Zuma Beach (1978)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Pop singer in Los Angeles is told the record business has forgotten her--she had a hit single two years ago, but her last album lost money. She responds to this rejection by driving to the beach, her childhood sanctuary, to play in the sand and flirt with the impressionable kids. This is history repeating itself: a sun-kissed 1970s update of the beach party genre, which hadn't been in vogue since the mid-'60s. Although written by John Carpenter (in his salad days) and William Schwartz, from a treatment by John Herman Shaner and Alvin Ramrus, this TV-movie has sunshine and wet sand to spare but doesn't have the hormone-crazed teenager lingo down right (everyone under 18 talks like a beleaguered adult). Suzanne Somers, still riding high with "Three's Company", shows polish in the lead, but the younger players are hit-and-miss. Rosanna Arquette needs help rolling a joint, P.J. Soles is tired of playing volleyball, Timothy Hutton is training to be a lifeguard, Michael Biehn ("J.D.") ruins Suzanne's sandcastle, and Tanya Roberts (with a belly-chain) is a knockout pretending to be just another dateless chick in the crowd. Not credible for an instant, and embarrassing when it tries for seriousness, but at least the scenarists keep it relatively clean. These kids want romance! How's that for a beach come-on?

Spoilers This movie has good points and many unrealistic points. Suzzanne Sommers plays Bonnie a recording artist, who bursts on this beach scene getting tremendous attention from the teenagers who come to the beach. Then the viewers discover as Bonnie does, there are many twists, ties and problems, in the teenagers lives within the story. Bonnie befriends many of the teenagers and almost magically proceeds to straighten things out.Just to add to the charm of the movie are Roseanne Arquette, Tanya Roberts prior to their fame. Not to mention PJ Soles who carries a lot of the movie.Also added to the movie, to, I guess, help make you feel like you're at a beach, are intermixing shots of people walking in front of the action in their bathing suits, every couple seconds.

I was 15 when this ABC movie of the week came out. Miss Somers being hot off the second season of Three's Company and growing in popularity, was adorable in this beach movie. Shot on the West Coast, the scenery was breathtaking. In 1978, i'm sure that executives at ABC must have wanted to capitalize on this 'Blonde of the hour' but giving her this role. Her acting in this movie was fine. It wasn't a comedy like Three's company, but it was more on relationships and the coming of age with these teenage kids. I liked the way she talked to the teenagers, she was some kind of mother figure to them. Anyway she was real pretty and really approachable. I like Suzanne Somers, i think of all the sex bombs of the 70's she's the one that aged most gracefully.

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!!!!!!!