From: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!sun!megatest!fortune!hpda!hplabs!sri-unix!Bradshaw.es@PARC-MAXC.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.movies
Title: High Road To China and Free ride
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.1220
Posted: Mon May  2 17:01:45 1983
Received: Thu May  5 02:59:53 1983

"The High Road To China" stinks.  Cardboard acting is my main complaint.
Tom Selleck has about three facial expressions and one non-expression
(his dumb but cute look - practiced at countless singles bars, no
doubt).  He's the most unconvincing macho act in show business.  Boring,
boring, boring.  I liked the female lead (I can't remember her name) but
not very much.  Skip the movie and save your money.  Harrison Ford,
where are you?

As for really good movies, I recently saw a typically low budget surf
movie called "Free Ride".  Being a surfer had something to do with
liking this movie but in general this kind of flick gets boring at the
intermission (all surf movies have intermissions - surfers have short
attention spans).  This movie was definitely an exception.

To start, there was great surfing.  Incredible shots of the Hawaii pro
contests - Martin Potter from South Africa inside a Pipeline tube the
size of a large living room and Cheyne Horan showing impressive
technique in small tubes at Off-The-Wall.  How does he go so fast on
such a small board?  If your view of surfing is limited to Wide World of
Sports then you ain't seen nothin'.  These people are really tremendous
athletes in a very creative, simple sport.  The movies includes their
thoughts on technique and equipment.

Why should this interest a landlubber and how does this relate to
garbage such as "High Road to China", you ask?  Well, because the people
who make these films make very little money, often shooting in SUPER-8.
They do it for fun, food, room and board, and enough money to catch the
next plane to good surf.  When their enthusiasm comes through, as in
"Free Ride", it's fun for anybody. By the way, the photographers are
recognized as accomplished athletes themselves.  You'll see what I mean
when they take you inside a ten foot tube and shoot a passing surfer
from two feet away.  They do all this under conditions that would
terrify me.  These movies have the kind of personal involvement and
honesty (often awkward and corny) that Tom Selleck and friends had
leached out of them long ago (too many margaritas, no doubt).

There's another such movie on the way for summer.  I'll let you know if
its worth taking a risk on.

Since we're into vernacular today -

Hey Joe Bob - you ain't got it, suck toes VAL.

Surfer For President!