I was really excited to see an updated Beach Party movie, but while watching it I was very confused as to why there was none of the old characters or familiar faces. Turns out that this film was made by Paramount and since Orion owned the rights to the original AIP Beach films, Paramount ended up bringing in 17 writers (at the cost of 2 million dollars!!!) to make a parody of beach movies. That's totally mind-boggling.
As it is though, BACK TO THE BEACH is a fun film, filled with goofy laughs and silly characters. At the beginning of the film, Frankie is a uptight square, but once he meets an old flame (Connie Stevens) he gets all fired up and starts singing. Naturally, this pisses off Annette so she has a pajama party. Stuff happens and in the end Frankie has to win a surf competition.
Quick pace, lots of hot chicks in the background, great songs (the highlight being Pee-Wee Herman singing "Surfin' Bird"), pre-prison Lori Loughlin looking hot, various familiar faces including Dick Dale, Gilligan, the Skipper, that psychotic newspaper kid from BETTER OFF DEAD. If you enjoyed the older Beach movies then you'll definitely get a kick out of BTTB. I just wish they had done something special during the closing credits...bloopers or maybe more dancing.
This is totally unrelated to BACK TO THE BEACH, but just look at the movie selection you had if you went to the theater while BTTB was playing: THE MONSTER SQUAD, DIRTY DANCING, MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, FULL METAL JACKET, CAN'T BUY ME LOVE, BORN IN EAST L.A., ROBOCOP, THE LOST BOYS, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, LA BAMBA, SUMMER SCHOOL...SUMMER SCHOOL!!! I think I'm going to go watch SUMMER SCHOOL right now!
Part 1 - Beach Party (1963)
Part 2 - Muscle Beach Party (1964)
Part 3 - Bikini Beach (1964)
Part 4 - Pajama Party (1964)
Part 5 - Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)
Part 6 - How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965)
Part 7 - The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)
