Gnarly 360 spin, man!
This movie is about the original skateboard legends who made what skateboarding is today. This movie takes place in the early 70's. It's kinda like a movie documentary of the Z-boys. If you liked this movie, be sure to check out the documentary of Dogtown and Z-boys.
Sure, you laugh at their plastic skateboards and waist high shorts, but these guys are the forefathers of skateboarding today. Skateboarding would not be where it is today, without the Z-boys, man. We are merely standing on the shoulders of giants. These guys didn't invent skateboarding, but they made skateboarding "cool". Otherwise, skateboarding would be associated with knee high socks and disco music. The Z-boys changed all that with their urban surf-style shredding.
The movie does have a dirty, gritty quality about it. It really brings the 70's back to life.
The Z-boys were just poor kids who grew up in Venice, which they called Dogtown because of the seaside slum environment. Skip Engblom, played by Heath Ledger, was the owner of the Zephyr Surf and Skate Shop. He recognized the talent of about a dozen of these poor skating slum kids and sponsored them in skateboard competitions. These guys just blew everyone away with their new radical style. They loved doing low powerslides with their hands. In the beginning, competitions didn't allow people to touch the ground with their hands. That rule disappeared after the star skater, Tony Alva, punched the official's lights out.
Yeah, a lot of their tricks are laughable compared to the absolutely astounding high flying tricks you see today on the vert ramp. You see a cameo appearance by Tony Hawk who plays an astronaut that can't skate at all. I saw Tony Hawk one time at the E3 (Electronics Entertainment Expo) a while back. He can still skate, bro.
A lot of the kids in the movie had long hair. Their clothes made me crack up. All the girls who followed these guys were sluts. These young teens with their newfound rockstar-like stardom were having parties full of drugs, alcohol, and sluts. These guys were nothing more than young punk gangsters. They lacked any type of sense of responsibility. They love to drive recklessly (there were no seatbelt laws back then, either) and destroy other people's property. They epitomize all the reasons why I hate teenagers so much.
Tony Alva was a big dickhead in this movie. His pompousness made me sick. His sister was huge slut too. In one party they had, Jay Adams, another star skater, came over and had sex with Tony's sister. Apparently, Tony and his sister shared the same bedroom, 'cuz Tony was having sex with another girl while his sister was making out with Jay on a different bed. That's disgusting! A brother is not supposed to allow any of that crap to go on. A brother is supposed to beat the living crap out of any guy who tries to touch his sister. How could they both be making out with their gf and bf in the same room?! Then they hear their dad walking in. Jay jumps out the window and Tony's girl hides in the closet. Tony and his sister pretend they're just sleeping. It's a good thing their dad doesn't make them get up, because they're naked underneath their sheets.
What kind of friend was Jay when he stole Stacy Peralta's gf? Stacy Peralta plays the nice guy in the movie. Well, it's his movie so he could make it anyway he wants to. Stacy just finds a nicer girl and better looking one too. He gets sponsored by G&S Skateboards (Gordon & Smith). Man, believe it or not, Stacy's a guy. He looks like Paris Hilton with his long flowing blonde hair. Yuck.
While Stacy and Tony become big skateboard stars, Jay shuns the commercialization of his sport. He doesn't believe in selling out. He turns from a long blonde white boy into a vato with a shaved head and tatoos on his neck. That's probably due to the influence of his chicana gf.
Another skater, Sid gets brain tumor. It looks like his inner ear equilibrium imbalance turned out to be more serious than anyone thought. They should have been nicer to him instead of pushing him around all the time for laughs.
During the 70's there were severe droughts in L.A. People had to conserve water. They had to drain out their swimming pools. The Z-boys took advantage of this drought by running around people's yards and they started skating in their dried out pools. This is how they first revolutionized skateboarding. Vert ramp skating was born.
The highs: Nice gritty drama showing how modern skateboarding started
The lows: Teenagers
The Verdict: Groovy skateboarding movie.
My rating: B, 82.
No comments:
Post a Comment