Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Surfwise Movie






















I'd read the running controversy about the Paskowitz movie on San-O Daze and Tubesteak’s Video Blog. The controversy got me interested. That is exactly what Tubesteak said the controversy was supposed to do. On Saturday I headed over to the local theatre for the 8 p.m. showing.

Am I the only one who goes to see documentary films?

Well, at least I got my choice of any seat in the house and no crowd means no disturbances.

56 comments:

Anonymous said...

same thing happened at my theatre. No people and they didn't even open the snack bar. It's a total bust-a-roo.

Anonymous said...

Went to the midnighter at the Laguna Beach cinema. Only other person there was Henry Ford in the very back wearing a trench coat.

Huevos Rancheros said...

Oh no, this is no good. EP Mark Cuban, as you know owns the Dallas Mavericks. Graydon Carter is VF editor. There's so much money.behind Surfwise it'll make your head spin. Who cares how vacant the theatre was in Santa Ana. Surfwise is ained at spots such as DeMoines IA
and Perioa IL. Don't forget Riding Giants folded after a week in San Clemente, which is tantamount to Baker CA. This film will assure the Paskowitz tribe they'll never have to work another day the rest of their life.

Anonymous said...

i showed up at the San Clemente theatre for the midnight matinee but nobody was there but a bunch of homeless drunks and druggies. We did have a good time though.

Anonymous said...

"This film will assure the Paskowitz tribe they'll never have to work another day the rest of their life."

Implying that they actually have worked?????

Anonymous said...

And the Oscar for the Biggest Flop Of All Time goes to: SURFWISE!!!!

Anonymous said...

BEE KAY, DO YOU HAVE TO REGISTER WHEN YOU GO TO THE THEATRE?

Anonymous said...

I have to wear two ankle bracelets so they can track me wherever I go.

Anonymous said...

you piss ant kooks at San-O are just jealous and wish you had been born into the Paskowitz's lucky sperm club. We truly are the first family of surfing and always will be. How'd you like my bare butt? Kinda cute up there on the big screen, ain't it? By the way, the entire clan is showing up for the San-O Oxbow event in our new stretch limo.

Anonymous said...

The only place this pile of crap would draw an audience is the mens centrl jail.

Huevos Rancheros said...

Bee Kay, why are you posting under 'Captive Audience'?

Anonymous said...

this piece of family fluff has made me turn over multiple times. I didn't think it was possible for excrement to stick to film. The doc's butt looks worse than mine and I'm dead.

Anonymous said...

TO: Nuthin from nuthin leaves nuthin.

U Funny!

Anonymous said...

TO: gene siskel from the grave.

Why aren't you writing more reviewS? That's some funny shit.

Huevos Rancheros said...

Well, Pee Wee, Henry Ford was there because they're doing a documentary, much like Surfwise, on his induction into the 'Forever Enshrined' movement at the Hermosa Pier Walk of Fame. You SANO locals are really out of touch.

Anonymous said...

we now have solid proof, Henry is the illegitimate child of Doc Paskowitz.

Anonymous said...

I was there, but I was hiding under the seat because the opening scene is Doc doing exercises, naked.

Anonymous said...

Paul Carter owns Vanity Fair?

Anonymous said...

Confused, sorta, but not really. Paul Carter is the nephew of Graydon Carter, editor.

Anonymous said...

"we all loved Surfwise in Atlanta".

Tubesteak was right again, they can't get enough of this film back there. The Atlanta Surf Possee, yes that's their name, are raving about the film. Look up Surfwise reviews, you won't believe it.

Got a great idea for a new film called "Tubesteak-The Second Coming".

Huevos Rancheros said...

Dr.Cartoon, descriptivly, what really did you see. What I'm trying to say,, thumbs up or thumbs down, and why?

Huevos Rancheros said...

"Bible Belt" we couldn't agree more. 'The Second Coming' starring whom?

