue Crush
  • Wipeout and action scenes caught on film
  • Surf fashion
  • Inside the world of surfing
  • Commentary with Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez and Sanoe Lake
  • Commentary with director John Stockwell
  • Cast and filmmakers' bios
  • DVD-ROM features

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  John Stockwell

• Producer:

  Brian Grazer, Karen Kehela

• Screenwriter:

  John Stockwell

• Cinematographer:

  David Hennings

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Dana Sano

• Composer (Music Score):

  Paul Haslinger

• Editor:

  Emma E. Hickox

• Art Director:

  Denise Hudson

• Co-producer:

  Rick Dallago, Suzy Barbieri

• Executive Producer:

  Kathy Jones, Louis G. Friedman

• Costume Designer:

  Susan Matheson

• Set Decorator:

  Meg Everist

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Mark Ulano, Claude Letessier

• First Assistant Director:

  Mary Ellen Woods

• Casting:

  Randi Hiller, Sarah Halley-Finn

• Second Unit Director:

  Gregory J. Barnett

• Stunts Coordinator:

  Gregory J. Barnett

• Visual Effects:

  Hammerhead Productions

• Stunts Coordinator:

  Brian L. Keaulana

• Visual Effects Supervisor:

  Jon Farhat

• Supervising Sound Editor:

  Kelly Cabral

REVIEW:

• Although its standard-issue plot and dialogue aren't in danger of winning any awards, it's hard not to root for this good-hearted, often thrilling surf flick. Blue Crush is so sure that girls rule that it doesn't waste much time establishing the fact, and its collection of burners and alterna-kids is so rough-edged and authentic that all thoughts of prefab John Hughes suburbia can easily be banished. Instead of faux high-school politics and strident feminism, the film focuses on spectacular footage of extreme surfing, with just enough working-class back story to lend the ESPN-isms dramatic heft. With a chip on her shoulder and some definition in her biceps, model-perfect Kate Bosworth is never less than adequate as pro hopeful Anne Marie, the focus of the story. That ethnically balanced sidekicks Michelle Rodriguez and Sanoe Lake would probably make more convincing star athletes is a minor quibble, easily chalked up to cold Hollywood reality. (Besides, it's more fun to watch Rodriguez generate Resident Evil-style lesbian subtext in her supporting role than it would be to see her sidle up to a quarterback beau in the lead.) It's a cliché to say so, but the real stars are the wave-riding action sequences, which seem more like an IMAX documentary than the payoff in a sports-themed romance. Director/screenwriter John Stockwell goes in for a few too many motivational clichés at the end, but once the digitally tweaked Bosworth is in the eye of a swell, Blue Crush is pure action, the script incidental. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi