Sons of Summer
"Sons of Summer" a total bummer.
Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
To me the ultimate surfing movie is Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 classic “Point Break.” I mean no slight against the likes of Bruce Brown’s “The Endless Summer,” John Milius’ “Big Wednesday,” Dana Brown’s “Step into Liquid,” Stacy Peralta’s “Riding Giants” or Michael Apted and Curtis Hanson’s “Chasing Mavericks” – they’re all great – but “Point Break” is the “King of the Beach.”
When a press release for a new surfing flick comes along drawing comparisons between itself and “Point Break” expectations become elevated. Suffice it to say “Sons of Summer” (available in select theaters and on VOD beginning Friday, July 28) can’t rise to the crest of this wave and wipes out big time.
“Sons of Summer” is a 46 years-in-the-making sequel to the early, Aussie Mel Gibson surf vehicle “Summer City” (a movie I’ve admittedly never seen).
Joe Davidson (“Neighbours”) is Sean, the son of Boo (Steve Bisley) who was killed in the first film. Sean grew up hard and often turned to crime in order to survive. He agrees to pull one last job for his surrogate father Pete (Steve Nation) and old friend Rick (Alex Fleri) despite the concerns of his girlfriend Katie (Isabel Lucas, “Daybreakers”). Sean’s target is a Ford Mustang belonging to local gangster Dom (Christopher Pate). Unfortunately for Sean, the Stang’s trunk contains a duffel bag full of heroin. Dom sends his ambitious henchman Frank (Jango Fett himself Temuera Morrison) after Sean to retrieve their belongings. As Frank’s searching for Sean, the young man skips town with surf bros Clay (Jonathan Weir) and Jack (Matoa Boosie) to pay tribute to Boo.
“Sons of Summer” is directed by Clive Fleury (his last film was the 1997 Burt Reynolds vehicle “Big City Blues”) and scripted by Phillip Avalon (he played Robbie here and in “Summer City” and had a hand in penning both flicks) and first-time scribe Greg Clayton. The rust and greenness show in equal measure.
The only actors who really register are Morrison and Lucas … you know … the two you might actually be familiar with. Davidson isn’t terrible – he’s hunky and will get another bite at the apple later this year with Will Gluck’s romantic comedy “Anyone But You” – but his Sean is a profoundly unlikable character who wantonly endangers everyone he supposedly cares about.
I’ll say this for the rest of the performers … as actors they’re really good surfers. The surf sequences are admittedly pretty cool and entertaining, but they’re edited and scored like Skinemax softcore sex scenes … no real surprise here as Fleury has experience with this sort of smut via 1994’s “Fatal Past.”
Despite Morrison being one of the movie’s strongest elements, I do think “Sons of Summer” would’ve worked better had it dropped the gangster genre trappings and focused more upon Sean grappling with his father’s demise, surfing and the correlation between the two. These disparate elements never gel into a cohesive whole and never the twain shall meet. As is “Sons of Summer” is a total bummer.