Movie Review: Thomas Campbell’s Newest Flick The Present
chriscotetws
- March 09 2009
- 1,980 views
- 11 comments
I’m a fan of Thomas Campbell. And contrary to popular belief, I can be as irie as the next flannel wearing hippie. I just watched Thomas’ latest film, The Present. I call it a film because it’s shot on film and it looks like film with its beautiful colors and lush textures. Anyway, The Present stays the course of Thomas’ previous films, The Seedling and Sprout—featuring a mix of log sliding, quirky commentary, a jazzy mix of music, and some funny skits. The Present stays true to the log sliding roots it grew from, but adds the spice of Dane Reynolds, Dave Rastovich, and Ry Craike to the mix, which may cause some of the most granola-fueled hippies wanting to ditch their log and blast an air—but wait, that would be against the whole message. Basically, Thomas Campbell’s ethos has always been that of “ride everything”—and this movie pushes that theory. Dane rides fish boards and bodysurfing-handguns, Rasta, Dan Malloy, and Chris Del Moro charge Wiamea and Sunset on Alia boards, Kassia, Devon, and CJ look lovely on some logs on perfect waves at Shipwreck Bay in New Zealand, etc. The mock surf contest hosted by Machado and Dane is my personal highlight and could be one of the funniest surf-flick-skits I’ve ever seen. The music is perfect as well, one of my favorite bands The Mattson 2 are prevalent through the score and it made me so happy.
The Present is one of the best surf films I’ve seen in a long time, and many a shred dog would agree. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trading in my skate shoes for Birkenstocks any time soon, and I will still be riding my … Lost fish and 5’8” Plus One swallowtail on the daily while watching 5’5” 19 ¼ Redux at full blast—but if the conditions call for it, I may have to dust off a log and get irie as f—k thinking about The Present the whole time.—Chris Coté
For more info on The Present, head to trimyourlifeaway.com/home/present/index.html.
»
March 10th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I smell patchouli. When’s the Alex Knost pro spotlight coming out?
March 10th, 2009 at 11:40 am
That’s it, I’m carving an Alaia.
March 10th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Alaia’s are epic, i love picking splinters out of my sack.
March 11th, 2009 at 12:29 am
irie-esscence
March 11th, 2009 at 11:34 am
for how irie it was, it was still a top notch film. definitely more entertaining than sprout or the seedling and not as long and drawn out either
March 11th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I just saw the film in LA last night. It was by far the WORST surf film I have ever seen. The editing was terrible. The filming was terrible. The best part about the movie was 5 minutes of a point going big in Africa. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY ON “THE PRESENT”!!!!! People were leaving the theatre early.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Mom, is that you?
March 12th, 2009 at 10:59 am
what did you expect?
March 12th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Having not seen the film, here is my review, “Once again, Campbell brings us tons and tons and tons of backlit action, uber-golden sun-soaked slo-mos, buttloads of free jazz, baker’s dozens of beards, bodysurfing, pumping, offshore point surf wasted on prematurely embittered (bearded) guys riding 4″2 planks of thrice-recycled particle board, fireside guitar jams of a Jack Johnson ‘chika-chika’ nature AND the funniest sketch comedy since MadTV season 9. In short: epski, classic, career and all-time!”
March 13th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Thomas, you are a legend!!!….Nelly
March 30th, 2009 at 1:14 am
THIS movie was going to suck, but didn’t. Nice saturated colors, plenty of twinnies (right!), and a good variety of surfing. Alex, stay off short boards. It looks way to weird, mate. Hilarious sketch, and, well, Rastovich and Reynolds are bloody mental. Sheilas can surf alright too, for surfers.