"Lords Of Dogtown" (Warner, 2005)
Wow, what a disappointment. I loved the Dogtown And Z-Boys documentary that came out a couple of years ago, which dealt with the same subject -- looking at the Venice, California skate rats who pioneered modern skateboarding -- but this feature film, scripted by one of the Z-Boys, is pretty lame. Sure, it evokes the era of the mid-1970s in loving, lavish detail, and it delves a little deeper into the psychology and personal stories of the kids involved in the scene that surrounded the fabled Zephyr surf shop, but it's poorly directed and has, at heart, a weak, hackneyed script that relies too heavily on the assumption that viewers already have an intimate knowledge of surf and skate lore. We're supposed to know who Tony Alva and the other characters are, and be so in awe of seeing them portrayed onscreen that we won't notice that this film is basically an ABC After School Special with a little added drug use and gratuitous juvenile delinquency to spice things up. Meanwhile, the actors and the screenwriters try a little too hard to impress upon us how raw and "street" these guys were, and the dramas and conflicts between them are drawn in the broadest, most melodramatic terms, contributing to a sense of cheesiness that overtakes the story. Also, there are weird and unnecessary anachronisms, such as the kids throwing gang signs during a photo shoot, or calling some guy a "bitch," which are products of the post-'80s hip-hop scene, rather than Jimmy Carter-era stoner culture. Even less understandable is the loosey-goosey presentation of LA's fabled punk scene... I mean, what's up with them going to a Black Flag show in 1977? The band had barely formed that very year, and LA's punk heyday was still a couple of years off in the timeframe this film was set in. Similarly, skate culture isn't really well explained, either -- we see the Zephyr team doing stuff which apparently blows everyone's mind, but we don't really know why, or what it was they were doing that was so cool. (The recreations of the championship shows that they made their reps in were constructed with lavish attention to detail, but the skating itself looks pretty dull -- were the shows and the moves really that lame, or is this just poorly filmed?) The character development seems shallow and leaden, and the conflicts between freedom and fame, etc., etc., are blandly presented and trite. That being said, I did think the casting was really good, particularly for some of the characters whose real-life models are seen later on, in the "special features" section -- they really match up well. Overall, though, this flick was a dud -- it really falls apart at the end and becomes so conventional and emotionally flat that it's really kinda lame. Stick with the documentary, instead.

"The Misfits" (HBO, 2004)
(On public TV)

"A Lawless Street" (1955)
A disappointing, thinly-plotted western, one of the later feature roles for Randolph Scott, an actor I really like, but who often wound up starring in mediocre films. I got this one because someone recommended it in the New York Times, but it didn't live up to their praise. Win some, you lose some.

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