Rating: 
Summary: NOT AS GOOD AS FRUIT OF THE VINE
Review: Not so much about skateboarding but rather the entertaining humans loosely attached to the boards, DOG TOWN AND THE Z-BOYS was an audience favorite and winner at Sundance and AFI film fests. Sean Penn is the perfect narrator for skateboarding legend Stacey Peralta's true story about a gang of discarded Venice (CA) kids who revolutionized skateboarding and transformed the culture. In the late 60s and early 70s, skateboarding had gone the way of the Hula-Hoop. And then polyurethane wheels, hi-tech bearings, custom trucks and laminated, curved, surfboard-shaped platforms were custom rigged. And the sport exploded with an aggressive style, awe inspiring moves and intimidating, sometimes cynical, street smarts. This is an affectionate, irreverent look back by the guys who lived and loved it. FRUIT OF THE VINE is an even better film, also nominally about skateboarding. This wonderful vintage footage, shot on Super-8 is dirty, raw, disrespectful and anarchic. At its heart, it's about breaking into private property, cleaning out refuse-filled but otherwise empty swimming pools, and using the tempting concave shells for practicing blissful wall-riding stunts that often end in bone crunching crashes and torn flesh. It's very tribal: enemy territory is claimed and marked, then daring tests of manhood, repetitive, almost trance-inducing coming of age rituals are performed that inevitably involve blood-letting. Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Hands down one of the best skate videos out.
Review: Ok, so I'm over 30 and a skateboarder. Perhaps this is why I liked this movie so much; what can I say I remember a lot of this stuff. If you've been skating for more than a decade and dont want to watch yet another nollie-heelflip to noseslide down a hand rail; don't miss this one.
Rating:
Summary: Great Documentary
Review: I've watched this DVD over and over again, I'm in my mid-30's, a female and my experience with a skateboard was some narrow, plastic thingy I wiped out on in 1977. So why do I like this documentary so much? It's charged, nostalgic, a slice of life from a time I grew up where kids could roam, not wear helmuts, and perhaps get away with a lot more-just be kids. The music was so good and a lot of seaside towns were still funky and not gentrified to the generic death they are today. This film encapsulates all that and makes the subject of the Z-Boys it's heroes (or anti-heroes) of skateboarding in the '70's.This film is well put together without seeming so. I'm amazed at some of the footage recovered like the surfing at the graveyard of the POP pier-yikes! I've never seen that in all the surfing documentaries. They do a nice job too of spending just the right amount of time presenting a bit of history of Venice, Dogtown, the Zephyr shop and skateboarding without ever losing the tempo of the film. The interviews interspersed throughout are great and feel casual and if you think they are "chest-beating" over their part in skateboard history remember that they DID win contests, they WERE in the mags and they DID crash pools, which I think is so funny. Maybe they too are nostalgic for those days and like anybody who recalls their wild teenage years things always look a bit larger than life. Wentzle Ruml's interviews are priceless. And the music. The director's commentary will help you appreciate how hard it is to get music you listened to and paid for years ago for your film. They were so lucky-the bios on Peralta, Adams and Alva are so much fun to watch and driven by Hendrix, Allman Brothers and Zeppelin in a way perfectly timed and suited to each Z-Boy. This, I think, is the reason it's so easy to watch over and over again. Even Tony Alva was quoted in Stecyk's book as saying, "When I skate it's toward the Nugent, Hendrix, Zeppelin style." You gotta love it-everyone wanted to be a rock star. Peralta and his friends have much to be proud of here. If this is perceived as a paean to his group of radical little rats then so be it. Of course extreme sports today make these guys back then look like amateurs but I doubt many others could glean so many photographs and home footage of themselves just fooling around-and doing it with style. And whether some of them are has-beens or not really doesn't matter...most of us are and don't even have anything to show for it. They all seem to still have the spirit within them and credit is due.
Rating:
Summary: Peralta & Penn Rip It Up
Review: A must-see for any high-energy, thrill-seeker no matter if you've ever touched a skateboard or not. After watching the flick, you emerge with an adrenaline rush still pulsating throughout your extremities. The film offers you a first person ride through the minds & experiences of those that shaped & molded skateboarding as its known today. ...A film about making the best out of life, really. Sean Penn narrates by documenting the birth and rise of the sport that sprang forth from the neighborhoods surrounding the decaying Santa Monica Pier in the 1970s. The music kicks...and the footage, well....you gotta see it for yourself...
