the leading man is my tpye

Let's be realistic.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is probably one of my favorite movies of all time. I stumbled across Grind during a round of channel-surfing years ago, and even though the movies was halfway over, it was so hilarious that I decided to watch it to the end. After that, I had to see how the story started, so I went hunting for it on Amazon and bought it. To this day, I still pull it out at least three or four times a year when I need a good laugh. The funny parts stay as funny as they were the very first time I saw it, and that's saying a lot, because I've watched it dozens of times over the course of the years since it was a new movie. Even if you don't like skateboarding or know nothing about it, you'll enjoy this movie. And the cameos just make it that much better. This is the movie that first made me fall in love with Adam Brody and Jennifer Morrison, and as a result, I became a big fan of both Once Upon a Time and The O.C.

I've been skateboarding almost daily since the 90's, so it comes to no surprise that this movie is often joked about in skateboard culture. If you've been a part of the scene you will surly get more of a kick out of Grind than those who don't skate. Unfortunately, that kick will lead you straight into a rock, going down steep hill covered in rough concrete and sand, in below-freezing temperatures, with loose trucks and no gloves on, during heavy traffic, at night. Then again, if you push mongo and your best trick is a mall grab, you might like this movie. If you enjoi characters who are more annoying than funny, this might be right up your alley-oop. The acting isn't bad, but what really stinks is the childish toilet humor. At least there are cameos from professional skateboarders to take the pain away. Bam Margera has a few parts, as does a young Ryan Sheckler. Chad Fernandez (see Osiris "The Storm" and Globe's "Opinion") plays the enemy bent on destroying the lead character's hopes of fame in the skate world (guess who wins). Tom Green even has a part. A quick pause reveals obvious stunt doubles during the skate scenes... even for the big finale on the vert ramp (Fernandez is a street skater). The soundtrack is typical radio-rock from the era, and the film work is decent, minus the skateboarding scenes. Moral of the story: watch "Thrasin'" instead.

I think Grind is a great movie with a lot of comedy and good skating footage. This one will only appeal to you if you like skateboarding, so I can understand the mixed reviews. the humour in this film is meant for a younger audience. What did you expect before watching though? You must have gone into this movie knowing it was about skateboarding. I don't think a guy who is 40 and knows nothing about skating will appreciate it at all. With that being said, Grind has some pretty good skating scenes that you will enjoy watching. Bam Margara has a small role in the film also. I thought the entire movie was pretty hilarious but the story is unlikely to happen. Don't take Grind too seriously because it's a little far fetched. In real life this would never happen, but thats the beauty of these kind of movies.

It was strangely difficult for me to write this much about "Grind", because everything that could possibly be said about the movie could much easier be condensed to a simple "Road Trip Ripoff". Similar characters, similar premise and similar conflicts, only this time, it's served with a surprisingly arbitrary side dish of skateboarding. I think this is actually one of my bigger complaints about this whole thing: It's not really a skateboarding movie. The skating scenes are periodically shoehorned in there, as if the director tried his hardest to get them over with as quickly and unimpressively as possible. Even the showdown, which is literally just one, long half pipe performance, is filmed in such a ham-handed, not to say *bored* manner that it could be trumped even by the skate scenes in "Most Vertical Primate". I'm hardly exaggerating. Of course my other, much bigger problem with the movie is its humor. I read in the Trivia section that large parts of the dialog were improvised, and yes, that's definitely what much of it feels like. Not the brilliant kind of spontaneity, though, but the kind one might produce when goofing around with friends after a few too many beers, where guttural noises, witless sex jokes and, of course, farts become the epitome of hilarity. I mean, I'm not trying to sound snobbish here, but I believe this rambling humor that consists of little more than random noises and guys hitting each other while shrieking in drunk amusement just doesn't translate very well to the big screen. To put it bluntly, this comedy's comedy isn't funny. It's embarrassing. All of this is quite sad, because one thing the movie definitely does have going for it is a relatively strong cast. The main group consists of adequate actors, and Vince Vieluf in particular is usually a pretty funny, unaffectedly likable guy. However, here he's reduced to a drooling moron, who makes noises all the time and giggles at the stench of his own feces. There are also special appearances by Brian Posehn, Stephen Root, Randy Quaid, Bobcat Goldthwait, various members of the Jackass ensemble, and Tom Green, just to name those I recognized right away. I've seen all of these guys deliver the goods before, but in this one, they're all shadows of themselves. Well, I guess Bam Margera did reasonably well, but maybe that's because he was one of the few characters in the movie who didn't actually try to be funny. He was just there as a celebrity skater.In closing, I'm a bit saddened that this didn't turn out any better. I very much like the basic idea of a road movie comedy about a group of amateur skateboarders trying to get sponsored. It's a crying shame that this concept went to waste with such bland, unmemorable characters and their lobotomized humor.