Tag Archives: Beach

Summer Rental Review

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It’s time for a short beach adventure film. This one isn’t even 90 minutes so you can imagine how quickly the whole adventure goes through. For the most part it’s a harmless film but there’s no real hook to go along with it. Throw in the usual fanservice shenanigans of a beach film and this one doesn’t quite get up to par. You’re actually rooting for the main villain during the final battle because the heroes aren’t given enough reasons for you to root for them. Sometimes that’s just how things go I suppose but yeah that’s just how these things go sometimes.

Jack’s had a hard life where everything always seems to go badly for him. Well, he aims to change that and takes his family on a big trip for the Summer. They can all just hang out as a family and get some much needed R&R. Sounds like a pretty good idea right? Well, unfortunately they run into a lot of issues like Jack entering the wrong house and then getting a huge heat rash during the vacation. He initially meant this to be a fun vacation for everyone and instead it is all blowing up in his face. Is it too late to turn this around?

I think you’ll be able to tell what kind of film this is after 5 minutes and from there you can just decide if it’s your kind of film or not. Jack really just bumbles his way through every situation possible. It has the feel of your average Adam Sandler film but a lot more family friendly in general. Some of the gags can definitely get iffy but on the whole this is very tame. You just have to see how funny Jack’s antics are for you.

I would say the film has a decent sense of humor but none of the gags are laugh out loud funny. They just tend to be all over the place and very hit or miss by nature. At least Jack does have a loving family who want to help but by the middle of the film he has decided to ditch them for an old guy who is helping to teach him about boats. See, Jack wants to really impress his son by becoming a master driver who can win the big boat competition.

That’s all well and good but making this a surprise is where he went wrong. He should be enjoying the vacation with his family. You know…the whole point of this vacation. Instead he just keeps on making excuses for why he can’t join them and just acts as more of a downer to the vacation itself. This all felt very counter intuitive to the vacation and makes this another example where Jack is really creating his own hole. They all forgive him of course and have fun with the boat race but I’d be mad if I was the rest of the family.

The film ultimately can’t help itself and adds in one crazy character who likes to flash men to get their opinions. Naturally this happens to Jack too and the biggest problem is that Jack put himself in this situation. The lady appeared with obvious ulterior motives to get him to follow her back to her place. He should have obviously said no because there was one reason for that. So no matter how much he protested later on, it was just a bad look.

In general it’s also why I never think it’s a good idea for the married couple to be flirting with other people for kicks. It’s treated as a joke where the wife and daughter are hanging out with the lifeguards and there are plenty of times where the reverse happens but it just seems like a terrible idea. Some people buy into a concept where if your marriage/relationship is strong enough then you should be able to joke around about crushing on other people and things like that but it’s always going to be in bad taste. It’s important not to overestimate your own defenses.

There is a bit of a possible romance going on with the daughter and it’s definitely another reason for Jack to want to bring everyone home. Clearly the beach is not the right environment for these guys. I think the best gag was when the characters realized that they were in the wrong summer house. If anything I would have made that part a little longer. A lot of fun jokes you can do about that. So the film had some good gags here and there but there were just not enough of them to keep this in the green.

Maybe the main villain could have used more screentime. All of his scenes were the best ones like when he would threaten Jack or talk about his own top tier boat experience. He won the big race many years in a row after all so it’s not like he’s just spitting out hot air or anything like that. His confidence is well founded and for good reason. It would feel undeserved for him to lose to Jack…..

A beach film is usually not going to rank all that high for me though. There are plenty of things that can always go wrong here without a whole lot of upside. I’ll take a winter vacation anytime. Jack is also just not likable enough as a main character. He’s just way too dumb the whole time so he is really getting himself into these messes and then aside from that going to the neighbor’s house shows a lack of resolve as well. No matter how you slice it, this is all very bad for the main character. To succeed in a film like this, you absolutely need to be giving us a main character to root for.

Overall, This is one of those films that makes for a very peaceful watch. You can really check it out at any point without issue. It’s not like there is a big plot to have to remember either. That said, there’s nothing particularly strong about it either. The film has some decent jokes. You can’t help but laugh at Jack sometimes but there’s not a ton of variety and it’s not super funny or anything. A film like this is banking the entire experience on being able to make you laugh after all. There is no other hook to grab you with. I feel like the film had a decent amount of potential that just didn’t work out for it. it’s one of those films where you can probably find dozens of similar titles and I would just say to try and find one like this title that seems to have had more effort put behind it. This is a film that you can safely skip.

