Surfer, Dude – Blu-ray Disc Review
January 6, 2009 – 12:15 PM --- by: Justin SlussTags: Alexie Gilmore, Anchor Bay, Digital Copy, Jeffrey Nordling, Matthew McConaughey, S.R. Bindler, Scott Glenn, Starz, Willie Nelson, Woody Harrelson
has an average rating of 4.8 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 25gb disc
Dolby TrueHD 5.1
include Digital Copy & SD featurettes
– 
– 2008
– 85 minutes
– Starz (Anchor Bay)
– 
Overall Verdict – Save it for a Rental
Buy it for $15.99 @ Amazon.com
— Review by: Justin Sluss —
The Movie Itself is directed by S.R. Bindler and stars Matthew McCounaughey as a surfer dude named “Steve Addington“. Steve is pretty much a living legend in the sport of surfing and is the definition of a man going through an existential crisis. He returns home from a trip to have his brother played by Woody Harrelson try to talk him into doing both a reality TV show and lend his name to a surfing video game for a surfer turned business man named “Eddie Zarno” (Jeffrey Nordling).
Our leading man Steve is a bit hard up for cash so he’s reluctantly considering the offer from Zarno but very against the idea of becoming a “sell out”. One day on the beach, one of Zarno’s employees, a girl named “Danni Martin” (Alexie Gilmore) happens to find Addington and his surfer friends hanging out smoking a joint and takes the time to record a video of him talking about surfing. This video ends up in the hands of Zarno who tries to use it as blackmail against Addington once he decides against the reality show and video game offer.
Sure the film is mostly about our lead character deciding what to do with his life for finacial reasons but mainly it’s about an existential crisis that is triggered by the choice to not “sell out” and lack of waves — that leaves him having a very long period without surfing. Speaking of the lack of surfing, the film seems to really lack any good scenes that show actual surfing — despite the title. Also, the plot really does seem thin here and is sure to leave some folks disappointed with the film itself. On the bright side though, along the way you meet some semi-interesting characters such as Steve’s friend and pot dealer “Farmer Bob” (Willie Nelson) who’s good for a laugh.
“Surfer, Dude” isn’t exactly one of the best film’s I’ve seen about pot-smoking surfer dudes but it is worth at least one watch, most likely left for a Rental. I will go as far as say that this isn’t anywhere close to the worst film I’ve seen Matthew McCounaughey do in the past decade. Give it a chance if you’re open minded or just a pot-smoking surfer that likes the subject material. If you’re more used to McCounaughey in his recent romantic comedies then I’d honestly say skip this one — it’s not really “up your alley” so-to-speak.
Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-25 (25 gigabyte Blu-ray Disc). This is presented in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. IMDb doesn’t list any details about the cameras used on this film so I have to really only speculate that this was shot on traditional 35mm film. This comes with some obvious film grain and noise present in the Hi-Def transfer but it’s nothing at all worth complaining about. The gritty feel at times totally suits the film’s vibe that it is trying to deliver. The color palette in the visual presentation is somewhat vibrant and the fleshtones here are definitely accurate. It’s just the real lack of detail at times and slight occasional signs of compression that make this Hi-Def presentation nothing close to reference material. With that being said though, “Surfer, Dude” does earn a somewhat decent “3.5 Star Rating” for overall video quality.
Audio Quality on this release is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround. Not one of the best TrueHD mixes out there, this does seem a bit front heavy with not a whole lot of rear channel presence. On a plus though, dialogue is delivered very distinct throughout and should require no volume adjustment. The bass presence here is pretty vacant for the most part but it has a whole lot to do with the subject material at hand. Not a whole lot here to praise nor really complain about in great length. It’s pretty much what you’d expect for the audio presentation to be like for a Independent film. What little bit of actual surfing footage we get we are treated to some sounds of waves crashing that make sparse use of the rear channels and bass. Overall “Surfer, Dude” earns a “3.5 Star Rating” for audio quality.
Bonus Materials are presented in 480p Standard Definition with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound.
- Digital Copy is included of the film. This sadly only features a Windows Media (.WMV) version though and lacks an iTunes compatible file. This is nice to see included but at the same time it does suck that Starz (Anchor Bay) doesn’t want to include iTunes digital copies on their releases.
- “Surfer, Dude: The Real Story” (25 minutes) is your basic “making of” featurette that contains interviews with the cast and crew.
- “The Complete Surfer, Dude 12-Webisode Series” (25 minutes) gives us some promotional clips released on the internet in obviously “webisode” format. Here you’ll also find more “behind-the-scenes” footage as well as more interviews from the cast and crew.
- Deleted Scenes (11 minutes) are included but really shed little light onto the story itself. There’s usually a reason that scenes were deleted and that is definitely the case here. This is best left to those who actually enjoyed the film, not those looking for answers.
Overall the bonus materials on this release aren’t really anything too bad but at the same time they don’t really hold up as anything amazing either. Sure, the digital copy is nice if you use a Windows Media enabled portable device or want to put a copy on your laptop but the lack of an iTunes compatible version leaves me a bit unsatisfied in that department. The Standard Definition (480p) featurettes do have pretty lengthy runtimes but don’t really add to much to the overall experience. Regardless though, if you actually enjoyed this film you’ll probably want to give the bonus materials here a watch.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
