Stuart Nettle July 29, 2010

When Taylor Steele's first film, Momentum, came out it was a smash hit. Steele's recipe for the movie was simple: whack a bunch of hot surfers together, film them, and cut it to a thrash soundtrack. He followed it up a few years later with Momentum 2, where he filmed the same surfers, played the same music, but changed the settings a bit.

Last night I went to see Castles in the Sky, Steele's follow up to his last smash hit, Sipping Jetstreams. The start wasn't at all promising, beginning as it did, with the most hackneyed of introductory tools: the Count Down.

14 surfers. 6 countries 4 cameras 1 film

Errgh....still, I dug deep and found the tolerance to press on and really enjoyed the first ten minutes. This was a prologue and consisted of a raw 'behind the scenes' look at the film and how it was made. People on the screen talked and they interacted with the locals amongst whom they were travelling.

And then the movie began and it was off to the unlikely surf destination of Norway...

Now, rather than give a blow by blow account let me chime in with a few observations. It was 44 years ago that Mike Hynson exclaimed, in Endless Summer, 'We're in Africa!' and so began a trend of surfers travelling to unlikely surf destinations and admitting just how absurd the notion is.

This is a trend that still continues and Steele has picked up on it. Sipping Jetstreams ventured to: Cuba, Morocco, Barbados, Hong Kong, all improbable surf destinations. Yet just sending famous surfers to unlikely places is not a trend that can continue. For one, the world is shrinking, there aren't many of these destinations left. What about the Sea of Tranquility, does it have waves? Better look into it.

The second reason is, well, that was the formula for Sipping Jetstreams. Retaining the same blueprint but changing the backdrops just doesn't cut it anymore. It didn't cut it for Momentum 2 and it doesn't cut it now.

Perhaps if Steele employed a formula whereby people actually spoke on screen, and surfers actually engaged with locals, then the films might have flavours that set them apart. But this doesn't happen. Besides a five line mantra that is repeated a few times no-one speaks in the film. I even had to wait for the credits to see who surfed in each section. Taylor and his writers seem unwilling (or unable) to establish a narrative and by leaving this element bare there was nothing for this viewer to engage with.

Until Rasta comes along that is. Not that he talks mind you, but his surfing was the one thing that stopped me from slumbering. A session of his in an Indian beachbreak is a major highlight. So fluid, yet so powerful. I'm sure there's a Chinese proverb about water being soft yet powerful. I should look it up. It would apply to Rasta.

So there it is, my review on Castles in the Sky.

500 words 60 minutes 2 coffees 1 opinion