Worth a watch
Summary
Sons of Summer is a good looking surfer film crossed with an action picture; we get several fight scenes and a killer performance from Tumuera Morrison. The pacing drags at times as it cuts away to surfing scenes a bit too much but it’s still an entertaining diversion.
Plot: Four surfing sons plan a tribute ‘surfari’ to a small beach town for one of their fathers murdered three decades earlier. But some road trips are to die for.
Review: Sons of Summer almost feels like two movies; the first is a love letter to surfing and is beautifully shot, feeling like something out of a dream. We have four friends who want to go on a tribute trip known as ‘surfari’ to honour one of their dead fathers.
The other part of the film is a crime thriller where a vicious criminal known as Frank Power (Tumuera Morrison) wants to retrieve some stolen drugs which was stolen by our protagonist Sean (Joe Davidson). He only agreed to help a friend to get him out of trouble but things do not go to plan and soon Frank is on his trail.
There isn’t that much to the story with prolonged scenes of surfing and a mostly breezy vibe then it cuts to the scenes of Frank as he goes around beating up or killing anyone in his path. Morrison is in full-on beast mode in this film and is quite terrifying any time he is on screen and yet it’s a little jarring with the sudden tonal shifts.
In terms of action we get several brutal fight scenes and a brief car chase to keep things moving but when it cuts away to the surfing scenes it does take you out of it removing some of the tension.
Sons of Summer is around an hour and 27 minutes long, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome and the gorgeous surfing scenes aren’t exactly difficult to watch.
Overall, Sons of Summer has enough action to keep viewers interested but the surfing scenes do go on a little long taking away a lot of the tension, so you’re aren’t that invested in the story.