And I couldn't figure out if I loved it or hated it.
The one thing that really bothered me was there was no development of the skating of the main character Stevie. That kid can skate (well now at least). I feel like the story would have been stronger if he landed a kickflip or something near the end of the film or maybe skated down that hill without having to drag his foot on the ground. At least give him a shoveit. I think it would make his acceptance into the group more believable and not make the movie feel like it took place over the course of 10 days and more like a couple of months like he says in the film.
I also think this movie was way too short. I don't understand how he cut scenes out of the film when it was only 85 minutes. I was pretty surprised when the credits came up. I guess it was a logical ending, it just didn't feel like it was about to end until it was clearly ending. He could have easily added more character development scenes with Stevie's mom, the grunt kid, the "poor" kid, his brother. Also, they should have cast an owner for the skate shop and maybe an extra or two to be around or shopping there.
I did get a kick out of seeing in the credits that Chico Brenes and a couple of other pros played the cops at the LA Courthouse scene. So I just checked and it was him, Aaron Meza, Rick Howard and Donny Barley. That Del homeless scene was pretty stupid and apparently Chad Muska played another homeless guy but I missed it. I especially liked the older brother character, with the clothes and the CDs and all that. That was pretty spot on.
Overall I enjoyed it while it was happening, especially seeing it on the big screen. It's not really that inspiring of a film and I'm wondering what young people would get out of watching it. I probably would have been better off just waiting for the DVD release. I was expecting it to be funnier from what I saw and read about it beforehand. Overall I would give it a solid B- or a tenuous C+.
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