#The Surfer

[vertigoartgore]

2020's Thor Vol.6 #6 (LGY : #732) page 1. Script by Donny Cates, art by Nic Klein, colors by Matt Wilson and lettering by Joe Sabino.

[krumpkin]

Brad Norris , photo by Russell Ord 😎

[moviesludge]

[ojosespanola]

"The Surfer"

Captured with an iPhone 13

[filmbrainbmb]

New Projector review! Nicolas Cage loses his shirt - and everything else - as The Surfer, which isn't about surfing at all, and more about riding against the current of toxic masculinity. It's every kind of Nic Cage performance all rolled into one very strange, divisive package.

[rogerckeller]

Nicolas Cage just wants to go surfing and a town full of assholes and cult members aren't going to stop him.

The Surfer. 2024.

[raurquiz]

#qepd #JulianMcMahon #rip #actor #VictorVonDoom #DrDoom #FantasticFour    #RiseoftheSilverSurfer #HomeandAway #Profiler #Charmed #NipTuck #Runaways #TheResidence #FBIMostWanted #TheSupremes #TheSurfer #MonsterParty #SwingingSafari #YoureNotYou #Paranoia #FirewithFire #Bait3D

[agentnico]

Top 10 Best Movies of 2025 So Far

Setting aside the scary notion of how swiftly time flies by (wasn’t it Christmas only a month ago??), we have now reached the halfway mark of the moviegoing year. Usually I wouldn’t do a half-of-the-year top ten list, especially as it is usually in the last third of the year when we get all the high calibre Oscar worthy films that all end up annihilating any competition that came in the previous months. However I have really enjoyed this first half, and as such thought I might share my recommendations for them, before they get overshadowed by what is yet to come. That being said, I’m still expecting to see Michael B. Jordan and his very real brother Michael A. Jordan grace the Academy Awards stage early next year, as the No 1 movie on this list I’m certain is one that will be remembered for years to come. Anyway, without further ado, here are y top ten favourite movies of 2025 so far, in reverse order…

10. THE RULE OF JENNY PEN - An odd little horror feature set in a retirement home, where John Lithgow, practising his pre-Dumbledore British accent, is harassing the poor elderly folk with a creepy child puppet. It’s dark, upsetting, uncomfortable, deranged, comedic, horrifying, well-made and well-acted. Minus a narrative plot hole of the retirement home staff being completely blind and oblivious to what is happening, but I’ll give that a pass, as seeing Lithgow maniacally dance to “Knees Up Mother Brown” was pure cinema.

9. 28 YEARS LATER - It’s been a solid year for the horror genre, but not as solid as the oversized genitalia display that Danny Boyle has provided us with the return of his infected undead. The amount of zombie cock you see flapping about helicopter-style in this movie is unreal. But Boyle and returning writer Alex Garland manage to go against sequel cliches by making a post-quarantine allegory for how our species deals with such a society-disrupting emergency, showing us the world through the eyes of children too young to remember the Before Times.

8. THE SURFER - “99 minutes of pure sun-beaten terror” one of the film’s poster tags exclaims, which is actually an accurate description for The Surfer. A simple idea of a man whose need to belong leads him to be sucked into a world of toxic masculinity, gaslighting and madness, and though the film is extremely topical in its satire, it never feels overbearing with its social commentary due to its surreal, paranoid tone. Nicolas Cage is fantastic in this, and surprisingly restrained given the circumstances, seeing how he suffers (or should I say ‘surfers’) through a relentless cascade of harassment, assault and manipulation. As an audience member you feel so frustrated for him throughout, and I don’t think I’ve ever wished for a guy to find a gun more than in this movie.

7. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON - I hate to say it as I totally sense that the nostalgia bait worked a trick on me here, but I generally had a highly enjoyable time with this remake. I think the fact that Dean DeBlois and Gerard Butler both returned makes me feel less guilty, and my negative stance on live-action remakes as a whole hasn’t changed, but HTTYD is probably the best among them. Then again, I also have the feeling the reason this one worked so well was due to John Powell returning to compose the score again, and if you guys remember the music from the original - my gosh it’s a powerful soundtrack! It is thrilling how we are able to live this normally unobtainable experience, as the combination of the music and the stunning visuals allow us to transcend the realms of our imagination and participate in the action. It was inevitable that once that music came back in, no matter what was on screen, I was LIVING in that fantasy realm. 

6. THE MONKEY - I was not the biggest fan of Osgood Perkins’ crime horror from last year Longlegs, so I had my concerns about whether The Monkey was actually a good movie, or just another case of Neon being extremely great at marketing its films. My fears and concerns were all diminished from the very opening scene when a surprise appearance from Adam Scott set the tone, which revealed one key aspect of The Monkey - this is not a horror, it is a comedy. This movie dares to imagine Final Destination if instead of a looming intangible spectre of death it had a dumb little monkey. It’s an extremely, deeply, unfathomably stupid movie, and I mean that as a compliment. 

5. FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES - Speaking of The Monkey riffing on Final Destination, we also had an actual new entry in the latter franchise this year, and somehow, even though this plot has been rehashed six times now, Bloodlines still manages to keep things fun and fresh. It’s evident that Warner Bros. has spilled a little more cash than usual on the budget, with bigger set pieces, more gorier and shocking kills, including a most satisfying kid-being-crushed-by-a-piano kill ever. Plus, the send off to horror screen legend Tony Todd in appropriately emotional and poignant and adds an extra level of depth to what is otherwise a cheese B-movie thriller.

