This is the latest in the recent series of girl-power movies which on the whole are a welcome development. Blue Crush tries to do for surfing what Love and Basketball and Girlfight did for basketball and boxing.  In each of these movies, young girls drive themselves to excel in sports traditionally dominated by boys.  But Blue Crush is not in the same league as these other films.  You could probably tell me the plot of this movie without any prior knowledge but here goes:  A young woman (Kate Bosworth), who dreams of being the best surfer in the world, must overcome her past (a broken home and a near drowning), and her present (she is bringing up her little sister (Mika Boorem) on her own).  Her two best friends (Michelle Rodriguez and Sanoe Lake) try to keep her on the road to success.  And, of course,  she meets and falls in love with an NFL quarterback (Matt Tolman) who both supports and distracts her from her training for the Pipeline Masters surfing competition.

     There are two things wrong with this movie.  First, there is not one surprising plot twist in the whole movie. Ok, maybe one line. At one point, Bosworth asks Tolman what she should do, he says she should be the woman who doesn't ask a guy what she should do.  I guess he's a very sensitive quarterback. The main problem, however, is that they cast the wrong woman in the lead role. Bosworth hasn't done much acting and it shows.  The person they should have hired for the lead is Rodriguez who burst on the scene as the star of Girlfight.  Here, she gets stuck with the part of her supportive but frustrated friend.  Rodriguez can act rings around Bosworth but mostly she just stands there looking worried in Blue Crush.

     Maybe you are wondering why I went to see Blue Crush, I mean, besides the obvious beach scenery.   I liked the trailer and I was in Hawaii and it was my birthday so it seemed the appropriate thing to do. It was either that or Lilo and Stitch!  The surfing scenes are pretty good but we see flashbacks of Bosworth's near drowning a few too many times. The rest of the cast is OK. Sanoe Lake, an actual surfer-chick (and model) from Hawaii, is quite good in her first role. And Tolman is very good as the sensitive quarterback. The less said about the comic relief provided by his teammates from the ``offensive line", the better.  Rent Girlfight to see how a girl-power movie should be done.  That film and also Love and Basketball (starring Sanaa Lathan) have good scripts, direction and acting.  Rodriguez and Lathan both do a great job in showing that they want to succeed as much as any man. They are cool. Bosworth is just a bit too whiny to be cool.