Waves churn violently, punk-flecked music blares, surfer after surfer amazingly remain glued to their sticks, clichd cut-ins and gimmicky graphic overlays create a right proper “edgy” atmosphere, and as dripping-wet chiseled young man after dripping-wet chiseled young man emerge from the shorebreaks or crack wise on the sand, they unwittingly become eye candy for the ladies (or fellows who swing that way) filling the darkened theater. Just another SoCal surf flick? Judging from the trailer, yes. Filmmaker Josh Pomer was still cutting Destination Point as this went to press. But what's so wrong with another surf flick right now? Hell, at this writing, it's flippin' 90 degrees outside—or at least it feels that hot. (The Doppler 7000 predicts our long winter heat wave will have finally snapped by the time you read this.) Why not indulge in some off-season surf porn? Why not get in the mood for mothballing that winter wetsuit and freeing your board shorts from storage? (Perhaps 59-degree ocean temps?) Look, based on one trailer, there's no way to honestly recommend One Drop Entertainment's latest surf flick over any other surf flick (excluding those gems members of the Brown family make, of course). But Destination does focus on our coast, Hawaii, and “secret spots” in Mexico and Indonesia. It does feature the artistry of Tom Curren, Flea, the Malloy Bros., etc. And it does spare you the snow-porn review you would be reading right here were it not flippin' 90 degrees outside.
Destination Point at the Lido Theatre, 3459 Via Lido, Newport Beach, (877) 636-6566; www.southcoast.com. Thurs., Feb. 23, 7 N 9 p.m. $8.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.