Anonymous said...

young Tubesteak would be played by Brad Pitt of course and the elder Tube would be played by Charles Durning. It would be perfect.

Anonymous said...

'Bible Belt' love your stle, btw, are you familiar wIth CSA?

Anonymous said...

we are currently negotiating with Mr. Pitt for the leading role as young Tubesteak. The female lead is being filled by Paris Hilton as Gidget. Hopefully we can get her to wear panties during the shoot.

Anonymous said...

yes I am quite familiar with CSA or Child Support Agency, they have been after me for years to no avail.

Huevos Rancheros said...

Oh Bill, you rascal you....

Anonymous said...

Has anyone on this chat-room heard of the Casting Society of America?

Anonymous said...

just looked them up and they are definitely heavyweights. You have connections do you??

Anonymous said...

We repeat, Dr. Carton, 2 thumbs up or 2 thumbs down. Well, what's the vertdict, anyways?



#8

Anonymous said...

today is Tuesday and you should know that all doctors golf on Tuesday.

Anonymous said...

I absolutely must play the part of Miki Dora in this film. My agent will contact you post haste. By the by, whose is this Tubesteak person anyway and why is he coming back a second time?

Anonymous said...

I'll show you what a second coming is!

Anonymous said...

OB still believes in me and my legend.

Anonymous said...

this has run the gammut, it's time for a new post.

Anonymous said...

you guys have worn out this one. How about a nice article about me?

Anonymous said...

Allen, I'm sure one of the lads can come up with something.

Anonymous said...

A documentary film is a movie that attempts, in some way, to document reality. Even though the scenes are carefully chosen and arranged, they are not scripted, and the people in a documentary film are not actors. Sometimes, a documentary film may rely on voice-over narration to describe what is happening in the footage; in other films, the footage will speak for itself. Often, a documentary film will include interviews with the people in the film.

The earliest film of any sort was a documentary film. These featured single shots of actual events, such as a boat leaving shore, and were referred to as "actuality" films. Other early forms of the documentary film included propaganda films, such as the famous Leni Reifenstahl movie, Triumph of the Will, which made Adolph Hitler appear heroic.

One type of documentary film that became popular in the 1950s was called cinema verité, which is the literal French translation of "cinema truth." Cinema verité is a type of documentary film that includes no narration; the camera simply follows the subject. One famous example of such a film is Don't Look Back a biography film about Bob Dylan, covering his tour of the United Kingdom in 1965.

In recent years, the documentary film genre has become more popular and high profile, though it is still far less popular generally than the action or adventure film genre. Many of today's examples of the documentary film have a political or otherwise controversial agenda, such as An Inconvenient Truth, Super Size Me, and Fahrenheit 911. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, which documented the Bush family's ties to Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden, was the most popular documentary film of all time, with over $228 million US Dollars in ticket sales.

Anonymous said...

This film did not document reality.

Anonymous said...

Oh boy, I loved it. I hope it plays forever and ever.

Anonymous said...

you guys were really on a roll. Good job Sydney.

Sydney Carton, Esquire said...

Well, Scatterbrain, I think that you know the answer, but I will expand on it nonetheless.

The question you need to answer to yourself is: What do you want in exchange for the $15 you plunk down and the 90 minutes of your time sitting in a theatre? If you want air conditioning, you’ll get it watching anything in a theatre. Do you want truth from a documentary? One can seek a slice of truth, a slice of reality, in a documentary, but such truth/reality in any film is an elusive thing.

Reality TV is scripted. News is slanted and often inaccurate. Feature films that purport to be based on a real story take a giant step away from the truth. They are all corrupted from what they might have been because they seek to make money. To do that, the truth takes a far back seat to “entertainment value,” so far in fact, that it isn’t even on the same bus.

Documentaries make their money from being entertainment. This documentary has lots of investors. Investors want their money back and they want a profit. Truth can be boring. Colorful stories and shocking revelations are more entertaining.

