BACK TO THE BEACH (1987)

Frankie and Annette finally got married, but after Frankie had a horrendous surfing accident, they moved to Ohio.  Now, many years later, they've come back to LA to visit their daughter who lives on their old stomping grounds.  This brings back all kinds of old memories.

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)

DETECTIVE STORY (2007)

Low-rent detective Raita (Kazuya Nakayama) is getting drunk one night at his apartment when a potential client comes by needing help.  Not being that good of a detective, he shoos her off so he can keep drinking.  She ends up being attacked nearby and her liver removed while she's still alive. Jeez! This is the first in a string of murders that all seem to center around Raita.  There's also clues pointing toward a local artist who specializes in morbid paintings. Will Raita be able to solve the crimes before the murders are pinned on him?

If you are a fan of Takashi Miike you will know what to expect (bizarre characters doing bizarre things, weird editing, unusual camerawork, a low-budget masked by Miike's talent, surrealism, random stuff that just makes no sense whatsoever, etc.), but if you're new to Miike then you'll probably end up scratching your head more than a few times. That said, I liked DETECTIVE STORY.  I can't really see myself ever wanting to watch it again anytime soon, but it is unique and I wasn't bored.

On the downside there's never any emotional investment at all since the entire time Raita is on the run from the cops (who blame him for the three murders) he's goofing off like he's in a Ernest P. Worrell movie. Also, there's one scene (after the first murder) when Raita is sitting down and a ghost shows up behind him, it's kinda freaky, but then while Raita moves his head the ghost is suppose to disappear (while being blocked from our view by his head), somebody missed their mark and you can clearly see the actress ducking down. If done properly, it would have been a cool shot, but instead it just ended up looking stupid.  I have no idea why this was allowed in the final film.

As a dedicated Miike fan, I enjoyed DETECTIVE STORY, but I can easily see why somebody else might not like it.