Grind (2003)

Grind is a 2003 American sports comedy film directed by Casey La Scala, written and composed by record producer Ralph Sall and starring Mike Vogel, Vince Vieluf, Adam Brody and Joey Kern as four teenage aspiring amateur skateboarders on a road trip from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California in an attempt to get noticed by pro skateboarding legend, Jimmy Wilson, and get skateboarding sponsorships. The film received negative reviews from film critics and a box-office bomb, grossing $5.1 million against the budget of $6 million.

Plot

After high school graduation, 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 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 units running concurrently. Scala would direct main unit whilst a second unit overseen by Tony Hawk 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 and Bulletproof Records.

Track listing

"Too Bad About Your Girl" [Radio Mix] - 2:56 (The Donnas)

"Boom" - 3:07 (P.O.D.)

"Get Busy" [Clap Your Hands Now Remix] - 4:19 (Sean Paul featuring Fatman Scoop)

"I'm Just a Kid" - 3:18 (Simple Plan)

Ill Kid - Donkey Song -3:30

"Smoke Two Joints" - 2:39 (Sublime)

"Seein' Red" - 3:48 (Unwritten Law)

"No Letting Go" - 3:23 (Wayne Wonder)

"The Jump Off" [Remix] - 4:27 (Lil' Kim featuring Mobb Deep & Mr. Cheeks)

"These Walls" - 4:06 (Trapt)

"Poetic Tragedy" - 3:32 (The Used)

"More Than a Friend" - 4:25 (All Too Much)

"Look What Happened" - 3:07 (Less Than Jake)

"99 Bottles" - 3:27 (SLR Whitestarr)

"Ay Dawg" - 3:06 (Jazze Pha)

"Fly from the Inside" - 3:55 (Shinedown)

"Goin' Down on It" - 4:52 (Hot Action Cop)

"Stupid Little Fellow" - 3:28 (The Peak Show)

"Pitiful" - 3:12 (Blindside)

”Fever for the Flava” - 4:09 (Hot Action Cop)

"Line and Sinker" - 3:36 (Billy Talent)

Release

Warner Bros. Pictures 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 review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 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." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 30 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

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, 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

Official website

Grind at IMDb

Grind at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films