California Dreaming (1979)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Strictly average movie

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Dennis Christopher of "Breaking Away" fame delivers a solid, engaging performance as T.T., a gawky, disenchanted, fresh out of high school adolescent hick from Chicago who comes to the cool California beaches to find women, contentment and excitement by becoming actively involved in the allegedly thrilling surfing lifestyle. Unfortunately, T.T. only discovers that the anomie and dissatisfaction he's trying to avoid in life are an intrinsic, albeit often ignored and unspoken part of the actually nothing terribly stirring surfing lifestyle.An appealingly off-beat seriocomic youthful rites of passage outing from -- and radical departure for -- American International Pictures, "California Dreaming" makes for a neat, incisive, slyly revisionist beach movie feature which refuses to mindlessly glorify the sport's empty hedonistic mentality; instead the film offers an illuminating expose of the drab, shallow, aimless workaday reality behind the great American myth of surfing while also tossing in some fine insights into love, growing up, responsibility, unfulfilled desires and unattainable, but still persistent dreams. Moreover, it's marvelously acted by a stand-out cast: the always delightful Seymour Cassel as Duke, the amiable, garrulous, aging volleyball playing beach bum bar owner who takes T.T. under his wing; the comely, golden-haired, very under-appreciated Glynnis O'Connor as Duke's somewhat snobby, but generally sweet daughter Corky, who wants T.T. to shuck surfing and dedicate himself to a more mature, useful occupation in life; Dorothy Tristan as Duke's still ardent and interested old flame Fay, the adorable Stacey ("Get Crazy," "Halloween III: Season of the Witch") Nelkin as vacuous, promiscuous beach bunny Marsha, and even a pre-"Charlie's Angels" Tanya Roberts as Stephanie, a stuck-up rich princess who can't get her unfaithful tube-blowing boyfriend to seriously commit to their relationship.Directed with trademark acuity, facility and sensitivity by the ever observant and eternally underrated John ("Bang the Drum Slowly," "Weeds") Hancock, with a sound, absorbing, fairly intricate and highly accurate script by Ned Wynn (who also co-stars as shiftless surfer dude Earl), lovely, sunny cinematography by Bobby Byrne, and a fun, breezy soundtrack (the folk-rock group America sing a few nice, catchy songs), this shamefully neglected and radiant gem qualifies as a charming, leisurely placed, often wryly amusing, sometimes dreamily (and genuinely) erotic, quite honest and cogent exploration of boredom and restlessness that benefits substantially from its funny, delicate, warm-hearted handling of its endearing assortment of everyday oddball characters. An utterly winsome and well-done little sleeper.

This movie starts out like some light hearted goof. I thought it was going to be like caddyshack or meatballs or something. Then about half way through, I'm getting into it. It feels like a bunch of people I know, and its almost like hanging out with them. As the movie winds down toward the end of summer, you can feel it like a kid who just wants 20 more minutes before he has to go to bed. The drama starts to creep into the comedy and you never see it coming. Finally, you get blindsided and before you know it, you're moved almost to tears.Someone said it felt more like 75 than 79. I agree. It actually felt older than that, except for the cars. Great movie.

I happened to surf (pardon the pun) in on this movie the other night. As it appeared to be from the late 1970's I decided to see what it was about….My first thought was that it seemed a bit older than it really was. The `look' of the movie was more, 1975, than 1979. I usually look for the cars in the flick to date it. And near the end a 1977 Cadillac sits in the background of a shot, so I put my date at '77, but was surprised to see the date of 1979.An earlier poster mentioned that this was one of the grand daddy's of the 80's `Boy+boobs' types of movies. That works for me, as you get a little bit of what most male teenagers wanted at the movies. As I was 18 when this came out, I can speak from experience. Give us some pretty girls, a little gratuitous nudity, a little drug use, toss in liquor, and the beach. Perfect! I also noticed an earlier poster mentioned the sound track was different than they had remembered. Not surprising, as copy write laws mess w/movies. I thought the music when I saw it in 2003 was awful. I suspect whatever original tracks by known artists got yanked, and replaced with the cheezy tunes used when shown on television.+minor spoiler+I was surprised at the plot twist near the end. No, you don't see it coming. Worth a look if you want to relive your youth, or there isn't much else on the TV.

I have just recently seen this movie for the first time in almost 20 years. Originally, the final credits rolled while we heard the Eagles signing their great version of California Dreaming. But the current version has some mindless, goofy music at that point. I find it unbelievable that the movie California Dreaming no longer is shown containing the song of the same name.