Blue Crush 2: Pretty, Ridiculous…and a TON of Fun

So, I mentioned that Blue Crush is one of my favorite surf movies. More than that, it’s one of my favorite movies PERIOD. So when a direct to DVD sequel was announced, I was apprehensive. None of the original cast was returning. It was going to be a completely different story. And it was direct to DVD, which can be a death sentence for movies.

Basically? The plot follows Dana, a California surfer girl with a rich father, who lost her mother at the age of 5. Her mom kept a journal that Dana reads obsessively, dreaming about surfing the same beaches in South Africa that her mother once surfed. So, after a tiff with her father, she packs her board and a bunch of her mom’s stuff and flies across the world.

Ridiculous premise? Oh, it gets worse. Add in a community of police-defying surf bums, a sub-plot involving one of Dana’s love interests possibly being a criminal, Dana’s dad trying to track her down and Dana’s new friend Pushy’s quest to become a rider for Roxy boards and, well, writing-wise the whole thing is a bit of a hot mess. There’s TOO MUCH going on.

HOWEVER, the original Blue Crush didn’t exactly have a realistic plot line. So I can totally forgive this movie because, and maybe this is unprofessional of me, IT’S FUN. There’s great surf scenes, some beautiful shots of South Africa and the soundtrack contains two of my favorite bands, TaT and The Dirty Heads, and Tatiana DeMaria of TaT wrote a bunch of new music for the film, too. Oh, and of course there was some much-appreciated male eye-candy.

On top of that, like the first Blue Crush, the second movie features actual female friendship and support and is, in part, a story about mothers and daughters. And the major female rivalry ends up not being over a guy but over surfing, it’s competative in an atheletic way, not a “get your hands off my man!” way. There’s a test for movies called “The Bechdel Test” which has three simple rules to see if a movie passes:

  1. It has to have at least two women in it
  2. Who talk to each other
  3. About something besides a man

Blue Crush 2 passes with flying colors.

Which is not to say there weren’t problems. As much as I did enjoy the movie, I already pointed out that the plot felt kind of messy. On top of that, I felt like there were some things that could have been explored further: namely, at one point Pushy calls Dana out on her privilege, saying “You’re just a rich white kid pretending to be a surf bum for awhile.” It was something I felt could have been explored more and I don’t think it’s something Dana ever really ends up addressing.

But, for all the flaws I found in it, I seriously had a good time watching. It’s a fun escape movie, which honestly is how I felt about the first film anyway. I didn’t go into this expecting a cinematic masterpiece, I went into it thinking “Oh, hey, movie about girls who surf! Sweet!” Which is what I got.