Customer Reviews

Zen & Zero

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A riveting account of an extraordinary journey from Los Angeles to the heart of Central America in the search of the essence of surfing. Beautiful images, an amazing soundtrack, great surfing, and above all, a fantastic story.

This is a beautiful and unique film, and well worth a look for anyone who is interested in surfing as a sport, an art, or a philosophy or for those who just appreciate beautiful cinematography. That the surfers in it are all Austrians (which is a land-locked country known more for its mountains and chalets, not its aquatic sports) makes it all the more interesting. Where they learned to surf like that, I have no idea (I suspect some, at least, are veteran snowboarders), but they seem to have an incredible passion about it and bring to the sport a quiet, meditative approach that embodies the best of surfing without all the vapid, beach-culture trappings. Highly recommended.

A surf docu-movie with soul. Takes the spirit of surfing to the streets. "Apocalypse Now" storyline meets "Dogtown and Z-boys" filmstyle. Inspriring, honest, entertaining. If you're into surfing, a must see. Heck, even if you're not into surfing.

The reviews here are incredible ! And this film deserves all of them. It is incredible how they were able to go into the inner feelings of a surf trip. I feel like all and I mean all the other surfing films that tried to put a surf trip on the screen failed after watching Zen and Zero. I leave one question ... Why Austrians managed to do that ? This is a real surf art film.

as a non-surfer, i might not be the most qualified person to review the 'surfer film' side of this documentary. but to me, it was less a surf movie and more a movie about getting there; getting to the ultimate place, enjoying the waves, and capturing it all on film in an original and beautiful way. this movie makes you want to get out and try what these guys did, because what they did was more than document surfing. they documented the spiritual side of surfing and the ocean, friendship, and finding the ultimate wave. i highly recomend buying this movie.

Not only is Zen and Zero merely a surf movie. but also a dramatic
film. Excellent footage of surfing and scenery from Mexico through
Central America goes hand-in-hand with meeting the critieria for an
entertaining movie: conflict, humor, and good-looking Austrians. A
must-see for aspiring road-trippers/surfers/adventurers.

A creative surf movie, unlike any you have seen. No surf stars, no radical moves, only ordinary surfers (like me and many others) enjoying the surf trip of their lives.

I'm a big fan of Allan Weisbecker. The concept of this film (following the route that Weisbecker took in his search for captain zero book) was appealing to me. The narrator has a very pleasant voice. Excellent surf footage and beautiful scenery. It's not a "sitting on the edge of your chair" kind of a film, more a rainy day lay around in bed one. I did enjoy it, and am looking forward to watching it again. At the end of it, though, I was kind of like "huh? that's it?" but it'll be interesting to see what I get out of it the next time I watch it!

One of the thing that makes surfing exiting it's the trip itself to your favorite spot. This movie explores that part of surfing with very real and raw situations. It makes you dream and plan similar trips. The film captures very good surf spots combine with real daily adventures. The surfers are not very good but that makes the film more real. The story flows very well and the editing is great. Very interesting photography combining high quality video with 8mm film. Very cool movie and narrator.

I like this kind of film or book anyway, but this was captivating. The movie stands on its own for sure as just a good film, but for me the addition of the surfing theme was the attraction, and then for the ultimate treat we see Weisbecker in his element. If you have read his books and like them, its worth the movie just to see those sections he appears and how surreal it all feels.