In Step Into Liquid, director Dana Brown gives us too much tow-in surfing (the latest trend in big-wave riding), too much slo-mo action featuring bikinied surfer chicks, and far too much mawkish commentary about the sport's soulful nature. It tries to update the goofy fun of the world's first big surfing movie -- The Endless Summer, directed by Brown's father, Bruce, in 1966 -- but wipes out on takeoff and spends most of its eighty-eight minutes gasping for air.

ERIK HEDEGAAR
(RS 946, April 29,…

Dana Brown's Step Into Liquid is the best surfing documentary ever made. And that includes 1966's he Endless Summer and its terrific 1994 sequel -- both from Bruce Brown, Dana's father. But even if you never thought of surfing yourself and have no truck with the guilty surfing pleasures on display in the fictional Point Break and Blue Crush, this movie will grab you. For starters, it's drop-dead dazzlingly knockout beautiful. And you don't have to know the names of such star surfers as Laird…