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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

This Wave totally worth catching

By: Randall King

Posted: 07/9/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Surfer Kelly Slater at Tahiti's notorious Teahupo'o reef.

Given that Portage Place's IMAX theatre is now in competition with the new IMAX auditorium at Polo Park Silver City, the downtown venue has a daunting task going up against box office behemoth Transformers: Dark of the Moon with another of its under-an-hour nature docs.

But for what it's worth, the newly arrived The Ultimate Wave Tahiti is an altogether more satisfying experience. There's no two-and-a-half-hour running time, no John Turturro scenery-chewing, and instead of headache-inducing sounds of crunching metal, you get a soundtrack of crashing waves and surf guitar.

Movie review

The Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D

Starring Kelly Slater

IMAX Portage Place

45 minutes

3.5 out of five

The film by IMAX doc stalwart Stephen Low follows master surfer Kelly Slater to the isle of Tahiti where, hosted by fellow surfer (and Tahiti native) Raimana Van Bastolaer, he awaits some killer waves along the famed (to surfers at any rate) Teahupo'o reef.

That's pretty much it for story, but Low manages to get some excellent footage. When he's not surfing, Kelly Slater has as much screen personality as a manta ray, but on his surfboard, he's a formidable athlete. His feet might as well be glued to that board as he shoots the curl with the kind of uncanny balance that would make the most sure-footed mountain goat look like Inspector Clouseau.

The film has an unexpected scientific component as well, deconstructing the dynamics of ocean waves with striking computer graphics that explicate physics and geology so much more vividly than your average high school teacher.

Add in some Polynesian fire dancing, striking footage of the reef's sea life and some impressive footage taken from the tip of miscellaneous surfboards, and you have a movie that will, in its 45 minutes, put a smile of your face more often than the 150-minute entirety of Transformers.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 9, 2011 G8

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