Nice effects though.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This was surely one of the strangest good-bad movies ever. It has lots of surfing, a little Kung Fu fighting, a ridiculous villain, and one kick ass lady! It isn't complex and doesn't have a story arc or anything and it may be too simplistic for some, but I found it rather incredibly hard to follow thanks to the bizarre editing as well as every single one of the snooze-inducing scenes with the Surf Nazis which were nigh-on incomprehensible. They were so loud and annoying, it was like they were a bunch of random people doing extremely amateur community theatre on the beach rather than coming off as actual actors! They didn't have a speck of personality between them and even though they were meant to be this big tough ruthless gang who didn't have any problems handling other surfer gangs, they were easily overpowered by one vigilante oldster? Whatever! "The beaches have become battlefields, the waves a war-zone..." the opening text scrawl so boldly declares.. Mm, well nope, I'm afraid it's nothing so epic! So near as I could tell the vague and slow as hell plot is that this one aggressive surfer gang who want to control the entire beach of California and all the other gangs because a humongous earthquake has wrecked the city.. That's so lame, a beach is a terrible location for a post-apocalyptic war-zone, it just doesn't have the same kind of visual and thematic punch as an inner city ruined ghetto, the image of that on a beach just doesn't sit right and makes it hard to suspend your disbelief, it feels like it couldn't happen! The setting looks so pretty it makes you wonder why everyone's even fighting at all when there's such a beautiful ocean right there that they could all chill out and have fun in! This oddball excuse for a movie didn't have the budget or panache to pull off such a concept, everything looks too dull and cheap. It's an ambitious little flick though, gotta give it that.. It's too bad that it's also one that never seems to grasp just how dumb it is, if it had opted for a more tongue-in-cheek approach it might have been slightly more well-received and have more of a fan base today. As it is I can agree that it's a terrible movie but to me it still wasn't all that bad, there were some things that I liked about it a lot. For one thing I loved the beach and all the slow motion footage shots that appear randomly throughout the whole movie, the effect to me was very visually positive and strangely uplifting, and that's what I took from it. I enjoy the offbeat silly fun vibe more than the actual story, to say it has Nazis in the title it's a very light and totally harmless movie, it had a certain cute goofy and youthful earnestness about itself. Had I tried to enjoy it purely from a plot standpoint I'd have hated it as much as everyone else seems to. The scene between the Surf Nazi known as "Smeg" and his mother in the kitchen is very telling I reckon. If it's meant to be a distopian city they're living in, then how come Smeg has a nice normal home that he can go to and a tough cookie mother who forces him to stay in his room when he's trying to sneak out? Are the Surf Nazis all just rowdy teens, playing nasty crazy games at being Nazis on the beach because there's nothing else to do and there's no law to stop them? I really liked the character of Smeg's mother, the actress really did her own thing with her bit part and was a lot of fun in her few scenes. Some of this movie is intriguing but it goes nowhere at all until the coolest mama of all time decides it's time to make a stand! The movie perks up and has a much better final act when she steps up and it stops being just Surf Nazis and finally turns into Surf Nazis Must Die! The character of Mama Washington was the one thing that really made this picture worthwhile for me and was definitely the most memorable thing about it. It was so different and cool to me seeing an old sassy black lady doing action hero stuff, not to say they can't or anything, but it was sure as hell the first time I'd ever seen that before! She was so funny and entertaining, as soon as it showed her and it was at the scene where she's smoking a cigar and playing cards with the other old ladies at the nursing home she was forced to live in and she says "I've gotta liven up you bitches!", I thought that gal's gonna do something big at some point! The transitional scene is so surreal where she leaps out of nowhere and strong-arms one of Nazis, you know which one I'm talking about.. So I'm pretty sure that at least some of it was made bad on purpose and it was clearly never made with the intention if being 'great cinema', but overall I found it a fun stupid movie to watch, and I think that may have been the whole point, and I for one could dig it. Peace out, Hang ten! x

When the grandson of a gun wielding woman is murdered by neo-nazi surf punks in the post-apocalyptic future, this grandma hunts them down for some bloodthirsty revenge.There is not really all that much surfing, at least not with the Nazis. Seems like mostly stock footage. I wanted to see gun battles on the water, but maybe I forgot that Troma could not afford such awesome things. The movie could just as easily been called "Beach Nazis".What I like about this movie is that it makes no attempt to provide social commentary. It does not have a serious view of racism, or of white supremacist groups, or even of children leaving their families for gangs. It just has an angry woman trying to get revenge. Thanks, Troma, for just making a quick, fun, silly film and avoiding any attempt at depth.

Peter George is almost too talented, in a sense, to have made Surf Nazis Must Die for a Troma audience. As a regular low-budget piece, it uses its thousands of dollars reasonably well. Unlike a whole lot of other films made by Troma, this one isn't shot by incompetent simians throwing crap up onto a wedgie board to decide the next shot. Hell, the actors even kind of try to give some decent performances. The only problem happens when George and his co-writer try and make a solid story out of their material: surfing Nazis taking over the territory from rival ethnic gangs. Maybe there shouldn't be much of a story to expect, but there could be more, either as an actual deranged work of real craft and structure, or as a go-for-broke guilty pleasure.On the latter part, the filmmakers don't even live up to the cheesy promise of the poster; the only time one sees some death on the waves occurs in the climax, and it's more like a much better version of the climax of I Spit on Your Grave (saying "much better" is indeed a compliment in any regard as it's the worst film ever made). Mostly it's just shots of regular surfing (mostly in what looks like so-so stock footage), and then the action (which isn't quite as much as you might expect) taking place in other areas between the Nazis and other gang members. This isn't to say the filmmakers disappoint with camp value all the way, far from it; the highlight is Gail Neely as the "Mama" of Leroy, a black youth killed by the Nazis, who goes to exact her revenge on a motorcycle after going through a gun shop like Tuco in GB&U. Seeing her is almost worth the price of the DVD.But at the same time there isn't quite enough crazy action to justify the sloppy storyline. There's some interest in the power games between Mengele and Adolph (and seeing one of the Nazis, Smeg, being harranged by his mother at home like a typical nag), and a few other things, yet most of the plot doesn't hinge on the Nazis or gangs as much as the Mama in her Punisher mode. It's almost the kind of flick that could make an ambitious remake- maybe with actual hardcore surf kills and with a plot out of the Warriors- but as it is a curiosity veering on being an actual good movie.

It's because of films like these, which serve as the reason why Troma rules. OK. So Troma's got some stinkers out there after 30+ yrs of experience, but not many. They are, by far, the best low budget schlock makers in the world! The only ones who can hold a candle to them might be say Full Moon & Roger Corman. If ya like Troma's stuff, then check them out too.But one thing: where were the sharks in this one? I would've loved to see one of those surf Nazis or various other chomped by a shark. And while although it's been a while since I've seen this, I don't recall even seeing a fin's tip.The scene where the "n" word was used just conjures up memories of my own personal experiences as a boy nicely. Of course I didn't murder anybody and brag about it in the wide open in front of two girls before. What a jackass! In nearly 30 years, now *damn where did the time go?* there unfortunately hasn't been a sequel to its name. And I would love to see one more ridiculously good time w/ the surf Nazis. At least this film, along w/ most other troma films, doesn't take itself near as seriously as the blockbusters who just come off as stupid.And yes, if you will read my review carefully, I'm pretty much agreeing w/ another commenter who also called it, "ridiculously good." That much it is. I gave this a 7, which is the highest I gave a movie of its kind so far.