Bruce Brown made (in my book) some of the most entertaining movies ever, most of which happened to be about surfing. Son Dana gives it a college try with mixed results. The quality, subjects, waves and angles of the surfing photography are fantastic. But this is definitely a different experience from Pop's work, which was largely visual (he started out doing them in a hall with live commentary over his video). Dad had cool shots with good instrumental music and frequent light humor. A pleasant 1 1/2 hour interlude with no place it had to be that sort of wrapped up whenever. Step Into is a much more polished, "busier" film -- louder music with vocals, tons of interviews, much more a serious documentary about the surfing life. Problem is, Dana brings some of dad's elements with him (like the constant narration) and I don't think it works as a whole. It doesn't take that much to make me happy with a surfing film, I adore the recent, pure and simple Thicker Than Water (2000). This one just has too much stuff I don't want. I tried watching it again and after a few minutes popped one of dad's old films in the VCR (sorry). Because I can't completely knock a movie that lets Gerry Lopez talk and has Laird Hamilton doing 50 foot waves I give it an 8 out of 10.
Review of Step Into Liquid
