Best Hollywood Surf Movie Since 'Big Wednesday'
I know it's an animated movie but the attitude was right without being cheesy or cliche filled. I was surprised.
"The only bad "f-word" is FCC."
- Tom Morello
Jan-Michael Vincent? Gary Busey? FRAN RYAN?? Whoa, impressive. :/
Try "Best Hollywood Surf Movie EVER."
Are you kidding me? Big Wednesday is great.Your prejudice is an ignorant tool, my friend.
"The only bad "f-word" is FCC."
- Tom Morello
Cool if you like it, but don't mistake validation for ignorance.
"The name's Mannfred. And I'm not your friend."
So, you've seen it and all you can say is the actors aren't somehow good enough for you? I doubt you've seen it and THAT , my friend, IS ignorance.
"A rubber stamp wouldn't do for John Milius. So he took a sledgehammer and pounded Important all over Big Wed nesday. This film about three Malibu surfers in the 1960s has been branded major statement and it's got Big Ideas about adolescence, friendship and the 1960s."
-Variety
"John Milius' youth is woven into this classic surfing movie, as you'll discover on a DVD so evocative of a bygone era it near transports you back to the 60s"
-BBC Film Review
"Big Wednesday is a personal film in the best sense of the word. Milius' affection for this world colors every frame. He is unabashedly sentimental, but never cloying. And he is unafraid to simply let action tell the story, with long stretches of nothing but awe-inspiring aquatic feats. "
-Reel.Com
"The only bad "f-word" is FCC."
- Tom Morello
"Half of a good flick on surfing, Pacific Coast-style, early '60s. Up to midway point, a ridiculous comedy about macho Vincent and his fun-loving, destructive ways. As he and his buddies Katt and Busey get older, and action is brought up to the '70s, dramatic content improves." Leonard Maltin, 2004 Film Guide
"It's this non-judgemental distancing by Milius that represents the strength and the weakness in Big Wednesday as a story. Drama demands catharsis. 1978 also saw the release of The Deer Hunter -- and it gave the audience plenty of catharsis. Today, removed from the political context of the times, Big Wednesday is just a surfing movie with occasional continuity problems." Lawrence Russell, Culture Court
"The most pretentious film of its kind, BIG WEDNESDAY may have cost more than all of the other surfing movies ever made put together. Although Brown (ENDLESS SUMMER) captured the beauty and fun of his favorite sport in his "surfumentaries," Milius, whose work always seems underlain with weighty symbolic intent, infuses BIG WEDNESDAY with heavy-handed philosophy and all-around stupidity." TVGuide.com
Look, we can cut-and-paste film review snippets 'till the cows come home, but it seems to me you're assuming and wondering about my opinion, so I'll thwart the propaganda angle and just answer you directly. Yes, I saw the film. While I admit I liked it a bit better than TV Guide, it really didn't do anything for me. But then, most surfer movies don't, and I've seen my share. The only other surf movie besides "Surf's Up" that even slightly turned my head was "Summer City"(1976), Mel Gibson's first role, and that was a guilty pleasure at best. It's interesting that you failed to notice the actors I didn't mention, such as William Katt, Barbara Hale, Sam Melville and Patti D'Arbanville, all of whom I respect and whom I think turned in fine performances, but again, most surf films (and for that matter, most Vietnam films) don't do it for me. THAT, my friend, is my OPINION. As I said, cool if you like it, but that's your OPINION, and I respect that. I would also respectfully request that you get over yourself just a smidge and learn to respect the opinions of others.
Thanks for the essay,kid. You'll appreciate good film when you mature a little.
"The only bad "f-word" is FCC."
- Tom Morello
Just watched it again, Big Wednesday is still as cool as ever a flick about nam, surfing, responsibility and death with epic seventies surf footage. See it, kids.
"The only bad "f-word" is FCC."
- Tom Morello
Sorry, no kid here. Also, I have been surfing for the last 30 years and Big Wednesday??? It didn't do anything for me.
I enjoyed Surf's Up way more. My kids loved it too. Surf's Up held more true to what surfing is about for me in the era I grew up in. Maybe if I was 10 years older than I am, Big Wednesday would have meant more. My opinion is that Big Wednesday does not even come close to an epic surf film. Virtually NOTHING from Hollywood could be considered a quality surf film true to surfings roots. Surf's Up was the first realistic capture of the surfing era as I know it, late 70's to present.
I think you missed the point. It's timeless. I went to college in a Coastal town. Got to be best friends with the local surfers. Went to Sandy Beach, Hawaii and surfed in the US Amateur with them.Went to jail with them for jumping of the pier(to catch pure glass 12ft.) during a huge hurricane swell Went on Hatteras trips with Matt Kechle and Sean Slater.Hung with Kelly when he was 16,17. I surf(ed). We had a shaper(Kelly Richards) that I rode for and where we'de hang and here his hilarious stories when it was flat.Big Wednesday, for me, always takes me back to the parties, the nuttiness, the very good friends, who I now haven't seen in close to 20 years. I love the film and, although fairly shallow, does a good job of describing the friendship of surfers and the different directions they all go when they leave their growing pains behind along with the commoness of the ocean they all had together.
"The only bad "f-word" is FCC."
- Tom Morello