"Local Boys" gets many of the technical aspects right (the way that surfers flip their boards over, wax-side-down, when they first get into the water in order to cool the side that has heated up on the trip down, for instance) but fails in the important areas: character and story.
This tale uses a movie-version Southern California surfing culture backdrop for an uninspiring, uncompelling family drama that shortchanges all its main characters. Here we have the 40-ish widowed mom who, after her knight (cop) husband is killed in the line of duty, picks the worst possible men to begin seeing. Why is never explained. We also have her angry young teen son trying to be the man of the family by flaring his nostrils constantly, shouting a lot and finally breaking down in the arms of the surf Obi-Wan (a long board riding "soul surfer" father figure) who teaches the young Jedi to trust his feelings.
Thrown in for further pathos is the emotionally disturbed younger brother who, with his anxiety disorder, really ought to be in professional counseling. There is also an attempt at shoehorning a bit of that "Big Wednesday" vibe in by having our boys hang out with a lovable crew of pot smoking losers. If you don't believe that "Big Wednesday" was an influence on this film, check out the Bear Surfboards shirt Mark Harmon wears towards the end of the film.
There is a long-neglected subplot of seeking revenge against a group of locals ("Da Cleanup Crew" who, strangely enough for SoCal, seem to be Hawaiians) that pops up at the beginning and again at the end, resolved by our heroes with some good natured grand theft auto and impersonation of lifeguards.
Just so we know the tasty male blonde lead is not gay, there is an utterly forced romantic subplot thrown in. Why neither of the attractive halves of this couple is single is ever touched on, allowing a movie-convenient love story to develop. Well, develop isn't the right word. Perhaps "spontaneously appear" is a better turn of phrase.
How mom affords the nice house where the splintered family resides is also not apparent. In fact, there are so many questions raised about money and how our main characters come by it that it begins to feel as fake as "Friends" by the end.
This is a real waste of resources, from the awful score to the decent-by-So-Cal-standards-but-not-amazing-by-Hawaii-standards surfing. For the same amount of money and time invested in this dud, a much better story could have been told utilizing the same elements.
There have been several surf movies released in the last few years: some good ("Blue Crush", "Step Into Liquid"), some not ("Billabong Odyssey", "In God's Hands"). "Local Boys" very seriously resides in the latter category.
This tale uses a movie-version Southern California surfing culture backdrop for an uninspiring, uncompelling family drama that shortchanges all its main characters. Here we have the 40-ish widowed mom who, after her knight (cop) husband is killed in the line of duty, picks the worst possible men to begin seeing. Why is never explained. We also have her angry young teen son trying to be the man of the family by flaring his nostrils constantly, shouting a lot and finally breaking down in the arms of the surf Obi-Wan (a long board riding "soul surfer" father figure) who teaches the young Jedi to trust his feelings.
Thrown in for further pathos is the emotionally disturbed younger brother who, with his anxiety disorder, really ought to be in professional counseling. There is also an attempt at shoehorning a bit of that "Big Wednesday" vibe in by having our boys hang out with a lovable crew of pot smoking losers. If you don't believe that "Big Wednesday" was an influence on this film, check out the Bear Surfboards shirt Mark Harmon wears towards the end of the film.
There is a long-neglected subplot of seeking revenge against a group of locals ("Da Cleanup Crew" who, strangely enough for SoCal, seem to be Hawaiians) that pops up at the beginning and again at the end, resolved by our heroes with some good natured grand theft auto and impersonation of lifeguards.
Just so we know the tasty male blonde lead is not gay, there is an utterly forced romantic subplot thrown in. Why neither of the attractive halves of this couple is single is ever touched on, allowing a movie-convenient love story to develop. Well, develop isn't the right word. Perhaps "spontaneously appear" is a better turn of phrase.
How mom affords the nice house where the splintered family resides is also not apparent. In fact, there are so many questions raised about money and how our main characters come by it that it begins to feel as fake as "Friends" by the end.
This is a real waste of resources, from the awful score to the decent-by-So-Cal-standards-but-not-amazing-by-Hawaii-standards surfing. For the same amount of money and time invested in this dud, a much better story could have been told utilizing the same elements.
There have been several surf movies released in the last few years: some good ("Blue Crush", "Step Into Liquid"), some not ("Billabong Odyssey", "In God's Hands"). "Local Boys" very seriously resides in the latter category.