Surf Nazis Must Die (1987)

The "Surf Nazis" are a gang, except that they rule the waves, not the streets, and they regularly battle with other "surfing gangs". The SN leader, appropriately named Adolf (Barry Brenner), makes his fatal mistake when he guns down a black man named Leroy (Robert Harden). That's because Leroy's tenacious-as-Hell Mama (Gail Neely) vows to avenge his death, and kill as many of the SNs as possible.There's not much of a story here, but director Peter George handles this cult / exploitation picture with more *restraint* than many viewers will expect - or be able to tolerate. Yes, you do expect that a movie with such a title will be more outrageous. In that sense, it *is* a letdown, but it's not without its pleasures. It does have a sense of humour, and some pretty amusing characters, some of whom are named after notorious real life Nazis. (Michael Sonye plays a creep named Mengele, Dawn Wildsmith a vicious female gang member named Eva, etc.) Joel Hile, looking like a reject from "A Clockwork Orange", plays a one handed guy named Hook who's always searching for the next cool gadget to attach to his arm.The cast features a number of B movie perennials such as Sonye, Wildsmith, Bobbie Bresee, and Ted Prior. Lead actor Brenner was a real-life doctor whose three other credits are all in William Lustig films. Neely is such a hoot, and it's not hard to root for her during the finale, especially since she makes a funny sight riding a Harley.Perhaps the coolest element is the atmospheric electronic score composed by Jon McCallum.To give you an indication that "Surf Nazis Must Die" is intended as tongue in cheek, I'll tell you that one actor is billed as "guy who has surfboard stolen and looks into the camera".Six out of 10.

This was a $1.00 blind VHS purchase from Hollywood Video (mainly because Iam such a fan of Troma's "Monster in the Closet") & to be frank....IWANT MY DOLLAR BACK!! What an utterly banal, stupid & nonsensical film this truly is. Hell, I don't even really know where to begin in describing this putrid film which looks like it was shot on a $99.00 budget(complete with ultra amateurish 'acting'). And what's worse, it's not even funny bad either! SNMD takes place in the future sometime after the great "California earthquake". Supposedly the police force is all tied up with restoring order in Los Angles and that leaves the beaches free for roaming gangs of surfer thugs . Let's see..we have, the Samuri gang, the pipe fitters (or whatever their dumb names were) & of course the Surf Nazis. The Surf Nazis all have names like Adolph (the leader-o'vey!) & Eva (his nasty bitch of a whore), Menglea..well you get the picture. We get plenty of surfing scenes, some terribly choreographed "fight" scenes, lots of meaningless filler scenes & very little T & A or sex (the gore is also minimal). The Surf Nazi's allegedly own the waves & the beaches & shakedown the local businesses. So one would think that these lunkheads would be armed with something a tad bit better than knifes & stabbing weapons-NOPE! Anyway, the Surf Nazi's kill a son of a very cantankerous middle-age, overweight, black woman. And so (naturally) we have a Troma-ized re-enactment of "Big Bad Mamma" & her subsequent revenge. She also happens to be the only one in the film smart enough to buy a gun & grenades (get this) from one of the Surf Nazi's main suppliers . The rest of the film continues to wallow in the swamps of absurdity as the viewer logically asks "if these Surf Nazi's are so bad ass, how come they can't dispose of one lone, over-weight, middle age black woman?" and "How come none of these boneheads ever heard of a gun"?Bloodstone's Recommendation: Watch "Surf Nazis Must Die" ONLY if you're suffering from insomnia or you want to lower your IQ ten points.Bloodstone's Rating: 2.0

This film is no better or worse than others have described. It's silly, its corny, we know that already, I mean I knew before even pressing play button..... I have had my fair in strange, extreme, original , unconventinal movies - nevertheless I was never a bad-film fan, I like b-films through the passion of the independent anti-artist, but i haven't done much research in the legendary 'best' bad films...I have to add that I have only seen Toxic avenger 1 from Troma... not much else, but i plan to! I really can't describe the emotions and vibe this films awoke! The perfect musical theme, some kind of early post-electro , pre-techno tune stuck in my mind, this piece of 'art' is not easily labeled as comedy, nor horror. I liked the fact that it doesn't want to be anything much, and it knows its values... Little talking & meanings, lots of wanna-be (?)style , lots of amateurish passion, lots of great synthesizer music (i happen to be one of the hugest fans of them all!) and cheesy (?) editing ....Easily my best bad film, not that I have seen a lot of them, and for what it is worth, it's because of the music ....If you have a somewhat strange humour and happen to like electronic music and 90s synthesizers, give this a try... quite a different take on praising this piece of trash, isn't it??

For, amongst other things, the excellent soundtrack, for having a character called "smeg",for the lush shots of the sky and the bunker area, and for the immortal line "taste some of mommas home cooking Adolf", this films deserves 10 out of 10.I think the films worst enemies were Troma themselves for the misleading cover art and hyping up the title by adding the "must die" part. I think many people will be disappointed because they are taken in by the cover and blurb. Here in Britain the film was originally released simply as "Surf Nazis" and featured a less sensational cover, you knew more what to expect, although the "a clockwork orange for the 1980's" tag line was a bit of a joke.