Following high schoolgraduation, skateboarders Eric Rivers and his best friends, goal-oriented workaholic Dustin Knight and misfit slacker Matt Jensen, have one last summer road trip together to follow their dream of getting noticed by the pro skater legend Jimmy Wilson on his demo tour, hoping he'll sign them up for his renowned team immediately only to be intercepted by Wilson's road manager and barred access. 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. The professional scene doesn't exactly welcome nobody, but these outsiders stick together through extreme misadventures. In their quest to go pro, they meet professional vert skating champions Bucky Lasek, Bob Burnquist and Pierre Luc Gagnon, skate pro Bam Margera and his crew Preston Lacy, Ehren Danger McGhehey and Jason Wee Man Acuña, as well as sexy skate chick Jamie as they grind handrails across America and force the skateboarding world to give 'em a piece of the action.[2]
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 1990's as well as it's 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. [3]
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 unit 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.
A soundtrack consisting of a blend of rock, hip hop and reggae music was released on August 12, 2003, by Atlantic Records.
Release
Warner Bros. 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 Rotten Tomatoes, 8% of 74 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."[4]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave the film a score of 30 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[5]
Joe Laydon, of Variety called the "Skating scenes ... unremarkable and repetitious," concluding that the film was less than good.[citation needed]
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."[6]
