Blue Crush (2002) Critic Reviews

A big, sexy, sun-splashed thrill ride, is what a summer movie ought to be: not totally mindless, but more interested in jangling your nerves than engaging your brain.Read the full review

Works on two levels. First, it's a pure celebration of riding the waves. -- Second, Blue Crush is a clear-eyed portrait of the unique kind of power that women possess, a power that shows us that victory doesn't always mean vanquishing someone else. Either way, it's thrilling.Read the full review

The final 20 minutes of Blue Crush can stand as one of the few highlights in a movie summer of mostly hollow action-carnival fireworks. The trick, for once, isn't that we're watching superhuman stunts; it's that we're watching deeply human stunts.Read the full review

I expected another mindless surfing movie. Blue Crush is anything but.Read the full review

It's hard to resist being swept up in Blue Crush, not least because David Hennings's shimmery photography carries the breeze and spray of the island right into the theater. The movie is also the latest example of a subgenre that might be called feminexploitation.Read the full review

Bosworth is a star in the making, but even she can't outshine the surfing footage, which is flat-out spectacular.Read the full review

That's what these sequences feel like -- a sensual uproar. They almost make this small, unresolved little movie feel mythic.Read the full review

Not the sanctioned wet T-shirt contest you might be anticipating. The Pacific is the hottest body here. And director John Stockwell handles the frivolous material with an integrity that I have to admit I found disappointing. The movie isn't nearly dumb enough to be much beach fun.Read the full review

Without the impressive photography and energetic action sequences, Blue Crush would have been a lot worse. But, if the filmmakers had invested in real characters instead of cardboard cut-outs, it would have been a lot better.Read the full review