Step Into Liquid Review
by JoBlo (joblo AT joblo DOT com)October 1st, 2003
STEP INTO LIQUID
RATING: 7/10
http://www.joblo.com/stepintoliquid.htm
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PLOT:
A documentary about surfers from around the world, their times on the board, the places they surf, the meaning of the sport to them, the camaraderie, the fun, the courage and the spirit that draws them all to the ocean. A quasi follow-up to the 1966 surfing documentary ENDLESS SUMMER, directed by the father of the man who made this film.
CRITIQUE:
This is no BLUE CRUSH...this is actually the real deal! In fact, STEP INTO LIQUID starts with the notice: "No special effects. No stuntmen. No stereotypes." And they're not kidding either. Everything in this documentary is taped for real around the world, intercut with interviews with the surfers themselves, world champions, riders of old, folks just starting out, experts in the field and more (even X-FILES creator Chris Carter shows up for a sound bite) What this documentary presents is a quick 80+ minute look at the world of surfing today, and the various people and places celebrating its spirit. There's nothing truly deep or inspirational about the documentary (consider Patrick Swayze's character's theories from POINT BREAK to be deeper than much presented here), but it's a wonderful commercial for everything that makes surfing so enjoyable for many people, including the gorgeous beaches, the beautiful weather, the exotic locations and the monstrous waves. The film takes you across a number of countries and features the different types of people surfing today including little kids learning to surf at the age of 6-7, a man who's been surfing for every day of his life for the past 25 years, the new kind of "tow-in" surfing, supertanker surfers in Texas, the Malloy brothers in Ireland teaching Protestant and Catholic kids to surf together, chicks riding high in Tahiti, Taj Burrow kicking ass in Australia, paralyzed surfers, the new surfboards that make it look like you're literally flying over the waves, many of the guys from director Dana Brown's dad's surfing documentary ENDLESS SUMMER still riding the waves today, a father and son team sand-surfing in Vietnam, old friends in Michigan still making the best of the waves in the Great Lakes and yes...more.
The film also ends on one of the biggest rides ever as a team of pros head 100 miles off the San Diego shores to catch some mind-boggling 50-60 footers. But in the end, the only actual bottom line that I got from this documentary is that surfing is loved by millions of people around the world and that it's, well...really, really "fun". Okay. Agreed. Having said that, if you're expecting any type of grander message from this documentary, look elsewhere because despite not having any special effects, stuntmen or stereotypes, it doesn't pretend to be much more than a really beautiful look at the sport, with no negatives to report on its front whatsoever. I watched this film on a dreary Sunday afternoon and let me tell you, despite not being a fan of the ocean myself, I felt like buying a surfboard right then and there and "hanging five" all the way to the videostore (I still don't know how they do that...nice!) Infectious. Instead, I stepped in my own kind of liquid: one which included one part rum, one part gin and one part drunk.
Where's JoBlo coming from?
Blue Crush (4/10) - Bowling for Columbine (9/10) - Capturing the Friedmans (7/10) - Comedian (7/10) - The Kid Stays in the Picture (6/10) - Lost in La Mancha (7/10) - Startup.com (8/10)
Review Date: September 13, 2003
Director: Dana Brown
Writer: Dana Brown
Producer: John-Paul Beeghly
Participants: Laird Hamilton
Taj Burrow
Kelly Slater
Genre: Documentary
Year of Release: 2003
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(c) 2003 Berge Garabedian
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
