In theaters

BLUE CRUSH, directed by John Stockwell, written by Stockwell and Lizzy Weiss, 104 minutes, rated PG-13.

John Stockwell’s new surfing drama, “Blue Crush,” follows a trio of young Hawaiian chambermaids tackling all sorts of waves, from the sudden rush of their own hormones, which are flowing as if it were high tide, to the towering 30-foot variety, on which you’d ride a surfboard and hope for the best.

The film, from a script by Stockwell and Lizzy Weiss, features enough skin to start a tannery, but still, it’s not as trashy as you might think.

Yes, it has its share of booty calls and string bikinis. Yes, there are fistfights, one-night-stands, unfit mothers skipping off to Vegas and enough six-packs to fill up a convenience store cooler. But in the interest of telling a good story and telling it well, the movie strikes a balance with David Henning’s superb water photography, a hip look that reinvigorates the surfer movies of the 1960s, a quick pace, and characters you come to care about.

Who knew?

Based loosely on Susan Orlean’s magazine article, “The Surf Girls of Maui,” “Blue Crush” sets its action on the island of Oahu, where a talented yet frustrated surfer girl named Anne Marie Chadwick (Kate Bosworth) is trying to get her surfing career off the ground. It isn’t easy. Forced to juggle her chambermaid work with raising her kid sister, Penny (Mika Boorem), Anne Marie’s spare time is spent training for the upcoming Pipe Masters competition, a major surfing event that could net her millions in sponsorship fees should she trump the contest – but which also could cost her life should she lose her footing and get sucked out to sea.

Cheering her on are her roommates, Eden (Michelle Rodriguez) and Lena (Sanoe Lake), but even they might not be enough to convince Anne Marie actually to compete. Not only is she still emotionally scarred from a childhood surfing accident, in which she struck her head against a coral reef, but she’s just met Matt (Matthew Davis), a sensitive, super-rich pro quarterback whose fat bank account could offer Anne Marie a life beyond this sand, these waves – and the dirge of cleaning toilets.

As sudsy as all this sounds, “Blue Crush” keeps a lid on what could have become high camp. It plays the material straight and by doing so, it respects its characters, which gets to the real reason the movie works: It doesn’t condescend. Toss into this mix the film’s liveliest character – the ocean – and “Blue Crush” stands as one of the best teen-oriented films to hit in theaters this summer.

Grade: B+

On video and DVD

WE WERE SOLDIERS, written and directed by Randall Wallace, 138 minutes, rated R.

At this point in his career, it’s safe to assume that for Mel Gibson, love is a battlefield.

Teaming again with Randall Wallace, his writer on the Academy Award-winning “Braveheart,” the actor leaves the bloody battlefields of 13th century Scotland to command the troops in the United States’ first protracted battle with the North Vietnamese in 1965.

It’s a performance that comes two years after “The Patriot,” which found Gibson firing at the British in one of 2000’s better films. “We Were Soldiers” is based on the best-selling book by Lt. Gen. Harold Moore and journalist Joseph Galloway. If it proves anything in the context of Gibson’s career, it’s that the actor has the right mix of guts and glory to be effective in a war movie.

As Moore, Gibson is a happily married father of five who’s been chosen to lead the First Battalion of the Seventh Cavalry – the same regiment that Cutter led – into the IA Drang Valley. But without proper preparation or intelligence, he and his 400 men are quickly overwhelmed and outnumbered by thousands of enemy troops.

After a heavy-handed opening that bursts with sentiment, “Soldiers'” tone darkens as each man realizes that few will come away with their lives.

What’s different about “We Were Soldiers” is that it might be the first Vietnam war movie that feels like a World War II movie. Unlike “Apocalypse Now” and “Full Metal Jacket,” there is no politicizing here, no angst, just soldiers standing bravely before the enemy in the face of great odds. That’s a major shift in popular attitude, and whether it comes because the film comes from Wallace, who also wrote “Pearl Harbor,” or because Hollywood feels we’re now far enough removed from the Vietnam war to see it differently, is unclear.

What is clear is this: “We Were Soldiers” is well worth a look.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith’s reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, occasionally on E! Entertainment’s “E! News Weekend,” Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores.

Iris ? B

Joe Somebody ? D

The Rookie ? B+

The Sweetest Thing ? D+

We Were Soldiers ? B+

Birthday Girl ? B

The Business of Strangers ? B

Clockstoppers ? C

In the Bedroom ? A

The New Guy ? D

Showtime ? C+

Deuces Wild ? D-

Lord of the Rings: The

Fellowship of the Ring ? B+

Collateral Damage ? D

Dragonfly ? D

Resident Evil ? C-

Crossroads ? C-

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist: B-

The Time Machine ? D-

Amelie ? A

John Q. ? C-

Pinero ? B

Charlotte Gray ? B+

Hart’s War ? B

The Royal Tenenbaums ?

B+

Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

? B+

Shallow Hal ? C

A Beautiful Mind ? B

Gosford Park ? B+

I Am Sam ? C

The Majestic ? D-

Max Keeble’s Big Move ? B

Orange County ? C-

The Shipping News ? C

Rollerball ? F

Black Hawk Down ? B

Kate & Leopold ? C+

Monster’s Ball ? A

The Mothman Prophecies ?

C

Harry Potter and the

Sorcerer’s Stone ? B 3/4

Sidewalks of New York ? B-

Lantana ? A

Vanilla Sky ? B+

Corky Romano ? D-

From Hell ? C

The Others ? B+

Snow Dogs ? B-

Ocean’s Eleven ? B

Waking Life ? A

Ali ? B+

Not Another Teen Movie ?

C-

Behind Enemy Lines ? C-

No Man’s Land ? A

Black Knight ? F

The Deep End ? A

Domestic Disturbance ? C

The Man Who Wasn’t There

? B+

Mulholland Drive ? A

Spy Game ? C+

Bandits ? D

13 Ghosts ? F

Donnie Darko ? B

K-Pax ? B-

Life as a House ? C

Original Sin ? F

Our Lady of the Assassins ?

B+

Riding in Cars with Boys ?

B-

Training Day ? B-

Heist ? B+

Joy Ride ? B+

Zoolander ? C-

A.I. ? B-

The Last Castle ? C-

Sexy Beast ? B+

Jay and Silent Bob Strike

Back ? F

The Musketeer ? D-

The Taste of Others ? A-

Don’t Say a Word ? C-

Hardball ? C+

O ? B+

Hearts in Atlantis ? B

Life Without Dick ? D

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

? D

Ghost World ? A

Lost & Delirious ? C-

Atlantis: The Lost Empire ?

C

The Curse of the Jade

Scorpion ? B-

Lisa Picard is “Famous” ? B

Kiss of the Dragon ? B-

Rock Star ? B

American Pie 2 ? C+