Grade: B

Verdict: As refreshing as a late-summer fling.

Details: Starring Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez and Matthew Davis. Directed by John Stockwell. Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language and brief violence (a fist fight). One hour, 44 minutes.

Rate it: Write your own review

Review: You've never seen waves like the ones in "Blue Crush." Yeah, you might've rented "The Endless Summer." Or still remember the final image from the eerie end-of-the-world Australian film called "The Last Wave." Or the mammoth tidal wave in the clunky end-of-the-world Hollywood movie "Deep Impact." Or even the water-water-everywhere climax of "The Perfect Storm."

But these waves are something else. The overwhelming power and natural beauty of the waves off the coast of Oahu are spectacular in and of themselves, but for "Blue Crush," they've occasionally been techno-enhanced; sometimes, they look almost psychedelic.

As you may have guessed from the trailers, "Blue Crush" is the hot-bod movie of the summer. That's a compliment — this gotta-surf flick is about more than hot bods. It's got a plot; it's got a message; it's got "Mystic Pizza" mixed with "Rocky" mixed with the 21st century version of "Gidget" (sorry, Moon Doggie).

Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth) and her best friends, Eden (Michelle Rodriguez) and Lena (Sanoe Lake), dream about perfect waves, but in reality, they share a dingy beach shack and work as maids at one of the many luxury resorts dotting Oahu's North Shore.

Anne Marie (wasn't that Marlo Thomas' name in "That Girl"?) has two problems. First, she's a major-league surfer who's entered a big surfing competition. The problem? Ever since a life-threatening fall (the movie could be subtitled "Black and Blue Crush"), she's been reluctant to tackle "the pipe" — those gargantuan, dazzling curls of water that are what the surfing contests are all about. Her other problem is raising her younger sister, Penny (Mika Boorem), who wants to hang out with the older surf bums and resents Anne Marie's insistence she study for college.

The guys at the beach alternate from razzing Anne Marie to encouraging her to, most dangerously, trying to cut her off a wave. But she and her pals more than hold their own. When a former boyfriend gets on Anne Marie about surviving the pipe, she replies, "I survived dating you. I can do anything."

Then a pro football team checks in at their hotel. After watching Anne Marie, in full maid regalia, march on the beach to reprimand his slobby but lovable teammate, Leslie (Faizon Love), star quarterback Matt (Matthew Davis) gets interested. Initially, he asks her for surfing lessons for himself, Leslie and the others. But soon Anne Marie is spending more time doing the hot-tub thing in Matt's deluxe suite than she is charging the pipe. Eden angrily accuses her of wimping out, of trading her own identity for that of being a famous guy's girlfriend (of the moment, she implies). And when Anne Marie shows up in a daring black dress Matt bought her, Penny snipes, "Is he going to buy you implants?'

Shrewdly, "Blue Crush" is a boys movie (bodacious babes) as well as a girls' movie (a romance and a just-do-it message). Based on Susan Orlean's Outside magazine article, "Surf Girls of Maui," these "babes" have attitudes to match their, um, arresting outfits. They even have their own language. About the worst thing they can call someone is a "a Barbie."

The guys' roles may not be as good but they have more to work with than Oscar-winner Halle Berry had in "Swordfish." Davis does an interesting mix of hunky semi-pig and bonafide sensitive guy. And stand-up comic Love gives the movie a huge humorous jolt every time he appears.

Kudos to Rodriguez who, having first established herself in "Girlfight," is becoming the resident Jock Queen of Hollywood. The real find is Bosworth, who had a small role in "The Horse Whisperer" and a larger one in "Remember the Titans." She has Julia Stiles' face, Rodriguez's spunky athleticism (she's doubled for the big waves, but that's her on the 12- to 16-footers) and an appealing blend of vulnerability and smart-girl swagger.

Along with "Spider Man," "The Bourne Identity, "Spirit" and a few others, "Blue Crush " is a summer movie I'd gladly sit through again. It's a day at the beach — with air conditioning and popcorn.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution