Purely a party movie that revolves around a Malibu beach house, a
rich uncle, and partying college co-eds celebrating the end of the
school year, THE BEACH GIRLS is a classic good time movie with plenty
of laughs. No deep thinking necessary, no overly serious moments,
and no moral lessons at the end other than HAVE FUN! Just sit back
and enjoy the good times!
Our main character of our film is Sarah, a nerdy goody-two-shoes
who’s rich uncle is letting her spend the summer at his beautiful
beach house. She is intent on not doing anything bad or out of line
this summer so OF COURSE she chooses to bring her two slutty,
party-gal friends Ginger and Ducky, who pick up a cute hitchhiker
along the way. These two start making calls immediately, getting
every kid in the phonebook to come join in the party. The house
becomes the biggest, greatest party around and the first night is a
HUGE hit.
Familiar faces in this movie are all over. Fans of ANIMAL HOUSE will be some of the first to be satisfied with the hitchhiker and main character Scott, played by James Daughton but also known as Greg Marmalard. The neighbors who tell on the girls’ party, but eventually join in the fun along with EVERYONE ELSE, are both of note. The husband is played by Beans Morocco (AKA Dan Barrows) who you can also see as “Bobby R,” the mama’s boy looking for a good spanking in EATING RAOUL. His wife is played by Mary Jo Catlett who co-stars in the John Waters film SERIAL MOM alongside Kathleen Turner. Countless other familiar faces abound, if you look closely at the party goers you will see plenty of them. I’ve yet to catch Catherine Mary Stewart, who I’ve always loved in NIGHT OF THE COMET, but she is there as “surfer girl” somewhere! Tell me if you see her…
Something to note about this movie is that the story is really only
about 20 minutes long, MAYBE 40 if you really pay attention to all of
the characters. With a plot like that you have a LOT of time to
spend showing party scenes and elaborating on details that have
nothing to do with anything other than having an amazing party or
maximizing the amount of nudity and slapstick jokes. If the story
was taken more seriously we wouldn’t have the Mexican gardener
character, who is constantly longing to join the party but is afraid
to join in, and has a series of mishaps on the sidelines. And it
wouldn’t be an 80’s movie without a Japanese character doing
karate, which also freaks out the Navy guys when they storm the beach
looking for the missing pot. THE BEACH GIRLS is basically a neat
party idea where everything works out in the end, doubled in length
by hi-jinks, nudity, dancing and corny jokes. It makes for a truly
enjoyable time, one where you want to jump in the pool right with the
characters. And since you are watching the movie at home and
probably not 18 you can get naked if you want and nobody needs to
know.
The cool thing about this movie is I turned it on thinking it was
going to be awful. I was surprised that not only was it a blast to
watch, but it kept my attention the entire time. The jokes were
funny, unique background characters bring the party to life, and the
development of the story was done well so that I was actually
interested in seeing what would happen. For a movie like this where
there really isn’t much to think about, I found myself really
engaged with the characters and rooting for the party to go on. I
was never bored, it was fun and engaging and made me feel good, like
I had a little party of my own. And like I wanted to go score some
80’s pot.
This film is a blast! Watch it with a bowl of popcorn on a day when
you’ve had enough of adult life and just want to have a good time.
It will rub off on you ;)
Check out this and other Summer Beach Party movies on our YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/OutThereMovies
