Review: Blue Crush

Dare I say Blue Crush rides the more tired wave of recent girl-power flicks? It may be my guilty pleasure of the week, but the film is more Divine Secrets of the Blue Crush Sisterhood than Powerpuff Surfgirls. Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth) is the surfer girl whose insecurities are perfectly tucked away beneath a tough, well-oiled tan. Plagued by her mother’s sudden departure (not to mention pesky flashbacks to a near-drowning), she’s left to raise her unruly younger sister, Penny (Mika Boorem), with the help of gal-pals Eden (Michelle Rodriguez) and Lena (Hawaiian local Sanoe Lake). Typical day: After making a phone call to some obscure oceanic hotline that monitors the day’s tide, Anne Marie rushes to the beach at all sorts of ungodly hours with her weary-eyed pseudo-family in tow, ready to numb her pain via the surf. Meanwhile, Penny goes to school while the older girls employ themselves as wisecracking maids at a Maui “mainland” hotel. The triathlon-esque surfing is not without due cause. Anne Marie hopes to enter the male-dominated Pipe Masters surf competition despite the “girls can’t surf the pipeline!” catcalls from a group of male surfers (Kala Alexander, Ruben Ejada and Chris Taloa) who all, more or less, want to clean her pipes. Fortunately, Blue Crush doesn’t feel the need to tie things up in patronizing, über-feminist bows and its sexual switcheroo (here, men are sex symbols and females are the goddesses they worship) is less naïve than the one tucked inside Juwanna Man. Consider this movie the remix to all those testosterone-fueled sports flicks with an overabundance of half-naked chicks. And while Blue Crush successfully bitch-slaps men and puts them in their cute little places behind the almighty female, watch your back(side)s ladies!

Cast: Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, Matthew Davis, Sanoe Lake, Mika Boorem, Kala Alexander, Faizon Love, Chris Taloa Director: John Stockwell Screenwriter: John Stockwell, Lizzy Weiss Distributor: Universal Pictures Running Time: 104 min Rating: PG-13 Year: 2002 Buy: Video, Soundtrack