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Reviews
Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach Boys (1990)
Decent Beach Boys Bio
As others have stated, this movie definitely feels crammed. How can you accurately depict a full Beach Boys Bio in a 90 minute tv movie? You just can't. But under the circumstances, they did a pretty decent job here. I do wish they would have given the year each time they jumped around. It was confusing to keep up with where they were going, although it seems like they focused on the early 60's to maybe 1984, just after Dennis died. The movie played out more like a Dennis bio than anything else. Sure they focused on Brian too, but not nearly as in depth as Dennis. I suppose you would need several years of a tv series to fully capture everything about the Beach Boys. The music in this movie is just some imitation band, but it's not half bad. Obviously they had to gloss over quite a bit and they barely got into Brian's mental illness and years long reclusive behavior. If you're a Beach Boys fan, this is definitely worth a watch. Overall it's interesting and some good performances, especially by Bruce Greenwood.
Meatballs (1979)
If it wasn't for Bill Murray
Bill Murray makes this movie, plain and simple. If it wasn't for him, this would probably be mostly forgotten. Not that the supporting characters aren't great. But Bill's early comedic genius (and really a little dramatic ability) really shines in this movie. The friendship between him and the boy brings some substance to the plot. It's interesting to know they came back and filmed additional scenes with him and Rudy. And of course his inspirational speech during the Olympiad is a classic! There are lot of quotable lines he brings to this movie that are still popular to this day. If you are a Bill Murray fan, this is a must see. Not to be taken seriously, but definitely funny and provides a good bit of late 70's nostalgia.