The Paskowitz story was promoted as a feature film, a TV series, a reality TV series, and finally, when those deals didn’t make it to the goal line (at least yet), it did get made as a documentary. That journey is not unique to their tale, but the real story, the truth, under such circumstances, always gets distorted. How much is distorted? How much is telling the filmmaker what he wants to hear? How much is saying something entertaining or shocking so that your camera time doesn’t end up on the cutting room floor?

Little bits and pieces of possible truth come out. It’s like the publicity for the film itself. Everyone says something about why they participated. But if you read enough and skip the typical scripted rhetoric of “I wanted to tell their story,” or “when I found out who was involved (writer/director/etc.), I just had to be a part of it,” etc. you find out that Jonathan did it to make money and if he’s not successful in that (Jonathan is no idiot, he knows that his slice of “profits” almost assuredly won’t ever pay him a dime), he will have earned a credit as a producer, and he hopes to parlay that into something more. Why did Juliette participate? To help her son make money and get a producer credit. Those statements of theirs are not pre-packaged rhetoric.

The problem is that with the goal being the making of money, the goal of telling a truthful story gets thrown out like three day old fish.

I agree with various critics that say the reunion at the end is contrived, but without such devices, the director doesn’t get his film to market to make money for the investors so that they or other investors will pay him to make another film.

So, is what you want the straight truth or something else? Entertainment? Did you enjoy Grey Gardens? Lost in La Mancha? The Age of Wal-Mart? Burden of Dreams? If you don’t normally see documentary films, I would suggest that you start with something like Burden of Dreams. It will give you something to compare the others to and it has more pizzazz than most documentaries, even good ones.

But Scatterbrain, didn’t you say that they sent you a DVD and you’ve watched it already? Under those circumstances, adding my opinion would be like the guy who already went over Niagara Falls in a barrel asking me my opinion as to whether he would survive the trip he has already completed.

Fats Flannighan said...

Sydney, this is undoubtedly the best run you or anyone has dished up since I have been part of San-O Daze. Absolute genius!!

Huevos Rancheros said...

Say, Sydney, how do you know all this. Grayden Carter is Editor of VF, one of the other EP owns the Mavericks. An issue ago VF ran a 1/4 page editorial for the film. Those guys aren't San Onofre surfers. It's not easy to get a piece in VF.
You play the crowd. SOSC is not the crowd. SOSC BOD
wasn't happy the family is so successful. Conversly, this is not SHF. I shall be a Paskowitz Family fan forever. Incidently, the Doc sure looks good for someone who's closing in on 100.

Anonymous said...

Tubert von Bleakest, you are definitely a blog baiter and turd stirrer. So you too are in bed with the Paskowitz's and in for a slice. Go figure.

Dr. Ralph said...

I am contemplating a documentary of my own, are you interested in writing the script Sydney?

Huevos Rancheros said...

Mr.O'Rielly, love your show. There's email coming in constantly, the folks think you're cruel, and may be a tall midget.

Anonymous said...

Bleakest, I love your Vblog too. I think we should do lunch. I'll have my people call your people.

Anonymous said...

come on, keep posting, we gotta go for the record.

Anonymous said...

I'm #50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Funny stuff!

Sydney Carton, Esquire said...

I would Doc. There is, of course, the money aspect. How do we bring the real story to the screen and yet the investors get their profits? Are we all not subject to the same corruptions?

Fats Flannighan said...

Sydney, next time your at San-O on the weekend have Dingo flag me down as I have to meet you. You are a true classic.

Dr. Ralph said...

It's that saying, build it and they will come. What do ya think Sydney?

Sydney Carton, Esquire said...

Spin:

That sounds great. I've been trying to meet the guys at San-O Daze, but I seem to show up when they aren't there or the place is closed.

Sydney Carton, Esquire said...

Doc:
We just have to get the money guys on board.

Moon Phase