In "Surfer, Dude," Matthew McConaughey plays a shy, brooding physicist whose revolutionary work in the field of quantum mechanics earns him a Nobel Prize.

Just kidding, brah! You'll be totally stoked to learn that McConaughey actually plays Steve Addington, a famous competitive surfer who has just returned to his Malibu home after a successful world tour. His manager (Woody Harrelson) welcomes him back with the news that his board and shorts sponsorship contracts have been sold to Eddie Zarno (Jeffrey Nordling), an ex-surfer turned multimedia mogul. Addington is cool with that until he learns Zarno has big plans for him, including roles in a beach-house reality-TV show and a virtual reality videogame that will simulate his moves.

Addington isn't feeling it, brah. He does his surfing on the ocean, not in the green room. He'd rather chill on the beach with his surfer pals and bikini girls, smoking the funny cigarettes he buys from his mentor, Farmer Bob (Willie Nelson).

His plans go awry when the ocean goes flat. Days turn into weeks with no waves, and Addington finds himself in existential crisis. Should he give in to his manager's urgings and sign on for the TV show and video-game, or continue to fast and forgo the wacky weed in hopes that the killer breaks will return to Malibu?

There's something about the mystical-spiritual aura surrounding surfing that tends to turn most movies on the subject to hippie-dippie mush. (And not only movies, as the recent HBO misfire "John From Cincinnati" proved.) It's hard to buy into Addington's crisis because his single-minded devotion to surfing is so spacey and amorphous. Given the "no waves" plot line, there's actually very little surfing in the movie, making it even more difficult to connect with his dilemma.

The main problem with "Surf-er, Dude" is that it plays like the Matthew McConaughey swimsuit calendar come to life. Director S.R. Bindler, an old friend of the actor's who directed the terrific documentary "Hands on a Hard Body," has cited psychedelic surf movies of the '70s as his influences on this film. Bindler does conjure up some pleasingly retro imagery using 16mm film in lieu of digital video, but his main influence appears to be his co-producer and star.

"Surfer, Dude" is an ode to McConaughey in all his tanned-and-toned golden glory, with his lazy honeydew drawl, shirt allergy and party-guy vibe in full effect. Despite its "analog guy in a digital world" themes and a few amusing moments, this is a lightweight vanity project for hardcore McConaughey fans only.