STUDIO: Liongate
RELEASE DATE: June 24, 2008
STARRING: Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, Rob Machado, Kelly Slater, and many more surfers
WRITTEN BY: Dana Brown
DIRECTED BY: Dana Brown
FEATURES: Director Commentary
Deleted Scenes/Alternate Footage
Lets Go Surfing Surf Lessons
Making A Surfboard
Capturing The Wave
Passion For Liquid Dale Webster Interview
3-D Models with Animator Discussion
Interviews
Music Montages

Movies like Step Into Liquid are the reason that High Definition televisions and Blu-Ray players were invented. It's a hynotizing, jaw-dropping documentary about some of the most amazing waves in the world and the people crazy enough to try and ride them into surfing glory. And, as you might imagine, it looks stunning in Blu-Ray. Most of the people who shelled out for the excellent Planet Earth DVD set might like to tell their friends that they watched hours of geographic footage like marching elephants and running carribou, but, if they were honest, they'd admit that they bought it to show off their TV and they've actually watched an hour of it, at most. Blu-Ray has made documentary buyers of so many people who would never sit through anything on the Discovery Channel or PBS. Why? Mother nature is still the best special effects house. And you need no more proof of that than sitting through Step Into Liquid.

Bruce Brown, director Dana Brown's dad, made the seminal surfing doc, The Endless Summer. His son clearly grew up with sand as his crib and waves as his television. He made Endless Summer Revisited and the more recent Dust to Glory, but Step Into Liquid is still his best flick. There's really not much to it in a traditional storytelling sense, but I don't mean that as a criticism. Liquid is a love letter to big waves and the surfers who ride them. Following the boards around the world from Hawaii to Ireland to, believe it or not, Wisconsin, Brown interviews most of the major players in the world of surfing (at the time the film was made in 2002). His film is a simple journey around the world that consists almost entirely of interviews and surfing footage. The talking heads are interesting (why so many surfers just seem like "nice dudes"?) and the wave footage is absolutely stunning, especially in Blu-Ray. The opening of the film includes title cards that emphasize that no stunt men and no special effects were employed in the making of the film. Watching it in High-Def, you'll find that claim hard to believe.

Brown shot Step Into Liquid over two and a half years and around the world. Naturally, he has a lot to say about it. It's a little odd to have a director do a commentary on a documentary that he's already narrating (it's kind of weird to hear the same voice on top of itself) but Brown is amiable enough that he makes it completely work. And Dana's funny. The stories about the personalities and the killer waves - "I thought maybe I was shooting this for insurance purposes" - are great. Blu-Ray is still a little weird in the arena of special features, especially on a visual stunner like Step Into Liquid, because they're usually not in High-Def. There are interesting behind-the-scenes featurettes on Step Into Liquid but watching waves in standard definition on a mini-doc like "Capturing the Wave" after seeing the beauty of the film itself is like going from widescreen color to an old black-and-white TV. It's shocking. Once you get used to it, there is a very impressive collection of special features on Step Into Liquid, including the aforementioned commentary, more surfing footage and interviews, and music montages. If you've ever watched the waves hit the shore and even though about what it would be like to dominate them, check out Step Into Liquid on Blu-Ray. You'll feel like you're on the beach all over again.