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Big Wednesday

Big Wednesday

Drama · Comedy · 1978

Three 1960s California surfers fool around, drift apart and reunite years later to ride epic waves.

Movie details

Big Wednesday

“A day will come that is like no other... and nothing that happens after will ever be the same.”

1978 Drama · Comedy 2h 0m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.1 / 10

7.6K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

64 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

54 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.9 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Three 1960s California surfers fool around, drift apart and reunite years later to ride epic waves.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Big Wednesday?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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My Girl

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Vada Sultenfuss is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. She is also in love with her English teacher, and joins a poetry class over the summer just to impress him. Thomas J., her best friend, is "allergic to everything", and sticks with Vada despite her hangups. When Vada's father hires Shelly, and begins to fall for her, things take a turn to the worse...

Coupe de Ville

Coupe de Ville

Comedy · 1990

Meet the Libner brothers: Marvin, the oldest, is a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. Buddy, the middle child, is a timid dreamer. Bobby, the youngest, is a handsome rebel in reform school. As kids, they fought a lot and as adults, they barely speak. In the summer of 1963, their tough and eccentric father, Fred, gives them a task: to bring a 1954 Cadillac, bought for their mother, Betty, from Detroit to Miami. As the trip goes on, the three brothers fight and begin to reconnect with each other, while trying to keep the Caddy in mint condition.

The Great Santini

The Great Santini

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Chasing Mavericks

Chasing Mavericks

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Surfer Jay Moriarity sets out to ride the Northern California break known as Mavericks.

Radio Flyer

Radio Flyer

Drama · 1992

A father reminisces about his childhood when he and his younger brother moved to a new town with their mother, her new husband and their dog, Shane. When the younger brother is subjected to physical abuse at the hands of their brutal stepfather, Mike decides to convert their toy trolley, the "Radio Flyer", into a plane to fly him to safety.

Paper Man

Paper Man

Comedy · 2009

A coming-of-middle-age comedy that chronicles the unlikely friendship between failed author Richard Dunne and a Long Island teen who teaches him a thing or two about growing up, all under the disapproving eye of his long-suffering wife and his imaginary Superhero friend.

Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

John Milius

Written by

Dennis Aaberg · John Milius

Jan-Michael Vincent

Jan-Michael Vincent

Matt Johnson

William Katt

William Katt

Jack Barlow

Gary Busey

Gary Busey

Leroy "The Masochist" Smith

Patti D'Arbanville

Patti D'Arbanville

Sally

Lee Purcell

Lee Purcell

Peggy Gordon

Sam Melville

Sam Melville

"Bear"

Reb Brown

Reb Brown

"Enforcer"

Court is in session

Put Big Wednesday on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.