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Riding Giants
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Stacy Peralta
Sam George
Directed by: Stacy Peralta
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 9, 2004
DVD: January 4, 2005
Running Time: 101 minutes, Color
Origin: USA / France
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for brief strong language
Starring Laird John Hamilton, Jeff Clark, Greg Noll, Brian L. Keaulana, Titus Kinimaka, Dave Kalama, and Darrick Doerner
This documentary takes viewers along surfing's timeline, highlighting the group of extraordinary adventurers that emerged: surfers who, not satisfied with the mere recreational and social aspects of the sport, began searching for bigger and bigger waves, pushing the boundaries of performance to explore the "unridden realm." (Sony Pictures Classics)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Dogtown and Z-Boys
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
An exhilarating, often mind-blowing history of surfing.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Staff (Not credited)
A more sober, less in-your-face documentary than Peralta's great skateboarding flick.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
May well be the most thrilling and educational surfing movie ever.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Traces the sport to its Polynesian beginnings, then zooms in on the genesis of 20th- century Southern California surf culture -- the boards, the bikinis, the laid-back cowabunga.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Joe Donnelly
The Maverick's sequence is perhaps Giants' most viscerally exciting and poignant.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Every sport, and every sports film, must have its superman. The role is filled here by Laird Hamilton, who, we are told -- and, more astonishingly, shown -- took "the single most significant ride in surfing history." Seeing is believing.
Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
By land or by sea, there aren't many movies that can move you like that.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Riding Giants is about altogether another reality. The overarching fact about these surfers is the degree of their obsession.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
The risks these guys take seem outlandish, their accomplishments otherworldly.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Giants has SO many insistent high points, in fact, that its breathlessness threatens to turn monotonous.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
For those dazed and dazzled by surf anarchists Noll and Clark, Hamilton comes off as the sport's technocrat, but he boldly goes where no surfer has gone before.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Magnificent if overlong and oddly structured surfing documentary.
Read Full Review >Variety Scott Foundas
Offers a highly engaging immersion into a culture of larger-than-life characters driven by their thrill-seeking instincts.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Benjamin Strong
Peralta has become a more relaxed filmmaker, and when he trusts the haunting sight of a giant wave breaking to speak for itself, the movie reaches the sublime heights of its subject.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Because the waves get progressively higher in Riding Giants, Stacy Peralta's historical surfing documentary, some of that thrill is sustained throughout this overlong but entertaining movie.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
It's a film hopelessly in thrall to the thrill of big-wave surfing, and for all its rambling shapelessness, it conveys that excitement in an infectious, conspiratorial manner.
Read Full Review >Empire Adam Smith
This story is emblematic of the passion, obsession and solitary poetry of surfing.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt
It's the tales from Noll and his mates, now older and chubbier, that give heart to what otherwise could have faded into PBS special-land.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
A breathtaking visual history of big wave surfing. This is vicarious daredevilry at its best.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Every time Riding Giants starts feeling a little too insidery for casual viewers, along comes another, even bigger wave, daring these puny mortals to conquer it.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer
Offers a thrilling, informative history of a sport-subculture.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
Stacy Peralta may think otherwise, but this 101-minute homage to the heroes of surfing is nothing if not a monument to their self-absorption--and to his own. That's probably inevitable.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Peralta includes amazing archival footage to demonstrate just how far surfing in general permeated American popular culture, but also narrows his focus to follow the evolution of the surfboard itself.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis
For those who do enjoy being smacked around by the ocean, for those who thrill to the romance and hype of extreme surfing and dig the outsider aspect of this rarefied culture or at least its marketed cool, this film will likely be their ticket to ride a board by proxy.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Too long by about 20 minutes, and arguably too obsessed with the lineage of names only of interest to other surfers, this is a vicarious kick.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
There is plenty here to enjoy for beach bums and fans of bikinis and six-pack abs, but others are likely to find themselves hopeless wet blankets.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Vince H. gave it an 8:
I wasn't a big fan of Stacy Peralta's "Dogtown & Z-Boys", so needless to say I wasn't expecting much when I went to see this. But I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Peralta has crafted a hugely entertaining and insightful look into the lives and death-defying activities of big wave surfers. He not only makes us understand the risk and danger, but also the pleasure and transcencdence these guys must feel when they catch a big wave. The segment with the endearing Laird Hamilton was my fav.
RayRay gave it a 9:
Simply a spectacular movie. If you've ever experienced a sense of wonder watching a ski movie, a surf video, or a skateboard flick, you'll be pulling your hair out watching some of these guys challenge these faces. The Mavericks sequence is particularly touching. This is truly must-see film in my book.
Chad S. gave it an 8:
As a fan of most major sports, especially baseball, it intrigues me to see the same paradox turn up in "Riding Waves", which is trying to gauge greatness comparisons across generations. You can't call an athlete the greatest-of-all-time; greatest of his/her generation, yes. The advent and ongoing advancement of technology and weight training make for circumstances that are hardly static. Laird Hamilton is the Barry Bonds, and Greg Noll is the Mickey Mantle of surfing. "Riding Waves" is at its apex, comedy-wise, when Noll is talking; and exhiliration-wise, when Hamilton is in action. Stacy Peralta delivers the goods for surfing fanatics, and human interest stories for film fanatics. Peralta's next goal should be to make the definitive, or, at least watchable, dramatic surfing-themed film.
