Went to go see the movie on Sunday. My parents happened to be in town and my two sons (8 & 9) were both pretty bored so I decided to pull the trigger check it out.
I read some of the reviews...basically that Hollywood got it wrong again and that there were a lot of cliche's. None of that registered at all for my boys or my parents who have watched "hard core" surf videos with me over the years. Everyone, including myself enjoyed seeing Mavericks on the big screen, the footage was pretty damn good.
I did not know they would cover that fact that Jay had passed away in the film. When they did the paddle out for him and spread his ashes it definitely caught me off guard and reminded me of my brother's paddle out a few years back, got me to choke up a bit.
I guess the best part of the whole experience was that as soon as we got home, my boys wanted to pull out all my boards, practice paddling and popping and they kept asking when they were going to be able to go surfing next. I never got to see surf movies on the big screen until after I has been surfing for a number of years. The fact that my kids got to see a movie like that in the theater had them super stoked. My oldest boy wrote an essay about the movie in class today and he had most of the class gathered around him to hear about the movie.
So for me...two thumbs up. I got to watch the story of a surfer I had always admired, I got to see some great camera shots of the wave and my boys want to be big wave chargers now. What more can I ask for from a movie like that.