Grind: Critic Reviews

Braying teen sports fantasy.

Far too much of the movie's energy is devoted to rampaging hormones and irritable bowels.

Laughs are virtually nil, despite a plethora of crude attempts at humor: jokes about vomiting, defecating, flatulence, bosomy babes.

About 65 minutes of plot and 30 of slow-mo skating highlights, rather obviously performed by professionals dressed as the characters.

What Grind lacks in cinematic skill, it makes up for in heart, which is what most dudes-in-arms flicks are missing.

A logo-laden celebration of the joys of sponsorship wrapped inside an innocuous teen-pic package.

It's a cheap, half-baked attempt at a summer road-trip comedy.

The skateboarding footage is underwhelming compared to Dogtown.

These characters are so flat, the story line so one-dimensional, that the whole triumph-over-adversity bit just loses its bite after the first five minutes of adversity.

Suitable entertainment for boys too young to shave.

You'd feel sorry for the poor actors if they weren't so perpetually annoying.

If you stay awake, you'll certainly feel more than a little ground down after watching perhaps 15 minutes of skateboard footage padded out with nearly 90 minutes of strenuously unfunny toilet humor.

It looks like junk and even the few laughs there are feel like junk laughs.

Brody and Vogel anchor the cast, portraying likeable, charismatic dudes with a friendship that is genuine and enduring in spite of their differences.

Humourless, hackneyed yawnfest.

Without the charm or irrepressible imagination of the Farrellys or 'American Pie' writer Adam Herz, the filmmakers succeeds only in making their protagonists look like jerks, who well deserve the misfortunes that befall them right up to a happy fadeout.

Manages to capture enough honest moments to make it watchable, but it's never really funny enough to recommend to anyone who's outgrown short pants and kneepads.

Pretty much a complete waste of time.

If you love skateboarding, feel free to rent Grind, hit the mute button and fast forward through anything that doesn't involve a half-pipe.