Rating: 
Summary: Lame... Not worthy of being released on the big screen
Review: Turn it up to 11, here comes the Spinal Tap skateboard team!!!!!!! This movie is billed as a serious documentary of an important subject, yet it is really just a silly scrapbook of a ragtag crew of wayward teens (messing) around in a burned out ghetto. It is laughable that the creators/producers/stars of this film would view their 70's skateboarding days with such importance. Other extreme sports such as snowboarding and bmx would have emerged anyways. The frontside air would have been performed by someone else if Tony Alva did not do it first. Besides, the frontside air is a basic trick. I suppose some skater from the 60's will next make a major movie of their home footage of them inventing 360's and tick tacks and take the credit for inspiring the frontside rodeo. The skateboarding shown is not overly impressive even accounting for the shoddy products of the time. Really, none of the Z-boys had the natural talent of someone like Christian Hosoi or any top skater of the 80's or present. If there really was magic in Venice then there would be top skaters emerging from there since... what?... Eric Dressen? Is the G turn the last trick attributed to Venice? The punk rock thing is over blown also. Skating progressed in the 90's at an extremely fast clip and the preferred music was not generally punk. More emphasis should have been placed on the Friedman quote and how that relates with street skaters over the last 20 years. Can Tony Alva or Jay Adams even ollie onto a ledge? All in all, this movie release is an attempt for some over the hill guys to "cash in on legendary status" and rage at some Hollywood premiere parties. I can't wait for Stacy Peralta's sequel which should be on how Miami Vice styling influenced skateboarding fashion and... CHANGED THE WORLD in the 80's.
Rating:
Summary: Glory Daze
Review: I laughed out loud at the end of this documentary when I realized that "Dogtown" was made by the people it praises. What a silly movie. Full of phony bravado and chest beating, it plays out like the Bruce Springsteen song...... :"boring stories of Glory Days".
The only people that I respected were the machinist and Jay Adams, the guy in prison, who at least admitted what a burnout he was. The rest of the "stars" don't even realize how marginal they have become. Really quite sad. That said, I did enjoy the Del Mar Nationals and the footage of Jay blowing minds to Hendrix.
Rating:
Summary: Long Live The Banana Boarders!
Review: I rented this flick one Friday night figuring it would go down good with a couple of beers. The next thing I knew, it was 1977 again and I was a 10 year old who did stuff on a board that I wouldn't dare do now. Thanks for the trip down amnesia lane, Stacy.
Rating:
Summary: This Movie Rocked!
Review: This was a wonderful movie for the whole family,
it takes you back to the 70's when skateboarding was back at it's pier. It must have been a walk down memory lane for many classic and veteran skateboarders from the 70's.
Stacy Peralta was a wonderful director to make the movie, as in he was a skater then to! So when you watch this movie... Remember one thing, Made By The Skaters,
For the Skaters
Rating:
Summary: If you skate or don't skate....you must witness!
Review: If you don't know about the Legendary Dogtown and Zephyr teams you don't even know yourself. I'm currently 26 years old and started skating back in 1987 at the age of 11. Watching the Z-Boys from my era (the 80's -90's) the Bones Brigade sparked my curiosity in discovering who influenced them. I've heard so many stories now over the years from the older skaters about how the Dogtown skate team changed our world. I read articles and saw photos. But never was able to witness first-hand what was taking place at that time. This documentary is one of the rawest compilations of footage that I've ever seen. Sure, It may be self-congratulatory. But I don't think anyone else besides the actual Dogtown team could actually convey the story more effectively. Words can't explain how beautiful this documentary is. It covers the foundation of modern-day skateboarding beginning with the aggressive so-cal 70's Zephyr surf team weaving in and out of Piers and metal wreckage. To the birth of modern day vertical skateboarding and early street skating, which clearly mimicked the popular 70's surfers individual styles. This movie displays how a once decayed sport such as skateboarding was rejuvenated in the 70's by a group of young teens. But most importantly this is an outstanding educational tool intended for those who skate and those who don't skate. From a skateboarding standpoint this documentary will show you that the trick necessarily doesn't make the man, but style will ultimately separate you from the rest. Style and individualism is something that is almost extinct today amongst skaters. Hopefully a film of this magnitude can save the actual soul of skateboarding. Kids with Eric Koston, Jaime Thomas, and Stevie Williams posters on their wall need to actually view the talent that emerged from this tough neighborhood and gave birth to not only a sport, but a world wide sub-culture and phenomenon that transcends age, race, and gender. This film will make you grab your board and hit the streets or the local park no matter who you are. Thank you Stacey Peralta for enlightening the world and educating the masses about yourself, Jay Adams, and Tony Alva.
Skateboarding is an art. Skateboarding is not a crime.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Boy did this movie take me back!! I began skating in the mid 70's, and the Z Boys (Jay Adams in particular) were my heroes. It was a real blast to see the skaters I remember from way back when. Really gives you the feel of the time and place, and even makes it understandable to people who know nothing about skating. A must see if you are (or were) a skater and well worth seeing even if you're not
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