Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Zen416 This is by far one of the most entertaining documentaries I've ever seen. While all docs are meant to be educational or enlightening, it's the rare one that amuses you as well and literally takes you somewhere else, like on a mini vacation to exotic locales right from your living room. Dana Brown's narration is wry and informative without being too over the top or wordy, never detracting from the drop dead gorgeous scenery the movie provides as we follow various surfers around the world. There's touches of humor here and there and, while some of the said surfers are certifiably nuts, you don't have to be a long or short boarder to enjoy this film. If you like good alternative tunes, amazing locations such as Malibu, Ireland, Hawai'i etc., then check out this cool little jewel of a documentary.

Angel First off if you're a fan of any of the endless summer movies or others then this movie will be a great addition. Masterfully done, with scenes that make you want to get up and go to the beach. Any junkie of the ocean will be envious of the locations depicted in this film. A great use of expressions via actual spoken word and cinematography, to help people better understand the life of a "surfer". You cannot go wrong with Dana Brown, showing you the beauty of the world and mixing in a system of believes held by surfers around the globe. If you're like most of us than you probably cannot just get up off the couch and visit Maui, but sitting back with drink and watching this film you will have the same experience as being there. Visit's to Australia, Chile, Maui, Ireland, and surprisingly Texas, give a diverse look into surfing around the globe, but the message remains the same. Your loyal Fan, Angel

RNMorton Bruce Brown made (in my book) some of the most entertaining movies ever, most of which happened to be about surfing. Son Dana gives it a college try with mixed results. The quality, subjects, waves and angles of the surfing photography are fantastic. But this is definitely a different experience from Pop's work, which was largely visual (he started out doing them in a hall with live commentary over his video). Dad had cool shots with good instrumental music and frequent light humor. A pleasant 1 1/2 hour interlude with no place it had to be that sort of wrapped up whenever. Step Into is a much more polished, "busier" film -- louder music with vocals, tons of interviews, much more a serious documentary about the surfing life. Problem is, Dana brings some of dad's elements with him (like the constant narration) and I don't think it works as a whole. It doesn't take that much to make me happy with a surfing film, I adore the recent, pure and simple Thicker Than Water (2000). This one just has too much stuff I don't want. I tried watching it again and after a few minutes popped one of dad's old films in the VCR (sorry). Because I can't completely knock a movie that lets Gerry Lopez talk and has Laird Hamilton doing 50 foot waves I give it an 8 out of 10.

Michael DeZubiria Step Into Liquid is one of those rare documentaries about a very specific topic that is able to have a strong effect on the viewer whether or not you can relate much to the topic at hand. That is, in fact, one mark of a good documentary. Touching the Void also does this very well. The original Endless Summer was before my time, although I would have seen it if it wasn't so hard to find, since I was so impressed by Endless Summer II, which I saw when I was in high school. Many of the people that appeared in those movies also appear in Step Into Liquid, enhancing the presentation of the camaraderie that develops between surfing friends.I grew up in southern California, minutes away from the beach, and I've also lived in England, so needless to say I've heard plenty of surfing stereotypes, even just from the fact that I come from California. I never got into surfing much, mostly snorkeling and body-surfing and skim-boarding, but have nevertheless been asked by plenty of Londoners if I make a habit of describing pleasing situations or events with phrases like 'Cowabunga, dude,' or 'Totally tubular,' or if I surf to school. Yes. Of course I do. Everyone in California surfs to school.I didn't expect the movie to approach this topic, but I was hugely impressed by the way it told the stories of so many surfers and then summed it all up by saying that 'real surfers don't say 'Dude.' It turns your attention away from the automatic surfer stereotypes (which, as is also explained, were started in large part by movies like Gidget and Fast Times At Ridgemont High) and shows you why those stereotypes are so shallow and misled.This never really bothered me because I was never the kind of surfer that you think of when you hear these stereotypes or even the word surfer, I was more of a beach bum who was into just about everything else under the sun and on top of the sand except for surfing, mainly because I couldn't afford a surfboard. Step Into Liquid, however, goes to great lengths to show what an intense and moving experience surfing can be, regardless of what the waves are like.I think that the most important function of the documentary is that it shows how something like surfing can bring people together. We see professional surfers being towed into 50 and 60 foot waves and surfing at suicidal speed, but we also see a man traveling to Vietnam with his teenage son, surfing on everything from sand hills to waves less than a foot high while being followed and venerated by hoards of screeching Vietnamese kids. Then you have a group of guys who go surfing in Scotland, of all places, and bring together kids from northern Scotland with kids from southern Scotland, which are separated almost to the point of being separate countries along religious lines, with Catholics in the north and Protestants in the south (unless it's the other way around).From a technical standpoint, I was most impressed with the extent of the effect that they were able to achieve through the almost constant use of slow motion (so much for 'no special effects…') and the outstanding musical selection on the soundtrack. As a novice filmmaker myself, I love to see such simple effects as blending slow motion with certain music, because it has such a strong effect and is something that I've used myself dozens of times. This is the kind of movie that makes me want to be a documentary filmmaker.