Manobras Radicais

I saw this movie on satellite with no preconceived notions. No it's not War & Peace but it was plain goofy fun like a cross between a "Road" picture & "Animal House". People who criticize this movie for not taking skateboarding seriously have totally missed the point. This movie could've been about ping pong & I still would have enjoyed it for what it was. Brainless fun. So if anyone is looking forward to basically shutting their brain down, but still getting a couple of cheap laughs I recommend this movie. It is NOT for young children. Some of the humor is "raunchy" but nothing anyone over the age of twelve hasn't heard in the school yard. It has a fairly basic moral (never give up) and not all the women in it are eye candy. Perfect for the demographic it was aiming for.

Take Blue Crush and Road Trip to the asphalt with boys instead of girls. The movie is an entertaining over-the-top story about four friends who decide to make the summer more interesting by trying to live the dream of becoming pro skateboarders. Their path to potential stardom is one full of roadblocks of all shapes and kinds. Don't look for any award winning performances here, but do look for some good laughs and some good and great skateboarding sequences.

Mike Vogel, Vince Vieluf, Adam Brody and Joey Kern provide acceptable performances as stereotype characters sticking to the molds they have been given. Their performances are not bad, nor are they great, which allows the movie to be very watch-able - I don't think you'll be cringing because of poor acting, as you might have in other films. There are a lot of cameos (some good, some bad) in this movie - Randy Quaid, Christopher McDonald, Christine Estabrook, Bob(cat) Goldthwait, and Tom Green are the most recognizable ones.

If you like skateboarding and you're not going to be watching with too critical of an eye you'll enjoy the move even more than most. It's a watch-able, enjoyable movie. Hey, I didn't check my watch once to see if its almost over yet! Enjoy!

OK so maybe this was not an Oscar performance by well, anyone. But really, let's face it, there are worse movies. And, yeah, it entertained me while it lated. So while I can't say that this will be on my top ten favorites by any standards, I guess it wasn't so bad. The cameos of Bam and Tom Green were decent. And any movie with clowns and midgets can't be totally terrible, right? The music didn't totally suck. There was "Gross Humor", which I personally like. The ending was a bit campy. To be honest, it would take a real moron not to follow it totally it was so transparent. On the whole, I say watch it. It is a good there is nothing better on flick. It won't totally bore you because it is fully devoid of anything worth learning.

Wow, I was surprised to hear people rip this movie apart like they did Gigli (although it's understandable for Gigli). This movie wasn't all that bad. I thought the cast was pretty good, and I loved Sweet Lou, but he was the Dazed and Confused rip off that someone else said. Granted, I will never buy this movie when it comes out on DVD, but it was worth the few extra bucks for the laugh. If you guys want a good laugh, without a lot of thinking (or plot) then see Grind. 7/10

I agree with another comment that the critics shouldn't have torn this movie apart like some others! It wasn't all that bad. There were those random parts that you don't think should be in there, but it is a funny movie that you can never get sick of!

The crowd that I believe the film is aiming for are those struggling athletes or skaters. There is supposed to be a little more struggle than what they put in, but it isn't a drama, it's comedy. Mike Vogel played his part well, along with Adam Brody. Most of the skating was stunt men, but there were those little scenes where the actors would actually have to skate! These actors actually took plenty of training to learn how to pull off the skating.

This is a movie that you can watch with your friends over and over again and never get sick of!