I stand by the people who say that a zany chimp can make a bad movie better. It won't make a bad movie good, but it will at least make a bad movie a little more tolerable.
Surf School luckily had two such chimps, Veronique and comedian Harlan Williams. The plot is about as plausible as a marriage to Liza Minelli, but everyone handles it with such gravity that you expect Oscars to be handed out after the credits.
The movie's about a high school surf competition, and the new kid and school misfits (annoying class clown, hot-but-no-confidence goth chick, nerd as played by the kid who played “Minkus” in Boy Meets World, rapper Sisqo) want in, only they don’t know how to surf. Williams is their instructor, a burned-out surf bum who covers every scene he’s in with the stink of ham. Also, Veronique the chimp wants to have sex with everyone. And the underdogs win the competition. Whoops! Spoilers!
When the writers discovered they didn’t have much of an original plot, they just kept adding wacky characters, until the surf competition had to take second place to the flamingly gay announcer’s commentary of it. Sorry if you’re a fan of surfing: you won’t see much of it, but you will get to see aging hippies make out, a chimp give a massage to someone who doesn’t open their eyes and thinks it’s a girl, and a surfing announcer who’s so flamboyant you’ll expect him to burst into flowers. There are worse surfing movies, but not many. Still waiting on the Jewish version, “Surf Shul” to come out, but I think I might be waiting for a while.
