''Surfer, Dude'' is a 2008 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by S.R. Bindler and starring

Matthew McConaughey Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first succes ...

Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...

claims the film is the most "non-work" he has ever done. McConaughey and Harrelson, who previously appeared together in ''

EDtv ''EDtv'' is a 1999 American satirical comedy film directed by Ron Howard. An adaptation of the Quebecois film '' Louis 19, King of the Airwaves (Louis 19, le roi des ondes)'' (1994), it stars Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrels ...

'', later co-starred in HBO's ''

True Detective ''True Detective'' is an American anthology crime drama television series created and written by Nic Pizzolatto. The series, broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States, premiered on January 12, 2014. Each season of the ...

''.

Premise

''Surfer, Dude'' is the story of Steve Addington, a soul-searching surfer who experiences an

existential crisis In psychology and psychotherapy, existential crises are inner conflicts characterized by the impression that life lacks meaning. Some authors also emphasize confusion about one's personal identity in their definition. Existential crises are acc ...

when no waves come for over a month. While the waves are not arriving, producers are trying to get him to join a reality show. He refuses joining the show because his main focus is surfing and he keeps searching for the waves along the coast of California. The waves end up coming back a month later.

Cast

as Steve Addington *

Alexie Gilmore Alexie Gilmore (born December 11, 1976) is an American actress who starred in ''New Amsterdam'' as Dr. Sara Dillane. She is featured in ''Definitely, Maybe'' and co-starred in ''Surfer, Dude''. Alexie also played the part of Kelly in '' Willow Cr ...

as Danni Martin *

Scott Glenn Theodore Scott Glenn (born January 26) is an American actor. His roles have included Pfc Glenn Kelly in ''Nashville'' (1975), Wes Hightower in '' Urban Cowboy'' (1980), astronaut Alan Shepard in '' The Right Stuff'' (1983), Emmett in '' Silverado ...

as Alister Greenbough *

Jeffrey Nordling Jeffrey Richard Nordling (born March 11, 1962) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jake Manning in ''Once and Again'', Larry Moss in '' 24'', Nick Bolen in ''Desperate Housewives'', and Gordon Klein in '' Big Little Lies'', as wel ...

as Eddie Zarno * Nathan Phillips as Baker Smith *

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of ''Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and ''Stardust'' (1978 ...

as Farmer Bob *

as Jack Mayweather *

Zachary Knighton Zachary Andrew Knighton (born October 25, 1978) is an American actor, most widely known for starring as Dave Rose on the ABC comedy series '' Happy Endings''. Prior to that, he co-starred as Dr. Bryce Varley on ABC's science fiction series ''Fl ...

as Brillo Murphy * Ramón Rodríguez as Lupe La Rosa *

John Terry John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea, the England national team and Aston Villa. He was most recently the assi ...

as Mercer Martin *

Sarah Wright Sarah Fay Wright Olsen (born September 28, 1983) is an American actress. She played Millicent Gergich in a recurring role on ''Parks and Recreation''. Career Wright began her acting career at an early age. When she was 14 years old she became ...

as Stacey *

Todd Stashwick Todd Stashwick is an American actor and writer. He is known for his roles as Dale Malloy on '' The Riches'' and Deacon on '' 12 Monkeys''. Early life and career After performing at several local improvisational theaters, he was hired to tour wi ...

as Vic Hayes * Travis Fimmel as Johnny Doran * K. D. Aubert as April May * Malena Maestas as Jack Mayweather’s Daughter * Anaisa Maestas as Jack Mayweather’s Daughter

Soundtrack

* "Star-Spangled Banner" – Performed by Matthew McConaughey and Blake Neely * "Mother" –

Xavier Rudd Xavier Rudd (born 29 May 1978) is an Australian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist. Several of Rudd's songs incorporate socially conscious themes, such as spirituality, humanity, environmentalism and the rights of Indigen ...

* "Chasing the Dream" – Daniel Heath * "Thump It" – Daniel Heath * "Too Far Away" – Potent * "This Is My Life" – Psideralica * "Este Amor" (carnival version) – Bermudez Triangle * "The High" – Deep Sonic * "No Pants Required" – Nekal B. * "Too Tired to Quit" – Nekal B. * "Hip Hop Misfits" – The Dirty Heads * "Coastline Journey" – Mishka * "Virgin Lust" – Higore * "Run and Play" – Potent * "Come Let Go" – Xavier Rudd * "Fuk It" – Xavier Rudd * "3rd Eye Vision" – Mishka

Reception

The film was critically panned upon release. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, with reviews, the film has a approval rating of . At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has an average score of 16 out of 100 based on reviews from 6 critics. Michael Ordona of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' stated that "The film is awash in doobies and breasts, clichéd cinematic language and clumsy exposition. It's reminiscent of the stoner-culture movies of the late '60s and early '70s but without the naive fun." Stephen Farber of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' dismissed it as " lackluster vanity production."

References

External links

Official site
* * * * 2008 films 2008 comedy films American independent films American comedy films Films scored by Blake Neely Playtone films American surfing films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{2000s-comedy-film-stub