The Good

If you surf you should see this movie.

The Bad

Why in the world did director S.R. Bindler make this movie?In Surfer, Dude, Steve Addington (Matthew McConaughey) finds himself not hitting the lip but getting hit by it. When he returns home to Malibu for the summer he finds that things aren't right. His sponsors want him in video games, and he's even being pitched for reality TV shows. Deciding he's just going to surf his problems away, things get worse when the waves dry up, his money goes with it, and his "friends" show him just how hot he's not. However, Steve is an optimist and with the help of friends like Woody Harrelson, Scott Glenn and Willie Nelson, he just can't help but look past the gloom for his next wave.

While I don't know that I would ever have watched this film otherwise, Surfer. Dude (terrible title) should appeal to legions of McConaughey and surfing fans alike.

Features

Surfer, Dude: The Real Story

Featuring behind the scenes footage from the making of this movie, we get to see a first hand account of how McConaughey and company pulled this movie off. We are shown the usual scenes of the actors emoting for the cameras, and we also get candid footage of them discussing the shoot and the project in general. I can't say that I saw anything here that I hadn't seen before, and I can't really say that anything about this featurette opens up the movie to some deeper meaning. However, if you are looking for some insights into the nuts and bolts of production, I would certainly recommend checking this piece out.

Deleted Scenes and Webisodes

Audio Commentary

Matthew McConaughey sits back and in his easy going way discusses the making of this film. He talks about how the idea developed, the genesis of the script (can you believe that there are actually 4 writers on it?), various aspects of the production, and whatever else comes to his mind. While McConaughey is someone who is nothing if not fun to listen to, I actually got a little bored with this commentary and ended up not finishing it. If you love this movie, this actor, or you just happen to have an extra 85 minutes to kill then I would suggest tuning in. Otherwise, you really are not missing too much.

Video

1080p. Widescreen Presentation - 1.85:1. As this movie is set in the surfing world, I was pretty darn impressed with the visuals. On Blu-ray we get the crashing of the waves, the intimacy of the ocean, and everything else just had an overall visceral feel to it. That said, at no point in my viewing of this film did I think the visuals from a movie like Big Wednesday were given any sort of a run for their money. Director S.R. Bindler and Director of Photography Elliot Davis do their best to showcase all the strengths of this films environment, however even that cannot save this film from its ultimate mediocrity.

Audio

Dolby TrueHD 5.1. English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired. The audio on this film was good, I just didn't hear anything that was that amazing. I certainly don't know that this movie had to be on Blu-ray. There are aspects of the film, like when they are at the beach, that the audio seemed to perk up a bit. On the whole however, I didn't really hear anything that sounded that incredible. In fact, there were times when the music came on and it was almost too jostling. The audio isn't terrible but it doesn't seem to have anything behind it.

Package

A shirtless Matthew McConaughey is presented on this front cover leaning against a tree with his surfboard. The back cover features shots from this film, a description of what this movie is about, a Special Features listing, a cast list and technical specs.

Final Word

I couldn't help but wonder as I watched this film if it wasn't some sort of inside joke between McConaughey and his friends. After all, looking at the front cover of this release and it's inane title, one can only imagine McConaughey sitting in the offices of his j.k. livin productions, hashing out this plot for an hour with his friends, selling it to someone in 10 minutes, and then starting production a few days later.

While I will admit that Surfer, Dude e worst movie I have ever seen, I will say that I don't know that McConaughey really needed to be involved with it. At the end of the day there just isn't anything too special about seeing a surfer overcoming these problems. Maybe if things were grittier it might have worked better for me, but as it is this film seems like a fun experiment in just how far Matthew McConaughey's star power goes.

If you are a fan of McConaughey (I think he's a good actor) and you like surfing, you should see this film. Do you need to own it on Blu-ray disc? That's another story.