Surfer, Dude Blu-ray delivers great video and solid audio, but overall it's a mediocre Blu-ray release
Longboarding soul-surfer Steve Addington returns to Malibu for the summer to find his cool
hometown vibe corrupted. New sponsorship demands Addington to expand into Virtual Reality
Video Games and Reality TV. Unwilling to participate in this new digital-reality, he chooses to
spend his summer surfing his home break. But in a twist-of-fate, the waves go flat and stay
flat. Out of money, his expense-accounts canceled, and betrayed by his buddies, Addington is
backed into a harsh corner. He must endure the insanity that comes with no waves or give into
"the Man" and his new, reality-altering machines. Aided by his manager, his mentor, his
guardian angel and his summer lover, Addington has a chance of keeping his cool, but it's not
going to be easy. The dude needs a wave, and there's never been a drought like this.
Any movie boasting a cast of Matthew McConaughey (U-571), Scott Glenn
(Training Day), Woody
Harrelson (Natural Born Killers),
and Willie Nelson (The Dukes of Hazzard)
is bound to pique the interest of moviegoers, or at least raise a few eyebrows -- until it turns out
the movie is about a bummed surfer who lives only for the next wave refusing to appear on a
"Big Brother" style reality television show that focuses on a house full of the world's best surfers.
That basic plot is dragged out to an excruciatingly long 85 minutes, and there isn't even all that
much surfing, because the evil television executives are cramping Matthew's style and preventing
Mother Earth from making the waves he craves, or something.
To put it mildly, Surfer, Dude is one of the more disturbing wastes of talent this side of
Ishtar, though with a title like Surfer, Dude and a script that relies on the words
"dude" and "bro" spoken ad infinitum, it's doubtful even some of the all-time greats -- Bogart,
Stewart, Brando, or Cooper -- could save this one. Chances are they wouldn't have even
bothered in the first place.
Totally, like, gnarly, bro!
Steve "The Nature Boy" Addington (McConaughey) is a renowned surfer who lives not for money
but for sun, fun, women, weed, and waves. Addington returns to his hometown of Malibu,
California after a six-month world tour of some of the more exotic surfing locales to find himself
the
center of entertainment big shot Eddie Zarno's (Jeffrey Nordling) attention. Zarno wants
Addington
to be the star of both a new surfing reality television show and to offer his body and input into a
new virtual reality surfing game. Though the venture promises plenty of cash, girls, and fame,
Addington rejects the offer -- proclaiming himself a surfer first and an entrepreneur, well, let's
say he's just a surfer, dude. When he refuses the offer, the waves disappear. Thirteen days with
no waves quickly turns into 29, which becomes 42. Addington's life spins out of control, the surf
junkie denied the only true happiness his life enjoys. Will a steadfast refusal to appear on the
show
please the surfing gods, or will Addington give in, placating Zarno and therefore ending the
unending drought?
To say that Surfer, Dude oftentimes recalls the worst of Pauly Shore is an
understatement. The script seems tailor-made for the star of Bio-Dome, In the Army
Now, and Encino Man, and several "dudes" and "bros" almost sound like the
comedian's voice has been dubbed over the film's actors. Despite its haphazard plot and
none-too-exciting pacing, Surfer, Dude still manages to climb above the very worst
Hollywood hastooffer, though this is still
cinema at its most inconsequential. Nothing much happens here; the surfer returns, his style is
cramped, and the waves disappear. The film is never funny, save for a chuckle here and there at
the meandering dialogue and its beach bum-style delivery, and there is no moral or meaning
behind the story. In a way, it's like the reality television it portrays, though the editors forgot to
cut all of the dull moments. Surfer, Dude just meanders along, following the times and trials
of Steve Addington, and just sort of ends as irrelevantly as it began.
There are a few positives to be found, which is what raises
the film above the level of "disaster" and merely into the realm of "forgettable." Director S.R.
Bindler employs solid direction that is different and eye-catching but never distracting or artsy.
He's made the movie seem to take on the look of the surfers that reside in it, appearing a bit
worn and sun-baked but also relaxed and content. Meanwhile, what few city shots there are
appear dark, gray, and cold, nicely contrasting with the bright sun and fun of Malibu.
The film also features the occasional beautiful locale, and the few surfing scenes stand out as
well-made and enjoyable enough to watch. The acting, from the four notables listed above and moving all the
way down the line, is acceptable to decent, with the name-actors offering dependable enough
performances and clearly enjoying the sights and sounds of the warm, sandy sets.
