Excellent, smart action film.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

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

It seems like they made a movie like this for every cool activity in the 80s, and since windsurfing was at the height of its popularity it got the treatment too. Think Top Gun with much lower stakes and one tenth the budget. Despite a bad script and some marginal acting, I actually enjoyed this movie. Forget about the cliché plot and you can actually get a kick out of the clothes and hair and all the other 80s elements. The film is shot in Australia so for an American it was fun to pick out the cultural differences as well. Also, Nicole Kidman stars as a rock star, putting on a good performance and giving the film an excuse to fill the soundtrack with some era appropriate synth cheese. The windsurfing scenes will only appeal to the real hard core since the sport has changed so much in the last couple decades, but again I enjoyed the look back.

Windrider is quite good. Well, quite good... Did I say quite good? Okay, let's start over. Windrider is a real good movie. The main Australian male, Tom Burlinson his name, is really quite good, and the montages of windsurfing stunts and wave riding on the beautiful Australian sunny ocean coast are really good too, and quite breathtaking...like Nicole. Nicole Kidman is so classically beautiful in Windrider. She is the Windrider! Nicole is one of the most beautiful womans I've ever seen, ever! She is a streaming breathe of fresh air. She's a sweet Australian breeze. She's a lovely blow of the whirling wind. She's a mighty gust of dropdead gorgeousness. She's a strong hail of uncontrollable passion. She's a sweet scent of desire. She's a cool air current of love. She's a hot ripping rush of sex appeal. She's as light as a feather. She's as soft and gentle as a morning breeze. She's really hot, standing in the wind. Nicole was only just 18 then. I love her young curly hair, fiery red like a hot flame, wild and free, like the wind. Nicole's hair is rocking! Nicole's body is banging. Seriously! Warning!! Spoiler Alert! There is a great shot of Nicole's scrumptious behind in the movie. Did I say scrumptious behind? Okay, let's start over. There is a breathtaking shot of Nicole's bare butt in Windrider. There is even a quick shot of Nicole's side nips in the shower, like Nicole blowing you a sweet kiss in the wind. Uhm, kiss, K-I-S-S, keep it sweet & simple, that's my motto! Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dogs and cats, it is my ecstatic pleasure to introduce to you, Nicole Kidman! Oh my God! Nicole looks unfathomably epically beautiful as she appears watching the man windsurf from far away on the beachy rock side in the beginning. Wait, did I say unfathomably epically beautiful? Did I say beachy rock side? What I meant to say was Nicole looks like a beautiful red-haired goddess as she appears from far away watching the man windsurf on the Australian beach there. Seeing this handsome daredevil pull of his little 360 windsurf trick is amazing, and plenty good enough for a movie premise! I really appreciate hearing Kidman's true Aussie accent throughout the showing. That's nice. The fact that the filmmakers didn't use Nicole's actual singing voice in the moments when she is singing in the Windrider is an epic fail/God damned tragedy/real shame. This 'Young Tate' song won't leave me be, it keeps following me and I think it's stalking me. I'm on to your tricks Young Tate, whoever you are, and I don't trust you and never will! Stay back, Young Tate! I have a toaster and a skillet, and I'm not afraid to use it. Young, Young Tate!

Maybe I shouldn't be writing this because I only watched the first half before realizing that it wasn't my kind of movie. However, it might be someone's else's, someone who enjoys beach party movies with plots, actions, some wit, and a teen-aged Nicole Kidman.Burlinson is a computer engineer or something at his dad's company. He comes up with a design for a theme park built around artificial waves. The surfers will go ape. They'll all try to do a "360," which I gather is flipping your sailboard around in a complete circle in the air above a breaking wave. That's a guess. Whatever it is, it has to be done on a sailboard and it's difficult.Burlinson manages to pull it off one afternoon but nobody is around to see him except the distant figure of Kidman. Burlinson's mates in the pub ridicule him so he sets out on a search for Kidman, who is a rock queen. She gets to sing an entire fast pop song, her voice almost buried in electronic percussion and guitars, all bathed in a blood-red light. You can see why it requires a certain taste to enjoy this past the point of no return.I wondered, while listening to the airy and up-tempo dialog, if American kids will get some of the allusions and jokes. Burlinson's nickname is "PC". It stands for "Police Car." Why is he called that? Because he's always chasing sirens. Sirens? Worse yet, somebody quotes Voltaire.However, I expect that the sensibilities of our teens will roughly discard these sorts of challenges because by the time they realize that they didn't understand it, they'll have already forgotten it.Besides, the dialog won't be as important as the many surfing scenes, the amiably reckless attitude of Burlinson, and the sassy, brassy Kidman, who was only eighteen when this was shot. She has a head of curly black hair that flops around with her, big enough to have its own weather system. She's a lot of fun. She hadn't been turned into the epitome of vacuous blond perfection that Hollywood would do it's best to achieve, but she can act and she embodies the role.There are amusing allusions to "Jaws" in the writing -- not just the dialog -- some often amusing. Just as often, it's not. I didn't get a kick out of watching Burlinson prepare a fast breakfast while the camera cuts back and forth from the frying egg to the countdown on the microwave. It wasn't offensive, just pointless.

Saw this late on ABC, can see why they put it on in middle of night. This is amateur hour, watching this 'car crash',the dialogue, editing and special effects - shark/seal scene! - get worse and worse. When the 2 larrikins get honked by garbage truck and their retort is "Up yours, garbage breath", scriptwriters! Then when there is a drag between PC and the yobbos the dueling banjos start. Only interest is seeing young Kidman, Matt Parkinson and Alan Dale (Dr Karl) ironically in the band, Karl nursing muso ambitions early on.On a side note, it would be more helpful and balanced if negative and positive reviews were put up as it seems that user reviews are only added when someone really likes the film. This leaves the user reviews unbalanced and some 'terrible' films get very high rating. Subjective, of course