California Girls

My review was written in September 1984 after watching the movie on Media Home Entertainment video cassette.

"California Girls" is an oddball feature, lensed in 1981 and released only on video cassettes. Filmmaker William Webb has packed in as many full-length pop songs (hits by top acts such as The Police, Blondie, Queen, and Kool & the Gang) as possible, but this docu-style travelog is of only minor interest.

The problem is an absence of workable storyline and narrative footage. Structured around deejay Mad Man Jack (Al Music doing a variable and tiresome imitation of Wolfman Jack) running a contest to find the most exciting California girl, pic over 80% shots of pretty girls in action, silent docu-style while songs play on the soundtrack.

Innumerable types of local leisure activities are depicted, including windsurfing, cheerleading, motorcycling, aerobic dancing, weightlifting, hang gliding, foxy boxing and mud wrestling, but the level of viewer involvement is too low to qualify even for drive-in slotting. As a cassette offering, it's tolerable background material.

Interjected is lame subplot of three aspiring actresses trying to win the contest and a $10,000 prize for doing odd stunts in thenude outside Mad Mn Jack's window. Occest elemente here is that despite its plethora of hit music, film does not feature the Beach Boys' title song.

Okay, granted, the plot of the movie is nothing we didn't see in a kajillion other sex comedies in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but with a massive soundtrack of nothing but the biggest songs of the time (Foreigner, Blondie, Queen, the Police, etc.) and even a portion of the film shot at a live NFL Rams game, you would figure it would be more well-known than it is. Given the skimpy listing it has here on IMDb, it's surprising. I can understand it not being on DVD - the music rights alone would cost a fortune - but it's a shame it's not even "cult classic" enough to have more than one comment on here before mine.