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List Price: $29.98 | | Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Salesrank: 11622
Released: December 30, 2008 |
| Our Price: $9.98 |
| Used Price: $0.94 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Longboarding soul surfer Steve Addington (Matthew McConaughey) returns to Malibu to spend his summer surfing his home break. But the waves go flat, and his sponsorship deal turns south. Aided by his manager (Woody Harrelson), his mentor (Scott Glenn), his guardian angel (Willie Nelson), and his summer lover (Alexie Gilmore), Addington has a chance of keeping his cool, but it’s not going to be easy. The dude needs a wave, and there’s never been a drought like this.
Special Features:
Surfer, Dude: The Real Story featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes footage
Deleted Scenes
The Complete Surfer, Dude 12-Webisode Series
Audio Commentary with Matthew McConaughey
Description of Surfer, Dude:
It’s hard to say just what the target audience for Surfer, Dude is. Maybe surfers--except that since the storyline involves one of the longest big wave droughts in Malibu history, there’s actually precious little surfing to be seen. Probably stoners--not only does the cast include noted herbivores Willie Nelson and Woody Harrelson, but many of the rest of the actors are rarely, if ever, seen without a joint dangling from their mouths. Definitely Matthew McConaughey fans, especially the female kind--as pro surfer icon Steve Addington, McConaughey spends approximately 99% of the movie shirtless. Slight but entertaining, director/co-writer S.R. Bindler’s film finds Addington returning to SoCal following a six-month surfing tour of the world. He soon finds out that things have changed. He still has his manager (Harrelson), but smarmy new sponsor Eddie Zarno (Jeffrey Nordling) wants Steve to appear in a reality TV show and be the model for “Free Surfer,” Zarno’s new “first person immersion video game.” But Steve’s not into it, brah. All he wants to do is surf, get high, and chase women, but when the former dries up for months on end, he decides to forego the other two until the waves return. Meanwhile, the dastardly Zarno re-edits some interview footage to make Addington look bad, whereupon Zarno’s cute East Coast assistant (Alexie Gilmore) quits and takes up with Steve, who plots (sort of) his revenge against the bad guy. It’s all pretty flimsy, occasionally amusing, filled with soft-core female nudity and, you know, like, stoked. --Sam Graham
Stills from Surfer, Dude (Click for larger image)
Beyond Surfer, Dude
Surfer, Dude + Digital Copy [Blu-ray] | 
More from Matthew McConaughey - Fool's Gold (Widescreen Edition) | 
More from Anchor Bay - Henry Poole Is Here |
Surfer, Dude Reviews:
Underrated movie 
2009-11-28 - I can only guess the studio didn't promote this movie because it's a solid movie. The directing and editing are fine, and I thought the actors sold their parts. I haven't been this moved by a movie since "Vanilla Sky". Someday you'll stumble across it on cable and I really think you'll enjoy it.
something's bogus, dudes 
2009-08-02 - This is a simple film, not made to be dissected, competed with or watched for the plot or action. it provides a little taste of SoCal that is partly mythical and partly disappearing and for that alone i loved it.
there's something wholesome about the film, left me feeling good which does not happen too often for me, and almost never with the large commercial blockbusters. to see Willie Nelson's smile, that alone was worth waiting for. mcConnaughey does a good job, as does Harrelson & most of the crew.
in other words, this is not about surfing. it is about friendship and about knowing what you love. and that was inspiring.
Wife Loves it
2009-07-01 - Bought the DVD for my wife. She has been watching the whole thing, the movie, outtakes, interviews. Package came in quickly and looks like new. Great deal.
Zen Surf and The Art of Doobie
2009-05-16 - Dudes, comparisons to Spicoli aside, this is a unique little comedy about the religious philosophy of Wake 'n' Bake Surf Culture. Matthew McConaughey is absolutely brilliant as So Cal surf legend Steve Addington. A modern day stoner Buddha seeking enlightenment thru the meditation of carving waves, riding girls, and sipping doobage. McConaughey walks thru almost the entire film shirtless and barefooted, wearing only a pair of baggies. Even when McConaughey is just walking down the street, he's surfing. He's like a fish out of water, brah. His swaggering swaybacked bowlegged performance is fully righteous. And, totally funny. (Not quite, but almost as good as his role as Wooderson in DAZED AND CONFUSED.) His performance is DEAD ON TUBULAR. (Ladies, you're gonna want his bod.)
Obviously, this film is not for everyone. But, this short comedy is rife with religious and aesthetic symbolism. I was stoked by its heaviosity, brah.
Like an aesthetic Christ, The Addman is a free spirited surfer, baptized in The Ocean, who cares nothing for the material world of money and fame. He seeks only religious adoration and worship of God thru The Living Wave, The Sacramental smoke of The Wisdom Weed, and The Unification of The One Body thru sexual concourse with chicks. Upon returning home after being away from Cali on a surfing sojourn, Addington is tempted by The Devil into a starring role on a TV Reality Show about surfers, ala Big Brother, and a chance to profit from his digital image in a virtual reality game called FREE SURFER. Representing Lucifer, ex-surfer and evil TV producer Eddie Zarno (Jeffrey Nordling) entices The Addman with a totally humongous bag of sheckles. "We own his image. And his image is reality." But, Addington is hip to the fact that the illusion is transitory and meaningless. While contemplating a monitor of virtual tropical fish in Zarno's beachhouse studio, The Addman poses this saltwatery Zen koan: "Something's wrong with these fish, dude." No way, brah. The Addman refuses to sell his soul to The Devil for material gain. "I'm not some _ssclown in a greenroom. I'm a surfer, dude."
For what does it profit a dude to gain the world, and lose his wave?
The Devil metaphorically breaks The Addman's skeg, and there is a sudden drought of waves. "Something's bogus, dudes." Totally like Christ, The Addman wanders the desert beaches in prayer, for MORE than 40 days and nights, fasting from the pleasures of The Scented Lotus Blossom and the sustenance of The Good Green, until God's return on The Waves of Everlasting Life Giving Water. It's The Addman's Dark Night of The Soul, man. BRAH?! Why hast thou forsaken, dude?!
Willie Nelson as John The Baptist, who passes his shepherd's rod to The Addman. Will Addington become The Good Shepherd of The Goats? Yay, though I surf through the barrel of the shadow of death I will fear no shark infested waters, for thy rod and thy board they confront me, dude.
Who else but Woody Harrelson, as The Apostle Peter and The Addman's dope smoking manager? "We got financial worries, brah."
Will the Addman sacrifice himself on The Cross of Virtual Surfboard to save the souls of his brahs? You grommets should ask yourselves only one question: WHAT WOULD THE ADDMAN DO?
A perfect Double Feature alongside Swayze's POINT BREAK. Funny, symbolic, and full of topless chicks and bud. (Bitchin'!) This film is defintely worth the rent for Matthew McConaughey's performance, and for all the stoner surfer aesthetes out there. It's like THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST for surfers, dude. Hodads, landlubbers, and non-philosophers might want to avoid this one.
"Love and waves, that's what we need in these dark days."
Whoa!
Quite possibly the worst movie ever filmed. 
2009-05-12 - I wish I had spent my time paying the kid down the street to hit me really hard with a board over and over again than watch this movie.
Here's a suggestion to anyone trying to make a movie: have a plot.
The only entertaining thing about this movie is the laugh I got at reading about everyone else's horror as well. I would rather face a firing squad than watch this movie ever again.
