Blue Crush

Bosworth looks on as the dangerous waves crash in Blue Crush (2002)

I kind of like surfing movies. Point Break is one of my favorite films of the 90s and The Endless Summer films are a pleasant pleasure of mine. While Blue Crush has a plot that isn’t all that extraordinary, I do recall my wife and I seeing it back in 2002, believe it or not. Michelle Rodriguez has been in a little bit of everything since her breakout in Girlfight. Continuing through the Hollywood wave, riding it rather successfully, genre movie after genre movie, Rodriguez has not let her star fade. In Blue Crush, she’s riding shotgun as Kate Bosworth was getting her feet wet as a lead in movies, early in her career. Basically, girlfriends live to ride the waves in Hawaii, supplementing their income with lousy resort jobs. Bosworth has the great potential of becoming a major surfing star if she can overcome the haunt of a dangerous wave that prevents her from going all the way. Rodriguez questions her freezing, mainly because she knows Bosworth is holding herself back from greatness. Meanwhile, football players are staying at the resort, with the star quarterback (played by Matthew Smith) interested in Bosworth, and vice versa. As these romances go, football player ladies snub their noses at Bosworth while the surfers that frequent the beach she does question her loyalty to the area as Bosworth helps to show Smith surfing lessons. The plot is of the Lifetime Movie Channel variety, and it wouldn’t surprise me if this has been on there numerous times. This was far from my mind, but just so happened to come on late one night on Cinemax, and I was surprisingly drawn to Blue Crush once again. I guess I find the underdog story irresistible considering eye candy are on the menu (“box cover”/movie poster), and Hawaii is featured heavily as the alluring setting. I love the use of the waves in motion and surfers hoping to ride them. Beautiful locale and girls makes for a rather okay diversion, I guess. The “locals versus outsiders” animosity in surfer movies is nothing new so it showing up in Blue Crush didn’t surprise me. Her falling for Ken Doll Matthew Smith didn’t surprise me, either. Bosworth's passion for surfing and competition is called into question by Rodriguez and her peers, as the whole romantic angle with Smith compromises her life and duty to them. But as a movie about the hunger for surfing and the stunning setting, I was won over enough. I did like that Bosworth didn’t win the “Pipeline Masters”, although exorcising her demons by fulfilling the rode wave after her history of fear regarding almost drowning allowed for the Rocky ending, with her attaining sponsorship and future success. Like a backup to Milla in Resident Evil, Rodriguez had to do the second-fiddle support to Bosworth here. At least, she didn’t have to endure that with Jordana Brewster in the Fast and the Furious films.