Teen Beach Movie

Having been alive for the original beach movies (with stars like Fabian, Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, et al) it is hard not to bring a pretty jaundiced eye to anything that attempts to reproduce the naïve silliness that these films represented in their innocent lack of any serious content.

If you drop your 21st Century cynicism for a bit, Disney did it with this.

Not only did they nail the hyperactive, pun-filled, sight-gag filled recklessness of the originals, (minus most of the pretty-overt sexual content of many of those films) they did it using a storyline that managed to both echo and enhance the original beach films.

Being an early 60's and 'surf music nut', I was more than surprised how close the orchestrations and choral pieces managed to channel the infectious fun of those old tunes - or maybe I'm just being nostalgic for a simpler time.

I recognized all of those old tropes from every film mined for the 'plot' and every song mined for the structure of the film's. Maybe I'm just missing those old simpler days, but I was more than pleased.

People who complain about this film obviously have forgotten that the originals were never 'Academy Award' material (remember "The Monkey's Uncle"?). They were silly, weightless fantasy, and "Teen Beach Movie" (from the company that gave us Beach-Film queen, Annette) follows that tradition without impugning or complicating it. It is what it is advertised to be: silly, harmless summer fun.

There are very few films that I can totally recommend without reservation to both my 92 year old mother and my 10 year old neighbor - and this is one; my mother for the nostalgic look back at a sweeter, more innocent time, and my neighbor for a painless history lesson.

Disney's crystal-ball gazers hit it again - proved by their numbers this week. I don't know how they do it.

This movie is cheesy. It has okay acting and an interesting story but the music is what really won me over. They're upbeat and filled with fun. They're the type of songs that make you want to dance and are super catchy. The characters were not great. I didn't feel a connection to any of them. It's a fun summer movie but it does not compare to High School Musical or Lemonade Mouth.

If you liked the 60's beach movies, Grease and HSM, you might like this too.

Reviewers who want character development, award winning acting and such should lighten up! This is a spoof of the corny, tongue in cheek "Beach" movies of the 60's.

My 7 year old daughter loved the dancing and musical numbers, as did I. It's very corny, the music and dance numbers were surprisingly good. The wardrobe and hair were exactly as goofy as kid might see them if they saw the 60's films now.

It's a fun, entertaining, corny (get it), harmless film....watch it, expect nothing, enjoy it for what is!!

TBM is a movie about being in a movie - as our two stars find themselves going from 2012 back to 1962 and becoming part of a Teen Beach Movie.

This is good solid Disney fare - it looks very Disney - the colors are bright, the mood is up, the song and dance numbers are beyond professional etc; and it is fun - it's fun because we know that they know that we know that this movie in a movie (if you're still with me) - it all just works well.

There is more going here than just a time travel surf movie - there is a real homage and detailing to those Sixties movies that is surprising. Our kids loved it and so did we - on one level its a fun summer movie for kids with dance and innocent romance, on a level it has something to say about film and roles - surprising!

This movie was alright for the most part. Wasn't entirely good but wasn't entirely bad either. It's been a good while since I've seen it but from what I remember it was pretty decent.