Review of Back to the Beach (1987) by Nicholas V — 22 Sep 2007
This is really a film that predates The Brady Bunch Movie by about eight years. Here, instead of sending up The Brady Bunch, Back to the Beach sets its target towards the Beach Party movies of the 1960s.
If you don't know them, I'll tell you in a nutshell that they were a series of bad movies that were more campy than anything. The general rule is that they starred Annette Funicello and Fankie Avalon.
Here, they have the decency to poke fun at themselves and these movies with its own brand of humor. The plot for this film is fairly simple. Annette and Frankie are married and living in Ohio. He now sells cars; she is more concerned with feeding their son Bobby (Demian Slade) peanut butter every day.
As the film opens, they are headed for Hawaii for a much-needed vacation but are making a stop in L.A. to see the daughter Sandi (Lori Loughlin of Full House fame). The only problem is that she is living on the beach they grew up on, and as a result, once they get there, everything goes to hell.
Sandi and her fiancee (Tommy Hinkley) have broken up, Frankie and Annette are seperated thanks to him getting reacquanted with Connie Stevens, and Bobby gets mixed up with the metal rulers of the beach.
It seems minimalist, but it is a lot of fun, even throwing a few musical numbers along the way. Annette Funicello has a duet with the band Fishbone that has to be seen to be believed, Frankie Avalon sings his own version of 'California Sun', Dick Dale (of 'Miserlou' fame) rocks out with Stevie Ray Vaughn doing a version of 'Pipeline', and at one point, Pee-Wee Herman shows up, sings 'Surfin' Bird' and takes off into the night.
It's not a must-see, but it's a film that in the past twenty years has become something of a cult film. It's weird, but it's a good time. It comes recommended, but take it at face value and try to enjoy it.
It's somewhat corny, but there's nothing wrong with that. It was one of my favorite movies at the age of 4 and it still holds up pretty well today.
This review of Back to the Beach (1987) was written by Nicholas V on 22 Sep 2007.
Back to the Beach has generally received mixed reviews.
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