Chasing Mavericks

This is a pretty good movie. I missed the beginning so I don't know all the details but it's basically about this guy, played by Gerard Butler, who's had something go wrong in his life, like he wasn't the surfer he planned to be or something. His life seems pretty good at the point where I jumped in. He has a nice house, a little business customizing surfboards or something, he's got two really nice kids, and smoking hot wife but I guess something went wrong earlier. He has trouble letting other people in and he is constantly agitated.

The other character is named Jay. He's played by Johny Weston. He's not the best actor but he's ok. He reminds me of a Hollister ad with more personality. The whole movie has that sort of surfer dress code that sometimes gets stolen by designers looking to bring expensive "California inspired fashion" back into existence. These clothes look really cool on buff surfer guys and beautiful beach babes and no one else. Plus, these really cool surfer guys and beautiful beach babes wouldn't spend 55$ on a goodie or else they wouldn't really be beach bums.

Anyway, so Jay is trying to surf Mavericks. It's not a competition it's just these big ass waves that come through every once in a while when there's a hurricane and several other factors are just right. So basically the whole movie he's training for these waves with Gerard Butler who keeps making this guy Jay write these essays about what is observation and fear and getting him to hold his breath for four minutes. Jay also deals with this bully character who's introduced as this arch-nemesis type, is in two scenes, does nothing, and leaves. Oh, and he's after this girl who rejects him a bunch of times and then turns out to have been in love with him all along. Such is life.  Oh, and Jay's mom is sort of a failure I think because of the dad. They turn out to get along later. She gets made shift manager and it all turns out ok.

Jay is based on the real life Jay Moriarty. This is not something that I knew going into this movie so when the dude dies all of a sudden during a Gerard Butler voiceover at the end it really got to me. Jay's death is depicted as Johny Weston floating with his arms stretched out like crucified Jesus while the light hits him through the water like ascending Jesus. It's very intense. Then at the very end there's this beach funeral where everyone's on surfboards and, lead by Gerard Butler, shouts "FOR JAY! FOR JAY! FOR JAY!" while pounding on the water with closed fists. It instantly reminded me of the funeral scene from the movie Orange Country when Colin Hank's characters friend dies and they have a funeral at the beach. In addition, it reminded me of the final scene in 300 where the guy in the eyepatch is like "REMEMBER LEONIDAS AND THE BRAVE 300 MEN". It's basically a combination of Orange County and 300 and I found this amusing.

The surfing scenes were really well done. More money went into the surfing scenes than into the script which all these reviewers were quick to point out I guess. I guess they expected something more literary.