Sweet cheese Boogie Board Beach shreds up the waves BY AMY MARTIN
	Boogie Board Beach Written, directed, and starring Quinn Collins | Cherlyl Sproul + Reggie Tellefson + Steve Caouette | Titans of Film | At Bangor Opera House, Biddeford City Theater, Chocolate Church

Films like Starship Troopers 2 and Ghost Ship are meant to be taken seriously, but in actuality are cheesy and stupid. Quinn Collins, writer, actor, and co-producer of Boogie Board Beach, takes his cheesiness seriously without going overboard. There is a line — thin as deli paper — between good cheese and bad cheese in the movie biz. Collins grates his cheese into a perfect gourmet blend.

What’s more laughable than the threat of a sulfuric egg factory taking over a beach that can only to be saved by one man’s ability to steady his boogie board? The best scenes have beach hero Buzz (Collins) and arch-rival Mitch (Reggie Tellefsen) "surfing" in the boogie board competition. The film cuts from footage of the two running into the ocean to obvious digitally enhanced close-ups of "surfing."

The not-so-cheesy universal themes the film successfully mines include the inevitable stage of life that requires you to grow up and secure a job and spouse. Buzz battles the 9-to-5 work week with a desire to live his dream: boogie boarding and beach bumming for all eternity. Meanwhile, his virginal girlfriend, Sandy (Cheryl Sproul), is putting the pressure on to settle down, and poor Buzz just wants to get laid (every man’s quagmire). How can he avoid working for his dad and persuade Sandy to see boogie boarding as a worthy profession? Easy. All he has to do is win the go-cart drag race, blow up the headquarters of the sulfuric egg factory, and win the surf championship.

The film is a charming musical, featuring Maine musicians (see "Beat Report" for a review of the 15-song soundtrack), and Maine comedians. Actually, the whole movie is local, full of familiar locations like Crescent Beach, Higgins Beach, Seacoast Family Fun Park, Schooner Miniature Golf Course, and Bangor Brewer Bowling Lanes. Where else would a hit beach movie be filmed? Maine is the new California.

Amy Martin can be reached at amartin@phx.com