Lords of Dogtown (2005)

Genre


Director


Country


Cast

Heath Ledger, Emile Hirsch, John Robinson, Victor Rasuk, Michael Angarano, Nikki Reed, Rebecca De Mornay, William Mapother, Vincent Laresca, Elden Henson, Mitch Hedberg, Stephanie Limb, Mike Ogas, Don Nguyen, Melonie Diaz, Eddie Cahill, Laura Ramsey, Steve Badillo, Pablo Schreiber, America Ferrera, Sofia Vergara, Johnny Knoxville, Jay Adams, Ned Bellamy, Tony Alva, Charles Napier, Skip Engblom, Stacy Peralta, Tony Hawk, Joel McHale, Bai Ling, Shea Whigham, Alexis Arquette, Jeremy Renner, Lance Mountain

Storyline

The Z-Boys, as they come to be known, perfect their craft in the empty swimming pools of unsuspecting suburban homeowners, pioneering a thrilling new sport and eventually moving into legend.

Opinion

I had good expectation about this film, but as soon as I saw Catherine Hardwicke's name appear in the opening credits, my expectations dropped down like a bomb, because it's common knowledge Hardwicke is the female Michael Bay, aka she can't do her job.

I am not really into skateboarding, but I was interested in seeing how it developed, and I really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, Lords of Dogtown tries to be deep, sad and entertaining, but at the end it's just boring.

The story was a great idea for a film, but the storytelling is not compelling, the events happen without much of an explanation or background, and there is lack of dialogue.

The "documentary-style" is really annoying. First, Stacey Peralta, one of the skaters, has already made a documentary about his/the story named "Dogtown and Z-Boys", so there was no point in making a film about the same story, and giving it the documentary look. Second, documentary filmmakers don't go around shaking the camera at things like they have Parkinson's disease. And Catherine Hardwicke should stop calling it a style, because it's not.

However, the great soundtrack really adds a lot to the film. And I must compliment Hardwicke for choosing Heath Ledger as Skip. He did a wonderful job, but unfortunately he didn't have a lot of screen time.


Quotes

Skip: You gotta approach every day as if it's your last!

1 comment :

  1. A couple of years ago I bought this movie just because I liked the title, but I never watched it and gave it away soon after. Now I know that I didn't really miss anything ;)

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