Surf Nazis Must Die

With a name like Surf Nazis Must Die, a film shouldn?t be allowed to be anything less than a gory, B-movie slasher flick, with some surfing thrown in for fun. But its not, nor does it pretend to be. In fact, I don?t think the idea even entered its mind. So what is it then? Well, first off and strange as it may seem, I actually think that it is trying to be serious. How, with a name like that, it can I don?t know but it certainly tries very hard. My only answer was that the film is someone else's genuine attempts at a serious film (well, as close to one as possible) and, shortly before release, some joker slapped on the comedy title.

Right, so what is it about then? Well, the title gives that one away! Its about some surfers, who are Nazis and must die. Simple really. The setup seems to be a quasi-post-apocalyptic one, although this is brushed aside in favour of some surfing shots. California?s been hit by an earthquake leaving some 80,000 people dead and many more homeless. With any and all potential authorities absent (obviously the earthquake got ?em good) the beach is up for grabs by the multitude of surf gangs who live/surf there.

Most ambitious of them are the Surf Nazis, a group of surf supremacists who believe that the beach is their and only theirs. Naturally, leader of the Surf Nazis is called Adolf, who is accompanied by his faithful gang cribbed from the history books - Eva, Mengler, Hook (can?t say I remember a Herr Hook from the World at War, but I?m sure he was there somewhere) and a few random henchmen. They maintain their supremacy of the beach by killing everyone else who tries to use it - the so called ?Final Solution.?

Now at first I thought this might be a film with different layers, using the mix of people on a beach as a clever metaphor for the Second World War, superimposing the political set up of the 30s and 40s on a gang culture. But no, as can be seen from the other gangs who share the beach with the Nazis - the Samurai Surfers stick out especially. Of course, this becomes irrelevant as they are all casually (and brutally) culled in a variety of nasty ways by the Surf Nazis.

The true heroine of the piece is Eleanor, or ?Death Mom? as we chose to call her, a large black motherly type, was made homeless by the ?quake and put in a nursing home by her kindly (if short lived) son. Slightly unhinged and rebellious from the off, Death Mom is soon having her fellow residents gambling. But, Death Mom didn?t become Death Mom by playing cards. Inevitably kindly son is killed by the Surf Nazis and Mom goes on the rampage with a rather large gun, hunting down and killing random Nazis before escaping on a convenient motorbike, closely chased by Adolf and Eva. The closing fight is the best, with Eva and Adolf trying to escape on their surf boards and Death Mom mercilessly chasing them down in a speedboat.

Nobody said this was tasteful or any good, but it is a bit of random, late night fun. If you don?t mind the over the top acting, lack of any semblance of story and a nonsensical and unexplained setup it?ll mindlessly pass a few hours but I can think of many other films that those two hours could be better filled watching. If only I had been right all along, using surf gangs as a metaphor for the Second World War would have been so much better...