I fear only 14-year-old boys with raging hormones can truly appreciate
Grind, a movie filled with daredevil skateboarding stunts, busty girls
in skimpy costumes and a smirky view of sexuality.
The skateboarding maneuvers are breathtaking and sometimes shot low to
the ground to give a feel for the movements, sort of like a glorified
X-Games contest. But Grind's underdog story surrounding those stunts is
trite and at times outrageously silly. A last-minute trip to a clown
college, with Randy Quaid as the head baggy-pantser, seems to have been
crafted from thin air to give Grind a much-needed offbeat boost in its
final stretch.
Eric Rivers (Mike Vogel) is an Illinois skateboarder who's a legend in
his own mind. Certain of his talent and desperate to crack into the
national pro skateboarding circuit, he convinces three friends to travel
cross-country so they can enter various championships as the
"Super-Duper Team" in hopes of winning a sponsor and rubbing elbows with
skateboard stars.
The pals are Matt (Vince Vieluf), an insufferable child-man misfit
slacker with sophomoric ideas about women (which is why he can never get
to first base); Dustin (Adam Brody), a studious guy whose dreams of
college are interrupted by the road trip; and Sweet Lou (Joey Kern), a
smooth womanizer.
Soon Eric's dreams have evolved into a shared nightmare and their trip
has become a real grind, although the film's title actually comes from
the term used to describe what happens when one or both axles of a
skateboard scrapes on a curb, railing or other surface. The boys fail to
get skateboard superstar Jimmy Wilson (Jason London) to even see them,
much less become interested in signing them up for his tour. They're
stranded in the desert outside Tucson when their van is stolen. The
toilet humor begins to pile up in a string of flatulence and Porta-John
gags. In one very weird Lord of the Flies moment, they're taunted by a
gang of kids following a spur-of-the-moment skateboard contest in a
parking lot.
The best moments involve skateboarding, especially when the boys zoom up
a ramp to sail over the top of their van. The final championship contest
in Santa Monica presents skateboarding stunts on a grand scale.
For human scale, Jennifer Morrison adds a much-needed reality check as a
pretty skating star. Her sunny personality very nearly melts the stolid
determination of Vogel's Eric, whose singlemindedness pushes the whole
film.
**
Grind
Starring: Mike Vogel, Vince Vieluf, Adam Brody, Joey Kern, Jennifer
Morrison, Randy Quaid.
Rated: PG-13, contains adult themes.
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