Film: 
DVD: 
Written by Bruce and Dana Brown
Directed and Narrated by Bruce Brown
Starring Pat O’Connell and Robert “Wingnut” Weaver
Features:
- Surfers’ biographies
- Photo gallery
- Two behind the screen featurettes
- Cast reminisces featurette
- Surferspeak
Released by: Monterey Media.
Rating: PG
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.
My Advice: If you’re a surfer, rent it.
For many, the original Endless Summer is THE surfing movie, capturing the spirit of the sport for all time. However, change is the only constant. Over the years, surfing has become a world cultural phenomena and lucrative industry. So the creator of the original film decided to revisit the concept of traveling the world in search of sun and surf. With two new surfers, Pat O’Connell and Robert “Wingnut” Weaver, the audience travels across the world to Costa Rica, France, South Africa, Australia, and the Fiji Islands searching for the perfect wave.
[ad#longpost]I had a hard time watching The Endless Summer 2. I found my attention constantly wandering to other things. Then I realized why: the waves in all the places they traveled are all the same. They’re…waves. And there are only so many shots you can take of someone paddling out, surfing, and wiping out. I’m sure there must be differences in the various locales and styles, but I and the general viewing audience is going to be too unskilled to notice. Since there is no competition, there’s no drama or tension to add to your viewing.
It’s not that the surfing is shot badly; it just seems to be the same shots over and over again. The travelogue bits in between the surfing are rather silly. They don’t really give a sense of the country you’ve in. They even use the old joke about being in a French restaurant and discovering escargot means snails. This really irritated me since I like escargot. I realize the focus is surfing, but if you’ve going to have filler in the movie, at least have it be better filler than this.
The tunnel vision also affects the two surfers who come across as two-dimensional even thought they’re real people. We don’t even hear people talk; the narrator gives all exposition. How are we supposed to hear their excitement when someone watching the scene off of a screen gives the lines several months later? There was nothing to keep my interest since I’m not a surfing aficionado. That does not make for a good movie.
For features, we get the obligatory bios and photo gallery. There are also two behind the scenes featurettes, one by the makers of the film and one by the film’s distributor, New Line. The style differences are interesting to note: New Line’s featurette being more slick and hi-energy, more like a sales pitch to retailers. Both are not very illuminating, although we do find out that the plane crash seen in the film was not planned and could have been very damaging, especially since they landed in a protected turtle preserve.
The reminiscing featurette has the cast and crew catching up on what they’ve been up to in the ten years since the making of the film. They tell a few anecdotes, fill us in on what they’re doing now and that’s it. Not much to it. Unless you’re into surfing, The Endless Summer 2 really doesn’t have much in it for you.
