Review of Newcastle (2008) by Jim C — 04 Jul 2010

The boys, fresh from a day at the beach, wanted to watch a surfing film, and I happened to remember that I had 'Newcastle' in my Netflix streaming queue, so we watched it. I thought it was going to be an Aussie jock version of 'Blue Crush', which wouldn't have been so bad, but it was a far better film than that.

If you just want eye candy, there's PLENTY of that in this film. If you want a deep meaningful relationship with a film, this one might not quite be it, but it's no teeny-bopper bubblegum flick, either.

What it is is a very nicely done coming-of-age-on-an-Australian-beach-in-a-surfer-family pic. Pedestrian, yeah? Right. It has a gay subplot, a love triangle wannabe, and an angst-filled older brother who wasn't QUITE good enough to avoid working the coal docks.

As seems to be the wont of good surf movies, the older brother gets angry, tries to be a bully, and ends up killing himself. But in this particular case, you just say to yourself, "Yep". Then you have a sip of your pop and move on.

I don't know why I liked it as well as I do other than maybe it IS pretty dead on the money. Sometimes, you just don't really give a flying fuck if the bastard dies - especially if he was a bully.

I thought the cast did a great job all around and in that Australian down-to-earth way too, which really appeals to me. And unless you're blind or have recently been castrated, you're going to LOVE the cast of surfers, especially Xavier Samuel.

Yes, please, and make mine a double!