Grind (2003 Film)
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''Grind'' is a 2003 American
skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...
comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
directed by Casey La Scala, written and composed by record producer
Ralph Sall Ralph Sall is an American record producer, music supervisor, composer, songwriter and screenwriter. He is the president of Bulletproof Entertainment, a company involved in several facets of the entertainment industry, including film, televisio ...
, starring Mike Vogel, Vince Vieluf,
Adam Brody Adam Jared Brody (born December 15, 1979) is an American actor. His breakout role was as Seth Cohen on the Fox television series '' The O.C.'' (2003–2007). For his performance as Noah in the Netflix romantic comedy series '' Nobody Wants T ...
and Joey Kern as four teenage aspiring amateur skateboarders on a road trip from
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
to
Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
in an attempt to get noticed by pro skateboarding legend, Jimmy Wilson, and get skateboarding sponsorships. It was a critical and box-office bomb.


Plot

After
high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
graduation A graduation is the awarding of a diploma by an educational institution. It may also refer to the ceremony that is associated with it, which can also be called Commencement speech, commencement, Congregation (university), congregation, Convocat ...
, skateboarder friends, Eric Rivers, Dustin Knight, and, Matt Jensen, take one last Summer road trip together, with the goal of getting noticed by pro skater legend, Jimmy Wilson, on his demo tour. Following their dreams and Wilson's national tour, the trio start their own skate team, reluctantly sponsored by Dustin and his college fund. After recruiting laid-back ladies man, "Sweet" Lou Singer to join their crew and provide the van for their tour, team Super Duper launches the ride of their lives in an outrageous road trip from Chicago to Santa Monica. In their quest to go pro, they meet professional skateboarders, Bucky Lasek, Bob Burnquist and Pierre Luc Gagnon, as well as Bam Margera and his crew; Preston Lacy, Ehren "Danger" McGhehey, and Jason "Wee Man" Acuña. Together with skater girl, Jamie, they'll grind handrails across America and force the skateboarding world to give 'em a piece of the action.


Cast


Production

Director and producer Casey La Scala grew up during the period of Dogtown Skating and credited it as being integral to his childhood. Following the resurgence of skateboarding popularity with the evolution of Street Skating in the 1990s as well as its role in the popular '' Jackass'' TV series, he was inspired to make a film about his experiences growing up in the skateboarding scene. He decided to make it a comedy inspired by the films he grew up with, particularly '' National Lampoon's Animal House'' and '' Revenge of the Nerds'' with the latter inspiring him to cast actor
Donald Gibb Donald Richard Gibb (born August 4, 1954) is an American actor, best known for his roles as the hulking, dimwitted fraternity brother Ogre in several installments of the '' Revenge of the Nerds'' film series, as Kumite fighter Ray Jackson in '' ...
as the "Scabby Security Guy". Though Scala was not typically one to find himself starstruck, Gibb proved to be an exception to this. Initially, Scala was inspired to make the film as a comedic mockumentary inspired by '' This is Spinal Tap''. As the script began to evolve, he opted instead to let it evolve into a more conventional narrative piece. The film entered production with a very loose script which featured a large amount of improvised dialogue and material that was created through "writing stuff in the car" on the way to set. He encouraged his cast and crew to "shoot what we have on the page" and then "just have fun with it". Due to budgetary limitations, ''Grind'' was shot with two unit running concurrently. Scala would direct main unit whilst a second unit overseen by
Tony Hawk Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first docume ...
was setting up before skateboarding over to second unit to direct whilst the first unit would then set up for its next shot. He credits this style of directing with being able to keep the film on schedule and within the parameters of its small budget, as well as allowing him to accomplish up to 27 setups in a single filming day. The cast, however, were not allowed to skate on set due to the risk of production losing them to injuries as a result of them constantly attempting to land Ollies. Despite this, Scala claims the cast still became very good skaters by the end of filming. During filming of '' Mr. & Mrs. Smith'', Adam Brody contacted Scala to tell him that Brad Pitt had allegedly claimed ''Grind'' to be his favourite movie.


Soundtrack

A soundtrack consisting of a blend of rock, hip hop and reggae music was released on August 12, 2003, by
Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...
.


Release

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
were hesitant to give ''Grind'' a wide release due to uncertainty regarding how popular the skateboarding scene was and the absence of major stars in leading roles. However, both test screenings received a highly positive response encouraging Warner Bros. to give it a wide release in 2,253 theatres on August 15, 2003. The film ultimately opened in tenth place with a disappointing weekend gross of $1,079,295, facing stiff competition from '' Freddy vs. Jason'' and '' S.W.A.T''. It ultimately grossed $5,123,696 domestically and $17,470 internationally, completing its run with a total worldwide gross of $5,141,166. It would later find a much larger audience on DVD.


Critical response

On the
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website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...
, 8% of 72 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Mediocre skateboard stunts are padded by a half-baked plot and one-dimensional characters." Joe Laydon, of '' Variety'' called the "Skating scenes ... unremarkable and repetitious," concluding that the film was less than good. Keith Phipps, for ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'', said "The film ... will gleam the cube only of viewers with an unusually high tolerance for porta-toilet and Dutch-oven gags."


References


External links

* * * {{AFI film 2003 films American comedy road movies 2000s buddy comedy films 2000s sports comedy films 2003 directorial debut films American buddy comedy films American sports comedy films Warner Bros. films Skateboarding films 2000s comedy road movies American high school films 2003 comedy films American teen comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films Films scored by Ralph Sall English-language buddy comedy films English-language sports comedy films