Chasing Mavericks

 I recently took a trip from New York to Dallas Texas. I looked in the American Way magazine behind my seat before take off and was pleasantly surprised to see Chasing Mavericks as my chosen film for the flight.

Chasing Mavericks is actually based on a true story of Jay Moriarty. When we enter the film Jay is growing up in Santa Cruz and learning to surf with the locals. He soon discovers Mavericks waves, which are freak gigantic waves that only occur in perfect storm conditions. These waves are a bit of legend and when he discovers they exist, he also finds a surfer (Gerald Butler ) who can ride them at the same time. He pleads for Frosty (Butler) to train him to ride Mavericks. When he agrees, a special journey and bond is formed between the two.

The movie really covers the cliches of a kid growing up in California  The bully kid in school. The hot older crush he cant have. The dead beat single mom (Elisabeth Shue) who turns it around. I felt myself rolling my eyes at how well everything worked out for this kid. It was entertaining though and the surf scenes are absolutely beautiful. I am not sure if any CGI was used to film this movie, but it looked real. If was real, what beautiful footage. Some of the surfing scenes in the movie are really amazingly shot. I would love to see a Maverick some day. 

I would compare it to a modern day version of Airborne (1993). It's a light feel good story with a cheesy twist.

Side note: If you haven't seen these surfing movies, you should: Chasing Giants, Point Break. 

1-10: 6 (better than Flight for me!) 

SRC