Steven Mackintosh 40%

Before there was Notting Hill, The Full Monty and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the fate of the British film industry rested on pictures like Blue Juice. In this amiable comedy, Sean Pertwee plays JC, once the best surfer in the West Country, who is torn between committing to his girlfriend Chloe (a pre-Zorro Catherine Zeta Jones) and travelling round the world to catch the best waves. A visit from his old friends Dean (the drug-dealing party dude), Terry (the boring, grown-up one) and Josh (a bestselling techno producer) proves the catalyst for a decision, when Dean tries to persuade JC to surf the dangerous Boneyard one last time.

Sean Pertwee's career has followed a downward trajectory since playing the lead against the future Mrs. Michael Douglas, Obi Wan Kenobi and the posh dealer Winston of Lock, Stock. It's a shame, as he's very likeable as the vacillating JC, half-wanting to settle down with the girl he loves, but reluctant to grow up and take on adult responsibilities. Ewan MacGregor, despite sporting a dreadful goatee and straight-out-of-Seattle slacker hair, wrings moments of real poignancy from his portrayal of Dean, the manipulative screw-up who can't see how to put his life right. Following right on the heels of Ewan's early 90s fashion disasters, Steven Mackintosh wears a beret (!) while cheerfully ripping off Liam Howlett as the one-time soul fan turned Prodigy-esque techno whizz-kid.

The film suffers from being under-written, borrowing ideas taken from successful surfing movies, but not really knowing what to do with them when it gets there. The script brings the friends together, but then allows them to wander off into their own sub-plots, so that only Dean, JC and Chloe collide in any meaningful sense. For Mackintosh fans, this film hardly uses his range as an actor - and with superstar DJs ruling the music world these days it's hard to see what's wrong with being a hardcore genius, as Josh is clearly meant to be. However, Mackintosh somehow manages to keep you interested. With so much acting talent involved, it's a shame the script predictably ties up every loose end and moral dilemma - but I guess that's what feel-good films are all about.

There are good things aplenty too, though - strong acting from all the cast, Catherine Zeta Jones dressed in whipped cream (for the men...), a comic subplot about "boring" Terry dropping an E and living it up, an unexpectedly convincing rave scene and some reasonably convincing surfing bits (by British standards - Big Wednesday this ain't).

Much against my better judgment, I enjoyed this film. I saw it at a late-night cinema preview, before the critical savaging, and was charmed into liking it despite its obvious flaws. Unlike the sentimental goo of Notting Hill, this picture at least tried to do something a bit different from the Hollywood norm (see Point Break). See it at your own risk.

• Bonuses: pre-Tinseltown Ewan MacGregor and Catherine Z-J, Sean Pertwee (putative BluSh-er), a silver-painted Terry chasing cows while luvved up (if Steven Mack can wear that beret, I can use equally out-of-date slang); Ewan in a wetsuit...
• Weaknesses: Steven's hat (really, there's no need for that kind of thing); Heathcote Williams proving he should stick to the poetry as a mystical surf guru