Johnny and Adam were perfectly ordinary brothers. Surfing afternoons and weekends, and attending school during the day. Then comes a mysterious stranger with an
Eyepatch of Power and news of an unbelievable heritage. Adventure ensues as the brothers journey to obtain their birthright.
Surf Ninjas is a family film with martial arts starring Ernie Reyes Jr., Rob Schneider, Nicolas Cowan, and
Leslie Nielsen. It's...
not terrible by any means, though it's not all that great either, though it's hard to say whether, like
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the
So Bad, It's Good-ness was on purpose.
This film provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Ro-May
- Because Destiny Says So: Taken to the point of lampshading in the final assault.
Mac: You can't go after [Colonel Chi] alone, Johnny.
Adam and Iggy: (in unison) He can if it's his destiny.
- Big Bad: Colonel Chi
- Binocular Shot: Spoofed with Zatch, who only has one eye
- Brick Joke: "Baba Ram" returns just before the ending credits.
- Cane Fu: Zatch, again.
- Don't Explain the Joke: Iggy, particularly in the scene where Johnny's future bride is introduced, wearing a veil. Johnny and Adam both make snarky comments hinting about why she might be wearing a veil. Iggy says it flat out.
- Dramatic Slip: Colonel Chi is knocked down and stepped on by an elephant, necessitating cybernetic replacements for much of his body. However, he has a good three seconds of hammily screaming to the camera during which he easily could have avoided the elephant's foot.
- Extreme Sport Excuse Plot: The invasion of Colonel Chi's island
- Eyepatch of Power: Zatch.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Threatened by an Irish "very distant" relative
- Hey, It's That Guy!: Kelly Hu
- Highly Visible Ninja: Most of Colonel Chi's forces, which elicits a sarcastic remark from Iggy.
- Instant Expert: Seems to be one of Adam's powers.
- Kiai: Everybody. Even the elephant.
- Martial Arts Headband: Johnny, Adam, and Iggy all get one, though Iggy's receipt is played for laughs.
- McNinja
- Mondegreen: "Baba Ram"
- Power Overhaul: Both the brothers.
- Product Placement: Adam uses a Game Gear to predict the future and control people. And he does this by playing a game called "Surf Ninjas". That's right, he predicts the future by playing the video game adaptation of the movie he's a character in. (And there really was a "Surf Ninjas" game for the Game Gear.)
- Red Right Hand: Colonel Chi's mechanical arm.
- Rule of Funny: In the restaurant fight, Adam is 'playing' the fight on his game gear, and selecting how things will go. When the time comes to choose weapons to fight off ninjas, he selects the funniest ones, and gets more points for it.
- Shout Out: Johnny, the first time he uses a blade, refers to Zorro.
- So Nineties It Hurts
- Surfer Dude: Both Johnny and Adam. Iggy's pretends and it's played for laughs.
- Suddenly Always Knew That/New Powers as the Plot Demands: Both the brothers, Johnny and Adam.
- Tempting Fate: A stuntman assured Miss Hu that he could take her kicking him in the nuts. He couldn't.
- Iggy reminds the others that the gas in their house was left on, and says "What if our house blows up?" It immediately does. Iggy then proceeds to blame himself for having caused the explosion by Tempting Fate, and concludes that he must have Tempting Fate as a superpower:
Iggy: Something happened, I don't know what it is, but now every time I say WHAT IF about something it comes true, and back there I said "What if the the house blows up", and it blew up!
Iggy:Oh my gosh... I just said "What if I lose this power?" Damn it, I had it, then I lost it!
- Token Minority: Lieutenant Spence, played by Tone Loc.
- Two-Faced: Colonel Chi, his face was repaired with cybernetics, after it was partly crushed.
- Unintentional Period Piece
- Waif Prophet: Adam, without any of the negative aspects.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Colonel Chi again, thanks to said cybernetics, can't touch water.
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