Surfer, Dude crashes onto Blu-ray with a nice looking 1080p transfer framed inside a
1.85:1 window. The first thing viewers will notice is the grainy and somewhat blown out look the
film employs. Colors never appear overly vivid despite the bright, hot look, coming off as more
natural in appearance. Despite offering a fairly nice film-like transfer, there is little to become
excited about with this one. Still, it definitely offers fine detail and clarity, besting even the finest in
standard definition programming. The various scruffy, long-haired surfers look like they just got off
an all-day stay on the beach; all the fine detail from facial hair to their golden locks transfer nicely to
high definition, and while flesh tones veer towards the orange and golden side of the scale, it's to be
expected of a film about the California surfing scene. Detail in clothing is nice, too; a woven hat
worn by Woody Harrelson's character offers realistic texture, pleasing colors, and rich detail.
Background details are also sharp and clear. Much of the background detail, like walls covered in graffiti, for example, are
infinitely clear (and mostly readable, as the case may be). Surfer, Dude offers another
quality high definition video transfer from Starz.
Surfer, Dude is presented on Blu-ray with a lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack. This
mix features a nice, lively presence when playing back various music; the opening beats playing
over the credits work the front speakers nicely, with heavy, almost tribal, beats emanating from the
front left and right channels, with solid support from the subwoofer and the back channels. No
matter the music, from the aforementioned percussion-heavy beats to a hard-rock song heard
during a virtual reality demonstration, the soundtrack bursts forth with nice vigor and clarity.
However, the track doesn't offer much in the way of a rear-channel presence, save for a bit of carry
over when music plays. The front speakers handle most of he soundtrack's ambience, leaving listeners feeling detached and hardly engulfed during the experience. Nevertheless, it's sufficient enough, and this
dialogue-heavy film never falters in conveying each syllable efficiently through the center channel.
While nothing to get too excited about, Surfer, Dude does feature a suitable and clear listen
on Blu-ray.
Surfer, Dude serves up a few supplements for this Blu-ray release. Headlining the
package
is a commentary track with actor Matthew McConaughey. In between long moments of dead air,
McConaughey does manage to offer some interesting comments in a laid-back, friendly
manner,
almost commenting in-character with the same lackadaisical approach the character employs in
the
film. Surfer, Dude: The Real Story (480p, 24:48) looks at the seven-year journey that
went into the making of this picture, featuring interviews with plenty of cast and crew members
and eventually taking a brief look at various days of the shoot. Next up is The Complete
'Surfer, Dude' 12-Webisode Series (480p, 24:35) that provides rapid-fire vignettes that
feature additional interview clips and behind-the-scenes footage. Also included are several
deleted scenes (480p, 11:17). 1080p trailers for Surfer, Dude, Traitor, Righteous Kill, and Dead Space: Downfall
are next. Rounding out the supplements on disc one is BD-Live (Blu-ray profile 2.0) functionality.
Disc two of this set contains a digital copy of the film that, as is the case with Starz releases,
is not
Mac compatible.
Surfer, Dude is far from horrible cinema -- but then again it's failure to nail down a basic
and coherent structure lends to it something of a pseudo-documentary feel that more follows the
characters than tells a story. There are a few things to like here, but the negatives overshadow them. Surfer, Dude seems more like some vanity project than anything else, a means
to an end to a nice paid vacation with the occasional interruption to shoot a scene. At least the
folks who made the film seemed to have a good time, and there is no knocking a good, extended beach
party. Starz presents Surfer, Dude on Blu-ray as a fairly average package, with solid
video and audio presentations and an acceptable, but ultimately underwhelming, supplemental
section. Those in search of fine surfing programming on Blu-ray should consider Step Into Liquid before
Surfer, Dude, though this offering is just good enough to warrant a rental for the curious.
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Anchor Bay Home Entertainment has revealed the technical specs and special features for the upcoming Blu-ray release of 'Surfer, Dude', which is due to hit store shelves on December 30th, day-and-date with the DVD release. For this Matthew McConaughey film, video ...
Anchor Bay Home Entertainment has announced some of the special features for the upcoming Blu-ray release of 'Surfer, Dude', which is due to hit store shelves on December 30th, day-and-date with the DVD release. Technical specs are still yet to be released, but ...
