Even though I do live in Santa Cruz, I'm not particularly interested in surfing or surf movies, but still, I really enjoyed this one. The theme of being at a stage in life where you start wondering what you're going to do with it other than partying, what's really worthwhile in life, and what your values are struck a chord with me. It's a pretty universal one. I certainly know a lot of people that have dealt with it or are dealing with it right now. The scenery of Cornwall was gorgeous. So was a very young looking Catherine Zeta Jones. The movie is beautifully shot. It was also very humorous, especially when you know lots of people like the characters in this film. It struck me as very true to life. Ewan McGregor really made me laugh as a drug dealing hippy dude who secretly just wants to be respected. I kept thinking "didn't I see that guy at a Dead show once?" The whole film kind of reminded me of Santa Cruz with an English accent.

The only thing worse than surfers without any waves is a film about surfers without any waves. For viewers who love surfing this film will be a gigantic disappointment since the total number of minutes of surfing footage struggles to reach three.The story is a slice of life about beached surfers who are waiting not for the perfect wave, but for any wave at all. J.C. (Sean Pertwee) is an aging super surfer who is flirting with a commitment with his girlfriend Chloe (Catherine Zeta Jones). Just as he is about to find grown up bliss with the woman he loves, three old surfing friends turn up and convince him to hit the beach looking for monster waves at the Bone Yard. The trouble is, there are no waves until the very end of the film, so most of the story dissipates itself on a meandering succession of disconnected beach happenings.The acting is mostly mediocre. Sean Pertwee has a few comical moments, but mostly his acting was mundane. Ewan McGregor was decent as the drug dealing wild man, by far the most interesting and peculiar character of the bunch. Probably the funniest performance was turned in by Peter Gunn as Terry who turned his corpulent body into a continual sight gag. Catherine Zeta-Jones was sexy as usual, but her character didn't really have enough meat for her to show much acting ability.There is really not much here on which to comment. I rated it a 3/10. It's a real beach bummer.

Saw this a few years ago and wasn't that impressed but on watching it again recently I find it's grown on me a lot. There's a lot of cliches in here, Cornwall is depicted as a crazy little world quite unlike anywhere else in Britain, where one train a week passes through town and everyone listens to hokey little local radio stations manned by oo-arr-ing rustic caricatures. There's some improbable stuff too, like a couple of people setting up a rural rave in about a day and getting a good few hundred attendees. Some of the characters are a little shallow (J.C.'s local surfing mates are little more than a chorus, pointing out what's going on now and then). The main group though, Pertwee's J.C., his girl CZJ and his old mates all have nice little problems that mess them around through the film and wind up getting resolved in quite sweet ways. Some moments of hilarity (fat, e'd-up Terry as the Silver Surfer is just cool, the rave bit in general is a fun scene), some (rather obvious) drama as J.C. and Chloe fall in and out of a relationship, building to a pacey, only slightly silly climax and a cute payoff with all the roles nicely shifted around. Doesn't really look that deeply at the issues it raises (the nature of being "grown up", responsibility, money vs soul, self respect and trustworthiness vs being cool and impressing your mates) but it's not really supposed to, it's just a bit of fluff without the serious surf ethos (or quality surf footage) of a Big Wednesday. It's very rooted in its time and place - the clothes, the hair, the vehicles are all right on the money, I almost feel like I really saw half these people in early nineties Cornwall, a nice feeling of familiarity which almost cancels out the patronising rural Cornish stereotypes scattered about. A bit of nostalgia for me for some happy times, and for others probably well worth watching if you don't take it too seriously, more an "aaaah" and a giggle than a "wow" though.

Being a surfer means you're always looking for movies, books and magazines about your chosen passion. However, something always ruins movies about surfing. This movie, while wonderfully acted and filmed on the gorgeous coast of Great Britain, falls prey to several surf film cliches. For instance, we have the protagonist who's reaching 30 and must either turn his back on his surfing lifestyle or lose his beautiful girlfriend. Also, there are his band of goofball friends (plot furtherers) who show up and help the main character realize his destiny. Finally, there's the inevitable cheeseball ending where the hero has to ride the giant wave and save the life of his friend. Trouble with this segment in "Blue Juice" is that the waves that are supposed to be so threatening aren't even that big. Unfortunately, the movie is trying to be too many things. All performances are above par, however. One bit of annoying marketing, though: Ewan MacGregor appears on the box, but isn't the main character. "Blue Juice" peters out like a North Carolina day of summer surf.