MUSCLE BEACH PARTY (1964)

Quickly following up on the success of BEACH PARTY, MUSCLE BEACH PARTY tells the story of Frankie, Annette and the whole gang going back to the beach and the happenings they get into.

Annette still ain't giving up the pussy, so once again Frankie starts makin' time with another chick.  This time it's some horny rich chick who was originally mackin' on a muscleman who lives next door to Frankie.  The shunned muscleman and his crew don't take kindly to the rejection.  At the same time, the gang sides with Annette and gives Frankie the cold shoulder, until he finally sees the error of his ways.  After that they go back to surfin' and partying on the beach.  The End.

MUSCLE BEACH PARTY is a fun Beach movie, but the lack of Eric Von Zipper and the Rats is unforgivable.  Don Rickles and Buddy Hackett try to fill in the comedy void left by the absent Harvey Lembeck, but they do a poor job of it.  Other than that, it's pretty much things as usual with corny humor, tons of sexy chicks in bikini's (Mary Hughes was the hottest), Annette's hair never getting wet, Jody McCrea as Deadhead acting dumb as shit, stock footage of real surfers spliced with shots of our stars surfing on rear projected waves, Dick Dale singing, Candy Johnson dancing during the end credits, Grizzly Adams in Daisy Dukes, some great musical numbers including one by a young Stevie Wonder and another with Annette's voice reverbed all to Hell and back (I think my favorite song was "Muscle Bustle" by Donna Loren), lots of dancing and I swear to Satan at 1:11:21 you can hear somebody in the background saying "Let's get the fuck out of here."  I'm totally serious.  I replayed it like 20 times and he says "fuck".  Maybe it was "buck", but I think it was "fuck".  I'm completely serious.  

Not as good as the original installment, but still totally worth a watch.

Part 1 - Beach Party (1963)
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)
Part 8 - Back to the Beach (1987)

That's Grizzly Adams on the right.

VALLEY GIRL (1983)

Twenty-one year old high school student Julie (Deborah Foreman) breaks up with her boyfriend Tommy (Michael Bowen) because he's an arrogant douche.  Later at the beach and then at a party she sees Randy (Nicholas Cage) and falls for him.  He's such a stud muffin!  They start dating, but Julie's friend object loudly to this because he's sooo different than they are.  And by "different" I think it's because he's lower class or something, I don't even know.  It was hard to understand their logic when the filmmakers did such a poor job of showing what the difference was between people from the Valley and people from Hollywood.  Example: in the scene where he enters the party people literally stop dancing and just stare at him like he's a freak from another planet, when, to me, he looked just like everybody else.  He even had a popped collar.

While the Romeo and Juliet story idea is alright, I didn't care for the film because nothing really happens.  Yeah, yeah...Julie and Randy are suppose to be in love...but I never got the sense that they were actually in love.  She seemed pretty happy to get back with Tommy later on.  And Randy came off more like an obsessive stalker than anything else.  Hiding in a busy bathroom to see her?  Check. Dressing up like a server at a food joint to see her?  Yep.  Sleeping in her yard to be near her? Yes.  Dedicating a song to her on the radio?  Yep.

There was also a lot of wasted time on shit that never went anywhere. Julie's parents had multiple scenes that could have been cut.  The side story about one of Julie's friend's stepmom flirting with a younger dude went nowhere.  There was also a thing about Tommy and one of Julie's friends hooking up at a party, but that too just kinda disappeared.

Bland characters, zero tension, the bad guy wasn't bad enough, the good guy wasn't likeable enough, Sherman Oaks Galleria interiors, great soundtrack (the most pleasant surprise was "Sparks - "Eaten By The Monster Of Love" which reminded me of FRIGHT NIGHT), 80's fashions, girl on the poster doesn't even look like Deborah Foreman, Hollywood's version of "punk".  Worth watching for historical curiosity...and Elizabeth Daily topless.