Watch California Dreaming For Free

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Best movie ever!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I wanted to see this movie, to show my husband what life was like growing up in SoCal hanging out at the beach in the 1970's. I didn't think it would be much of a movie but hoped that it would capture some of the "scene" as I remembered it... I was not disappointed! I "thought" I saw some of the kids I went to high school with in the background... I "thought" I was seeing old landmarks I remembered... I was really surprised to find it was filmed on the central coast, and that pretty much everyone in it was an actor! If you want to see a film that truly captures that time... early to mid 1970's in SoCal (Newport, Huntington, Laguna, Capistrano) THIS is the movie to watch... Yes, we were THAT shallow and yet uninvolved with everything going on in the "real world" because THE BEACH and anything that happened there was ALL that mattered... the sun DID shine like diamonds off the surface of the water...there were small crowds of people and wide open spaces of beach everyday... guys were obsessed with surfing and girls were obsessed with getting the guy... WHAT a Time Capsule! The acting is good in that these are all actors yet they portrayed the "scene" so well if you lived through it like I did, you just might be asking yourself if you know them... the storyline is not too far off from real life at that time either... but you had to live then and there for it to be real for you... I can almost smell the Coppertone...

This movie was released in 1979 and is different from both the purely exploitative (or "sexploitative") 70's films that came before it or the more adolescent-themed 80's films that came after it (the male protagonist here is definitely pretty horny and probably a virgin, but the movie is more than just the usual allegedly hilarious quest to "lose it"). The acting is really good, especially that of Dennis Christopher who plays the "fish-out-of-water" main protagonist (and who really should have gone farther than the other Dennis, Quaid, with whom he starred in "Breaking Away" that same year), and perennial character actor Seymour Cassel, who plays an older surfer who takes the protagonist under his wing.The female cast is headed by Glynnis O'Connor, who plays Casell's daughter and the protagonist's improbable love interest. She is not a great actress, but is certainly easy to look at (and she provides all the movie's nudity). Supporting parts go to Tanya Roberts and Stacy Nelkin, but unfortunately the less talented one (Roberts) gets the much bigger (and regrettably non-naked) role as the neglected girlfriend of an egotistical surfer. There's a lot of gratuitous surfing (this being a California movie and all), but not as much of the dumb hijinks you usually find in these movies (OK, there is a stupid side-story involving one dumb guy who has to spend a month in his car as part of some bet he made with a rich kid, all so the rich kid can secretly get it on with the guy's gold-digging girlfriend. . .).This movie kind of resembles "Malibu Beach", but with better acting and more of a plot. It probably wouldn't have gotten made a couple years later after "Porky's" had set the horny-teenagers-trying-to-"lose-it" template firmly in stone. But it is quite a bit more realistic than deluge of "teen comedies" that followed that later film, and (for me anyway) that makes it much more interesting.

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.