4. FREAKY TALES - With its VHS bargain-bin aesthetic and Kill Bill-style gory revenge sprees, it is very evident that directors Boden and Fleck are fully inspired by the works and mindsets of Quentin Tarantino, Alex Cox, Jim Jarmusch, David Cronenberg, Bruce Lee and even to an extent David Lynch, in that there is a Twin Peaks-level parallel to the reality of late-80s Oakland, in which residents are able to channel a glowing green cosmic energy and develop mysterious skills, such as a basketball player becoming a martial arts master. But the aspect of Freaky Tales that really works for it is that it never feels like it is stealing or copying from its predecessors, but more so paying respect to the grind house schlock genre that was so popular back in the 80s/90s. 

3. MICKEY 17 - What’s better than Robert Pattinson? That’s right - 18 Robert Pattinsons! Bong Joon-Ho’s comedic sci-fi satire on the state of modern capitalism never reaches the heights of some of its other social commentaries from Parasite and Okja, but this is nevertheless a really fun and visually engaging time at the movies, and reiterates one key fact we all already know - we all hate going to work.

2. THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND - Directed by the visionary filmmaker James Griffiths, this film invites us into a world where nostalgia meets whimsy, and love is as complex as the harmonies of the songs that resonate throughout the story. The script is rich with witty banter and heartfelt moments that will have you laughing one minute and reaching for the tissues the next. Tim Key is hilariously laugh-out-loud funny here, giving us some ace dad jokes and pun work, but the movie also stands on its own as a delightful melancholy on the beauty found in the simplicity of human connections. But yes, Tim Key will have you in stitches.

NO 1. FILM OF THE YEAR SO FAR… SINNERS - Surprising absolutely no one is Ryan Coogler’s vampire epic topping this list. Sinners does not reinvent the vampire genre, as the story itself is pretty straightforward (reminiscent of From Dusk Till Dawn), yet it is the execution that makes it stand out. It’s one of the best films I’ve seen in recent memory: energetic, gripping, occasionally funny, with a sharp script, top-tier directing, brilliant performances, and musical ingenuity that stuns scene after scene. It has all the makings of a strong contender for film of the year. Music needs to be mentioned too, as it plays an integral part in driving the core of what Sinners strives to be. The soundtrack is filled with southern blues songs, and it was a pure joy to really lose myself in the feels and motions of the score and singing, and there is a particular sequence about half way into the film that can only be referred to as Coogler’s ‘magnum opus’ moment. This is brilliant filmmaking and the reason why we love movies so much. Now if you don’t mind, I need to go off to reap the corn, leave where I was born, and cut a stout blackthorn to banish ghosts and goblins on the rocky road to Dublin…1, 2, 3, 4, 5!

[visplay]

Chris: The Surfer is an Australian thriller with Nicholas Cage as a man who runs into a bad bunch that won’t let him surf, for thrillers on the beach, Race With the Devil was better and this film meanders a bit and needed a more exciting over the top third act, Watch: Rent.

Richie: I hated this movie, it was all wrong, Avoid.

[billybutcher]

The Surfer

[sherbertilluminated]

Only God Was Above Us | "It's just something people say"

Ice Cream Piano (2, 8) | The Surfer (3) | Prep-School Gangsters (4) | Mary Boone (7) | Pravda (5) | Hope (1, 6)

[jujuistrulyoutrageous]

I have to work tonight, but! tomorrow night, I'm going to see the new Nic Cage flick, The Surfer, and y'all, I'm so excited.

One of my goals for this year is to watch at least one new film a month, not necessarily just released though - I'm giving myself a 12-month window - and this will be for May!

[moviemosaics]

The Surfer

directed by Lorcan Finnegan, 2024

[sorens2015]

smile

[polarhoid]

Ten, cómete esta rata

Disfruté un montón viendo The Surfer. Nicolas Cage es un fenómeno, un especialista cuando personifica hombres que enloquecen, que se desintegran y caen sin resistencia a algún infierno que, en esta historia, se aloja en una playa australiana plagada de surfers alfas, rubios y fornidos.

El argumento es simple y efectivo: un padre derrotado vuelve a su hogar de la infancia para recomponerse. Su deseo se convierte en obsesión, luego, por supuesto, en pesadilla. Cage carga en sus hombros este thriller perturbador pero no está solo: el director Lorcan Finnegan lo cobija con tonos, ritmos y atmósferas claramente extraídas de ese pozo extraño que es el cine australiano de explotación de las décadas 70-80.

Se unen a ese coro -ya potente- el antagonista Julian McMahon, líder carismático [y al mismo tiempo repelente] de una pandilla de chicos muy hombres que se unen en fraternidad para romper la voluntad del protagonista. Y vaya que lo hacen de maravilla. En poco más de una hora y cuarenta presenciamos el salvaje quebrantamiento de un tipo roto al que sólo le faltaba conocer a las personas indicadas que lo invitasen a saltar por el despeñadero. Y qué salto tan perfecto, esquizofrénico e inquietante es The Surfer. Ya es mi película favorita del 2025.