Zuma Beach

TV Movies of the Week reigned in the 1970's before cable and the video rental boom, always filling time decently enough...

And at ZUMA BEACH, escapism is pretty fine, like with sexy Kimberly Beck as Cathy, new girl in town and cousin of Rosanna Arquette's Southern California local, Beverly, who thinks apish Steven Keats, as car parking shyster Jerry McCabe, is a fox... so goes the 1970's...

But the mainline centers on a singer named Bonnie Katt: wherein Suzanne Somers, after teasing Richard Dreyfuss in AMERICAN GRAFFITI, blowing up in MAGNUM FORCE and right at the beginning of her game-changing breakthrough on THREE'S COMPANY, dons a sexy one-piece bikini, making the beach her own strutting sandbox...

With a breezy teleplay written by horror icon John Carpenter the same year he'd serve up PJ Soles a HALLOWEEN demise; here she plays Nancy, equally promiscuous as her radical cinema starlet, fawned over by a passive young man (Mark Wheeler), related to a mentoring Keats...

Yet she'd rather give it up to pre-TERMINATOR Michael Biehn's popular lifeguard anyway... ZUMA is full of eclectic pop culture and doesn't even realize it yet (including Tanya Roberts)...

"There is a God," one smitten guy says. "Yeah," adds another. "And there goes His daughter..." so thus the mortals are under Suzanne's spell -- the boys for obvious reasons, and the girls either look up to her experience and laidback aura, or don't know why she's around at all, stealing their own curvy thunder...

Yet as much as other guys try, only Keats piques her interest... As a former entrepreneur, both are dodging more promising careers...

Eventually, Somer's Katt tells everyone who she really is, and why she's taking a break from the music biz as we experience one mellow day instead of an entire chaotic weekend so the characters mean only as much as their lightweight, melodramatic problems, each with a resolution right around the sandy corner...

Like a young Timothy Hutton as a cigarette-smoking junior lifeguard (mentored by beach MC Les Lannom), who, two years shy of the Oscar-winning ORDINARY PEOPLE, scrutinizes everyone, including several shy fellas seeking creative ways to hook up with the aforementioned bikini-clad beauties -- while everyone basks in the groovy 1970's sunshine within the titular dream haven.

'Zuma Beach' is strictly a jiggle-and-giggle flick, as one commentator once put it so aptly, designed to get TV ratings and nothing more. Suzanne Somers was in the midst of her successful (and horrible) network series 'Three's Company' at the time this was made and the idea was to strike while the iron was hot.

Somers plays some kind of rock singer, believe it or not, who is experiencing a career crisis of sorts and comes out to the beach to clear her mind and look for inspiration, or something like that. The local high school beach boys just about lose their minds when they see her stretch out on the beach, though I find their own bikini-clad girlfriends such as Rosanna Arquette, Kimberly Beck and P.J. Soles a lot sexier. Somehow all their lives get intertwined, and through making sand castles and playing volleyball Suzanne somehow manages to instill self-confidence and worth in a number of these youths while finding new inspiration for her own career. Amazing.

This is the type of empty entertainment that one can find enjoyable from time to time even if it's only because it gives you a good laugh. Some of the faux-Beach Boys songs on the soundtrack may have you and your dog howling at the screen together, though.

I can definitely think of worse ways to spend a weekend afternoon than watching this 70's jigglefest that is so reminiscent of the scads of beach movies that originated in the early 60's. Not nearly as engrossing as the best of the genre (see California Dreaming), but it does provide early screen work from Timothy Hutton, "Terminator"'s Michael Biehn, and a fantastically scrumptious Rosanna Arquette. Credits indicate an appearance by Delta Burke; look fast for I did not see her.

'Zuma Beach' stars Suzanne Somers as Bonnie Katt, a fading pop star who heads for the title location for some R & R. During one eventful day, she becomes involved in the lives of the various young folk who frequent the place.

Don't look for much more plot than that in this script that was co-written by John Carpenter, whose slasher film "Halloween" was a big hit the same year that this TV movie premiered. It may not exactly be intellectually stimulating, but it does provide decent, light entertainment with some poignant moments.

Somers, hot off the successful second season of 'Three's Company', is likeable enough (and does actually sing her own songs), and yes, viewers who just want to see her in a bathing suit for 98 minutes may be fairly satisfied. The script involves rivalries, guys on the make (naturally), a young man (Mark Wheeler) thinking of leaving for greener pastures, a local figure (Steven Keats) who's built himself into this sort of mythic character, and a climactic beach volleyball game.

'Zuma Beach' is mostly noteworthy for the selection of future stars and otherwise familiar faces in the cast. Michael Biehn is fun as an antagonistic jock named J. D., but everybody here does an ingratiating job.

Overall, a nice, pleasant beach movie with attractive ladies and equally attractive photography.

Six out of 10.

Hi people. Hey, this movie came out when I was about 21 and I remember feeling about the same way everyone did in this movie. I was in Los Angeles (Hermosa Beach-Hi Terry) and was unsure of myself as were most of the people in this cute movie. O.k, it lacks critical substance and Ms. Sommers seems to glide throughout the movie like her acting is similar to her character of not knowing what is up with her life. But, hey, who hasn't been there, done that, and wondered where there next step in life should be or as in the proverbial saying from my brother in law, Nick, if 'if's and but's were candy and nuts, oh what a wonderful Christmas we would all have. This simply means just watch the movie and quit trying to blame yourselfs for everything in life you did right or wrong which is what all of the characters are trying to cope with here. It is a good movie and a clean one from the long gone year of 1978 and will always remain true to my heart since I live in a land commonly now hated by the Dixie Chicks called Lubbock Texas.... Hey, you all, watch it on a late evening channel and enjoy!!!!!!!