{"id":3834,"date":"2024-09-06T02:32:54","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T02:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3834"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:56:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:56:18","slug":"north-shore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/06\/north-shore\/","title":{"rendered":"North Shore"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"North Shore <\/strong>(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: William Phelps\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tim McCanlies and William Phelps\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Richard Stone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Smokler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 14, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Matt Adler, Nia Peeples, John Philbin, Gerry Lopez, Gregory Harrison, Laird Hamilton, Robbie Page, Mark Occhilupo, John Paragon, Rocky Kauanoe, Lokelani Lau, Christina Raines.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $3.8M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0It always gives me pleasure to revisit movies I loved in my misspent youth to discover I still enjoy them. It also gives me pleasure to revisit ones I hated and discover that my opinion has changed. I did not like the surfing drama North Shore<\/strong> when I saw it on cable in summer \u201988. It was one of four movies I missed at theaters the previous summer (the others being Million Dollar Mystery, Benji the Hunted and Who\u2019s That Girl). I found it dull, predictable and uninvolving back then. I never even glanced at it again after that. After seeing positive mention of it on my friend Jeff\u2019s FaceBook page, I decided to give it another whirl. This time I enjoyed the ride.<\/p>\n

\u00a0First, you have to get past the fact that the young protagonist, surfer Rick Kane (Adler, Teen Wolf), is from Arizona. Even if you\u2019ve never looked at a map in your life, you must know there aren\u2019t any oceans in Arizona. Rick does all his surfing in a wave tank. Why he thinks he\u2019s ready to surf the big waves at Hawaii\u2019s North Shore is anybody\u2019s guess, but whatever. In any event, he\u2019s toying with the idea of putting off art school in New York (for which he has a scholarship) to become a professional surfer. To achieve this dream, he takes off to Hawaii for the summer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Lo and behold, Rick quickly learns he\u2019s not as great a surfer as he thought. The ocean isn\u2019t the same as a wave tank. On top of that, he runs afoul of \u201cThe Hui\u201d, a gang of native surfers led by Vince (real life surfer Lopez). After one of them steals Rick\u2019s belongings, it\u2019s made clear he doesn\u2019t belong there. He\u2019s seen as a \u201chaole<\/em>\u201d (a tourist, a mainlander) and should just go home. It\u2019s then he meets Turtle (Philbin, Grandview USA), a sander who introduces him to his boss Chandler (Harrison, Trapper John MD), a shaper and soul surfer who takes Rick under his wing. He agrees to teach him to surf the right way in return for Rick designing a new logo for his brand.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In movies like North Shore<\/strong>, some things are inevitable. One, it\u2019s all going to come down to a big contest where the hero faces the main antagonist. In this case, it\u2019s cocky surfing champ Lance Burkhart (real life surfer Hamilton). Two, Rick will fall for a local girl and get a lot of grief for it. He likes this girl named Kiani (R&B singer Peeples). She\u2019s kind, beautiful and totally into Rick too. The problem is Vince is her cousin and he forbids her from seeing him. Yeah, like she\u2019s going to do that. True love always finds a way.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When it comes to great surfing movies, I\u2019m partial to the original Point Break (also co-starring Philbin). I\u2019ve heard others sing the praises of The Endless Summer and Big Wednesday. North Shore<\/strong>, which has achieved cult status since bombing in theaters in August \u201987 (yet another one-week-wonder), is pretty good. It has some awesome surfing scenes. The cinematography by Peter Smokler perfectly captures the beauty, excitement and majesty of the sport. The soundtrack is pure 80s gold with tunes by Pseudo Echo (\u201cFunky Town\u201d), Chris Isaak (\u201cBlue Hotel\u201d), Lords of the New Church (\u201cM Style\u201d) and Peeples (\u201cBe My Lover\u201d). William Phelps, in his sole feature film credit, keeps it real with plenty of surf lingo and gorgeous Hawaiian locations.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting is better than one would expect. Adler, who does all his own surfing, is a solid leading man even if his character strains credulity. A surfer from Arizona, it still sounds weird. Peeples is a very attractive lady. Actually, she\u2019s gorgeous. Harrison is great as a \u201csoul surfer\u201d, one who surfs for the pleasure of the sport rather than the glory that comes with it. He makes it clear he doesn\u2019t like competitions because they bring out the worst in the human animal. Yet he\u2019s right there to cheer Rick on at the big contest. I really like his character. Lopez, who also played Subotai in 1982\u2019s Conan the Barbarian, does solid work as Vince, the foe who comes to respect Rick by movie\u2019s end. Hamilton is okay as the main antagonist. Several other professional surfers make appearances- e.g. Mark Occhilupo, Robbie Page, Mark Foo, Derek Ho, Hans Hedemann and a few more. Fans will surely appreciate this.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now that I think about it, I can\u2019t think of a single reason to dislike North Shore<\/strong>. Although dated, it\u2019s a nice little movie for teens. Sure, it\u2019s completely formulaic and predictable, but it\u2019s also entertaining and extremely easy on the eyes. I won\u2019t wait another 30 years to revisit North Shore<\/strong>, that\u2019s for sure.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Shore (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: William Phelps\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tim McCanlies and William Phelps\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Richard Stone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Smokler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 14, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Matt Adler, Nia Peeples, John Philbin, Gerry Lopez, Gregory Harrison, Laird Hamilton, Robbie Page, Mark Occhilupo, John Paragon, Rocky Kauanoe, Lokelani Lau, Christina […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-hidden-treasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/North-Shore-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5149,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3834\/revisions\/5149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}