Better Late Then Never

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Blistering performances.

Muscle Beach Party (1964) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Frankie (Frankie Avalon), Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) and the gang show up to their beach when they realize that a trainer (Ddon Rickles) has his muscle men training on it. Not only does the gang have to worry about this but rich girl Julie (Luciana Paluzzi) has her eyes set on Frankie.MUSCLE BEACH PARTY was the second film in the series and I honestly couldn't say if it was any better or worse than BEACH PARTY. It's clear that neither film is Oscar-worthy but both of them do a decent enough job appealing to the intended target. That target was of course teenagers spending their weekends at a local drive in.As with the first film, this one has a fairly simple plot, which gets a few simple laughs throughout the running time. Both Avalon and Funicello are good enough in their roles and while neither delivers an excellent performance they're at least appealing enough. Rickles brings some entertainment as the whistle-blowing coach and Paluzzi and John Ashley are good as well.MUSCLE BEACH PARTY isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but it's a decent time killer for fans of the series.

Just began watching as a goof, was expecting to lose interest. But ended up being well entertained by the goofy surfer tomfoolery, Italian muscle-man star. the Contessa was well played. Anette was disappointing but Frankie was in good form. The appearance of Stevie wonder singing "clap your hands" sealed the deal. Don Rickles is always a cool presence. And there was even a surprise appearance of Peter Lorre at the end. Of course I ended up fast forwarding through several boring musical numbers but having the power to ignore the boring parts gave the rest of the movie high praise from me for being pretty entertaining. Peace

Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello certainly had one of the rockiest romances ever on screen. It seems in every film someone is either cutting in with one or both of them. Muscle Beach Party is certainly no exception.In fact the whole beach crowd is being crowded by this gang of body builders who've got a gym at the beach that is managed by Don Rickles and his silent partner, reputed to be the strongest man in the world.The beach is even getting more attention as rich Italian princess Luciana Paluzzi and her business manager Buddy Hackett are scoping out the beach for one particular muscle dude, Peter Lupus. Lupus is the self proclaimed Mr. Galaxy and one look at him is enough for any heart to skip a beat. But Luciana skips two beats when she hears Frankie Avalon sing.I think you can see where this one is going especially if you've seen any of the beach films before this. Add to this Morey Amsterdam as a loopy club owner, Dick Turgeon as Paluzzi's attorney who can't close a deal and the mysterious and unbilled Peter Lorre.One thing I do have to say, does anyone really believe that Frankie and his surfers would stand any chance going head to head with the bodybuilders?

I taped this hoping to be something to show my high school video classics students. But while watching it, maybe I will call it "What NOT to watch as a classic". I think they made some better ones, than this one, I am just not sure which one those are. Annette was cute. Frankly is hot. It was fun to see some of the stars when they were so much younger. Buddy Hackett and Stevie Wonder, wow that was a while ago. I never did figure out who the girl in the white frilly dress was thou? I laughed at how silly it was at times. I then realized that this was the extent of comedy at that time. So all and all it was OK. I would not put it on my top 100 but it was fun to watch.