To begin this review it seems near impossible not to start off on a cynical rant. We've definitely been here before in recent months and Surf's Up certainly seems to have nothing new to offer.

Now that March of the Penguins, Happy Feet and (to a lesser extent) Madagascar are but a faded memory at your local cinema, do we really need yet another film about frolicking flightless birds?

With the likes of Transformers and The Simpsons still packing them in, this is one of the few new alternatives. Thankfully, despite a hugely formulaic plot jam packed with morality madness, its quite enjoyable stuff. Surf's Up mimics a pseudo-documentary and charts the story of how Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) aspires to be like his surfing hero Big Z. Through a sepia-toned recap we learn of Big Z's demise and beginning of an annual competition held in his honour. Eventually Cody manages to qualify for the competition and along the way he challenges current champ Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader) only to get washed up on the shore. Will Cody win the competition? Will he ever learn that teamwork really pays off? And, more importantly, will he remember to wax-on and wax off his surf board?!

Surf's Up is enjoyably disposable at less than ninety minutes in length. There is plenty there to keep the young tykes happy and enough in-jokes to keep their parents satisfied. A real winner, from an adult perspective anyway, is the casting of Jeff Bridges as Geek and the aforementioned Big Z. This is essentially Bridges at his most dude-like since The Big Lebowski. The choice to keep the piece as a pseudo documentary is a little disconcerting at first and maybe lost on the very young but for the most part its straight forward pop references and bodily function jokes ahoy. As mentioned already, the plot is less inspired, suffice to say it robs nearly every known sports cliché from 80's cinema. The music throughout suitably rocks with (old) numbers by Incubus, Pearl Jam and The New Radicals amongst others. Visually the film is stunning. You really need to see this on as big a screen as possible to get the best impact.

Guaranteed, you'll have seen it all before, and done better, but Surf's Up delivers where it counts; it's fun for all the family. And not a tap dancing penguin in sight.

by Conor Flynn