Overall 4/10

Bikini Beach Review

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It’s time for another beach adventure. Unfortunately this one really doesn’t help the series. It’s basically the same as the last beach adventures and that’s an issue. There’s no real substance here and the movie basically brings in the same plot lines that it has been recycling over and over at this point. There’s not a lot of fresh content to be found and that’s a shame. I don’t think there’s a whole lot you could do with the premise anyway though. The beach just doesn’t make for a good backdrop in a film as it gets old pretty quick. It’s unfortunate but that’s just the way it goes.

The basic plot though is that a guy known as the Potato Bug has come into town. He wants to show everyone what true music is. Frankie still refuses to marry DeeDee so she decides to hang out with the Bug to make Frankie jealous. Meanwhile a local publisher known as Honeywagon has decided to prove that the teenagers are a menace to society. With his trained chimp he will make a monkey out of them yet. Much to the sadness of the main characters they are getting humiliated by this ape. He just seems to be smarter and faster than they are.

The film has a ton of weaknesses so let’s look at one of the few plots that actually was reasonably solid. That would be Honeywagon’s plot. He writes papers about how corrupt the teens are and you almost can’t help but root for him. The guy has a few legitimate points here because the teenagers aren’t really being all that productive. They’re just heading to the Beach and doing whatever they want for hours on end. They are always making jokes and messing with each other and they do this pretty loudly so it must be tough on the seniors. Honeywagon is proving that we have to get them off the beach and I had to agree. As the film goes on he naturally starts to weaken but even so I was rooting for the guy. I also thought he got a really good burn in when he explained that the teenagers weren’t even as smart as the monkey.

The rest of the plots aren’t very good though. For starters, the Potato Bug is portrayed to be pretty awful at just about everything. Even the singing seemed pretty bad and only half of the teenagers seemed to enjoy it. I don’t think he had much of a point in the film. He was only there to make Frankie jealous and either way that happens in pretty much every film. It’s not like it’s anything new at this point in the game. Frankie still won’t marry DeeDee no matter what tricks she pulls and she always goes back to him anyway. It’s not as tense since this always happens and Frankie has also proven that he doesn’t mind hanging out with someone while waiting for Deedee to come around.

In general I didn’t think the monkey scenes worked either. They tended to be rather boring most of the time. As always the film also suffers from a steady stream of fanservice as well. Pretty much no scene is safe from this and it ultimately takes away from the movie quite a lot. The movie starts off with a fanservice scene which sets the tone for the rest of the film. You can’t expect quality writing or pacing here either. This film feels quite long as it plays through and has virtually no replay value. There’s just not much good to be found in this film.

I guess I’ll give the climax some props here. At least we did get an extended fight scene with everyone. I could do without the chase scene but the fight itself was excellent. All of the characters got to contribute a bit with their haymaker and combos. Even Honeywagon got in on the action and seems to have some basic super strength which served him well here. Without Honeywagon the heroes may have been in trouble. The monkey also ended up helping even if that plot was always a bit cheesy. The whole film is meant to be cheesy though so that’s nothing new.

How much you enjoy the film just depends on how entertaining you find all of this. It’s got a lot of slapstick and is intentionally very over the top the whole time. The jokes are all recycled but meant to clearly still get their laughs. I like a good old fashioned comedy as much as the next guy but a film centered around the beach for laughs just idn’t going to work. What would have been interesting would have been if Honeywagon had taken the teens to court and we got some back and forth with the characters. Now that would have been pretty interesting and I dare say that it would have helped the film quite a bit. What we need is a winter version that takes place entirely in the courthouse. It would be a very different kind of film but that’s the point.

Overall. The main characters really prove Honeywagon right the whole time. All they can think about is hanging out and being at the beach. None of them are particularly serious or smart. Most of his burns land because the teens just can’t defend themselves. Some of them can’t even read because they’ve been at the beach too long fighting with gangs. If Honeywagon had ultimately won that would have been pretty cool and a great twist if you ask me. If you really love beach movies then I guess you can watch this. It’s pretty much the same as the rest of the beach films although with arguably a weaker plot than most. Really, that potato guy was just awful. Maybe that’s why the film has so many songs so you can try to forget about the story for a while. It doesn’t work though because the songs aren’t particularly good either. I’d definitely recommend taking a pass on this one.

Overall 2/10