The radical true story behind three teenage surfers from Venice Beach, California, who took skateboarding to the extreme and changed the world of sports forever. Stacy Peralta, Tony Alva and Jay Adams are the Z-Boys, a bunch of nobodies until they create a new style of skateboarding that becomes a worldwide phenomenon. But when their hobby becomes a business, the success shreds their friendship.
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Being a skateboarder myself, this movie resonates with me very deeply. This was the movie that got me into skateboarding in the first place, so it holds a very special place in my life. The movie is based on the real-life Zephyr Skateboard Team, consisted of skateboarders and surfers based in Venice, California during the 70's. Although the whole team is portrayed, the movie focuses on the lives of Stacy Peralta, Tony Alva and Jay Adams - their troubled rise to fame, their relationships to each other, and the secondary aspects of their lives.The movie is very well made, they managed to create a skateboarding movie that can appeal to both skateboarders and non-skaters, as there are enough skate scenes to catch the attention of the hardcore crowd, but the story in itself is good enough to hold the general public's attention. That it is a very good feat because it could have been a very goofy movie otherwise. Furthermore, the acting is generally good, the best performances in my opinion belonging to Emile Hirsch as Jay Adams and of course, Heath Ledger as Skip Engblom. Victor Rasuk as Tony Alva came across to me as a little bit forced. The Soundtrack in this movie is great also.Overall, this is a very good movie that appeals to everyone, and at the same time pays tribute to skateboarding's most iconic team. Plot: 5/5 Acting: 4/5 Soundtrack: 5/5Overall: 8/10
It's the 70s. A group of local surfers form a tribe that runs their section of the surf. Skip (Heath Ledger) is a surf shop owner who starts making skateboards with polyurethane wheels. Three kids Stacy Peralta (John Robinson), Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch), and Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk) become famous pioneering stars. They start surfing empty neighborhood pools. Kathy (Nikki Reed) is Tony's sister.This has the energy. It has the music. It has the rebel sensibility. It's a little disorganized. It's hard to know who's the lead at times. Director Catherine Hardwicke has left it very loose. Heath Ledger is eating up the scenes with his weird voice. Emile Hirsch is sort of the center. There are quite a few unknown actors here. It's a very compelling history to begin with. For more insights, one should watch Stacy Peralta's 'Dogtown and Z-Boys'.
I loved this movie. It reminded so much when I grew up then. Skateboarding was the "in" thing. A lot of kids in my neighborhood did it. We would skate the biggest hill on our side of town and it was a challenge to make it all the way down. The music in this movie sets the tone for emotion. I thought Emile Hirsch was very good as Jay Adams in this film as the "bad boy" of the group. I think if you grew up in this time when skateboarding was becoming popular you would relate to it better. This movie was put together quite well and was very entertaining. This is definitely a good watch at least one time. I love the part of the film where they skate all the empty pools. How fun that would have been!
Prior to the Z Boys skateboarding team in the Dogtown part of Santa Monica it wasn't even considered a sport with most of the tricks being more related towards gymnastics. The Z Boys one of the first teams to use polyurethane wheels which allowed them to take their skateboarding to a whole other level then anyone else. They were able to make skateboarding into more of a fast paced and daredevil artform that it's today. Being able to stay on their boards on more types of terrain then ever before. They invented skating empty swimming pools which eventually lead to vert skating being invented. All of the skateboarders of the 1980's like Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain and s on wouldn't have been able to do what they did if it wasn't for Stacy Peralta, Jay Adams and Tony Alva. They were truly the forefathers of modern skateboarding.