THIS film is a nostalgic look at the birth of skateboarding and the rise in fame of three beach-bum teenagers who changed the sport completely.

The setting is the 70s, when Venice Beach, California, was not the tidy tourist spot it now is. Back then it was dirty, grimy and not a pleasant place to live or to be brought up.

Nicknamed "Dogtown" for that very reason - you had to fight for your place in society. The characters have to struggle to find who they are in an unforgiving and lonely environment.

Three friends, Tony Alva, Stacy Peralta and Jay Adams are pushed out from surfing the rundown Pacific Ocean Pier, and so turn to skateboard competition through Skip (Heath Ledger), the drunken owner of surf shop Zephyrs.

Just a table-top sport, the boys find they can put their own twist to it through the invention of new wheels.

They treat their skateboards like surfboards and start skating in dry swimming pools, attracting the attention of girls and promoters on the way.

The story is interesting and well acted by the boys, however the plot does seem to be somewhat jolty, and it is difficult to understand the timeline and how far ahead the characters now are.

However visually, the camera is fluid and moves along with the characters and their skateboards, rolling along with them and giving even more of an impression of their fast lives. Yet it is also difficult to get close to them as individuals and there are gaps that need to be filled.

In all, if you are interested in skateboarding, this will definitely be the film for you, but if not, you might get slightly lost in it all.

Special features include a "making-of", deleted scene "blooper" reel and an introduction to the film.