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Cast: Michael Graziadei, Nia Peeples, Thomas Garner, Rob Moran, Matt Cohen, Dante Basco, Paul McCarthy-Boyington, Cris Judd, Ari Davis
The story of young aspiring professional surfer Ned Blakey. It chronicles the life of Ned as he lives out his dreams, unfortunately his life gets turned upside down and he eventually hits rock bottom. With nowhere to turn Ned finds himself back at where it all began.
There has been some really bad movies about surfing but I am happy to say that "The Outside" isn't one of them. As a young boy it was Ned's mom who he looked up to and she encouraged him to take to the waves at an early age when he was afraid of the unknown part of surfing. Later as Ned becomes a young man he and his buddies take to surfing everyday, it was their lives, their passion and early on everyone could see the talent Ned had including an agent eager to get him a deal in the professional circuit. We are talking about a young man here that has never really had change in his life before, he liked hanging out with this friends and spending time with his girlfriend but signing on to become a professional in the surfing business meant change for him and it was something he had a hard time dealing with. If the pressure of having to leave his girlfriend behind and the temptation that goes along with meeting other women along the way and partying wasn't bad enough for him the unexpected death of his mom during an operation and one of his best friends in a car accident in which Ned was the driver were more than enough to send him on a downward spiral. This is where "The Outside" separates itself from all those other surfing movies, here you have a true story of a young man that seemed to have the world in the palm of his hands, he was going to become rich and famous for doing the thing he loved the most, surfing. But sometimes life throws you some curves and it is how you deal with those obstacles that shape your character and for Ned it tore him apart, he managed to see his whole life turned upside down in a very short time and was a heart-broken and confused young man. The cast was terrific including Nia Peeples, Ari Davis who also wrote and directed the film and Michael Graziadei who you might know from his time spent on the soap opera, "The Young and The Restless", Michael does a terrific job at playing Ned, he brings out all the needed emotions for the character with ease. The story is certainly about surfing, it shows what it takes to compete in the sport both in the physical aspect and the mental as well but the movie is also much more than that. This is a story of a young man that has his world fall apart around him in what seems like an instant and how he manages to to deal with it and get back on his feet and board again. The film is funny at times, emotional and it pulls at the heart strings, this is one surfer film to get "on-board" with and one that leaves a lasting impression long after it is over. A wonderful piece of story-telling mixed with was great surfing scenes, "The Outside" is a film to keep an eye out for when it comes to DVD in July.
Released by Monarch Home Video
**** Out Of *****