Grind

This film is just plain fun. The story isn't anything spectacular, but the skating is sick, the babes are all top shelf, and the main characters are just four guys having fun. Their adventures are enjoyable, and the show is slathered with multiple layers of humor and style. Of course this isn't going to be on any critics' top ten lists, nor will it win any awards anywhere, but the extraordinary films that wind up in those categories often have little to no replay value - once you've seen them, they're pretty much done. "Grind" is a film that's so enjoyable, it's easy to watch it over and over and over again. I've already seen it eight times.

Grind is more of a skateboard montage then a movie and it is jammed deep into the year 2003. It's probably the most early 2000's teen movie you could ever watch, it's packed with punk rock music for nearly every scene as if someone from Warped Tour directed this movie.

I'm not going to waste time but if you love skateboarding and you love the early 2000's west coast era culture then you'll probably really enjoy this movie. It gave me nostalgia so it achieves something in a sense.

Some interesting cameos we get to see are: Tom Green, Bam Margara, Christopher McDonald and a bizarre appearance from Randy Quaid who plays a clown.

This could've been a terrible watch because the acting is mostly pathetic and it's horribly cringey at times but it has this weird balance and it ends up being not too bad.

Now I suppose I am being judgmental. I enjoyed the movie Out Cold like anyone else, and when I saw the previews I was expecting Out Cold on skateboards. I was wrong.

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but in grind, all of the tricks they do are basic at best. I mean, anyone who has been skating for 6 months can kickflip. But oh well maybe i am just being judgmental.

Now as for the jokes, they were lame, Sure, the 13 year olds behind me were having a great time, but yeesh, I thought the jokes were over used and childish, especially the clown part.

And I will admit the pool jump was pretty funny, but I had seen it on the previews many times.

Eh...

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.

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.