Expected more

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Dana Brown, the son of legendary film maker Bruce Brown, continues the family tradition with his own take on the world of people that are totally committed to ride those waves, no matter where. In a way, this is another installment in the way Brown sees the world of the surfers as he takes us all over the world to show us what people will do in order to discover the perfect wave, and ride it.The brilliant cinematography is amazing to watch. Things obviously have improved greatly since Bruce Brown pioneered this genre of documentary. We get glimpses of Oahu, with its rugged coast and giant waves. We are taken to places like Rapa Nui, Ireland, Viet Nam and even Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where we had no idea people will go to their rough lake to surf! Someone made a comment about the title being pretentious, but in reality, the line comes right from one woman that is being interviewed and says she feels like "stepping into liquid" whenever she is surfing.The film is beautiful to watch. It could have used some editing, but in general Dana Brown ought to be congratulated by what he has captured on camera for fans of the sport and just plain folks that will be, no doubt, wowed by what they see on the screen.

To be blunt, Dana Brown has done the Surfing world a MAJOR favour with his new documentary, "Step into Liquid". This is one of the most beautiful and compelling films I have ever seen. I have spent years surfing up and down the USA's West Coast, from Washington to So. California and even down into Baja and I was STUNNED with this film. Since moving to Texas, I have not been riding alot of waves (as you might expect), but this movie made me feel like I was home. One problem, though (and one problem only) -- I grew up in Sothern California surfing at Moonlight, Torry Pines Dell Mar, Huntington, Big Sur, etc and, Dana, let me tell you...ALL of us 'real surfers' called each other 'Dude' all the time...still do, actually. So thanks for the killer ride, Dana, and I'll see you out there...Dude!

Parts of the film move slowly but the photography throughout is stunning and the human interest stories compelling. I especially enjoyed the segment of the Catholic and Protestant children surfing together in Norther Ireland and vignettes such as of Dave Webster who has been surfing every day for the past 24 years and of a fellow who became paralyzed in a surfing accident and yet continues to surf in his own way.All of this coupled with some of the best surfing photography I have ever seen anywhere makes it a great film.

Like watching top notch aerial trapeze artists or gifted dancers, beholding the world's best surfers riding momentous 20 to 60 foot waves is a thoroughly entertaining, at times mesmerizing experience. The young masters of this sport display consummate athleticism, not to mention courage, abandon, an ultimate level in the pursuit of thrills, rivaled perhaps only by the most difficult reaches of alpine skiing. In this film, Brown extends the tradition initiated 37 years ago by his father, Bruce Brown, who made the first great surfer film, "The Endless Summer," released in 1966. There are interesting contrasts between the two movies. "Endless Summer" was a simple, lyrical ode to the pleasures of youth, following two young amateur surfers as they sought the adventure of new surfs at beaches around the world. A road movie propelled by waves. The music was soft and easy and had continuity, and Brown pere's narration was full of adolescent good humor. "Liquid" is more complex in several senses. It's structure is one of brief separate surfing stories, and it features a larger number of surfers, several of them seasoned pros. It is a more political film as well, setting two of its stories in Vietnam and Ireland, where, Brown suggests, teaching some kids to surf may help right the world's wrongs. It is definitely more techie. Surfers launch into the biggest waves in Hawaii and on the Cortez Bank after being towed into position by large jet ski rigs, analogous to helicopter skiing. Some surfers use a most peculiar hydrofoil board contraption, the stability of which defies simple logic. Technical achievements in filming abound as well. The film also puts a face on danger, featuring in one episode a young man rendered quadriplegic by a surfing accident.Professionalization, politics, technology, danger. Clear and present overtones in the culture of our times. It follows that, overall, the biggest contrast between the films lies in the seriousness of "Liquid." For all of its narrative allusions to pure fun as the main goal of a surfer's life, and occasional antics that amuse (surfing in Sheboygan, Michigan for one), there is a pervasive earnestness in the stories. Simple fun in 2003 is harder to purchase than it was in flower child times. We are now less innocent. Still, if you liked the original (I have seen it at least three times), you will find this one absorbing as well. What's really fun is to see it in a theater like I did, surrounded by aging (former?) surfers whose laughter helps balance the film's somewhat somber tone.