Customer Reviews

Summer Dreams - The Story of the Beach Boys (1990 TV Movie) [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Bruce Greenwood gives the performance of his lifetime in this made for TV classic soap operaish drama about the boys of summer. I caught this on TV in 1995 at the age of 11, I really didn't understand a lot of it then but it gave me a better understanding of my favorite band at the time. Most Beach Boys fans and critics absolutely HATE this film and The Beach Boys themselves probably think it's awful also. The film is based on the book by Stephen Gaines called "Heroes and Villians" (which is quite trashy if I say so myself). The book is based on various interviews that I personally believe to be about 90% true. The book is filled with mass stuff that they couldn't put in the movie so "Summer Dreams" is kind of watered down to a degree. Greenwood plays the troubled drummer in the band, Dennis Wilson and he does an excellent job. The only problem is he looks 32 throughout the whole film instead of being 18. The guy who was cast as Mike Love is perfect as well as the gentleman who plays Murry Wilson. This movie focuses a little too much at times on Dennis and his death, Carl Wilson has died also since this film came out so it's a little bit dated. If you want a more up to date film regarding the Beach Boys, check out the John Stamos (very watered down)mini series "The Beach Boys: An American Family". This is a much longer/detailed story of the Beach Boys and it was officially approved by the Beach Boys themselves, their actual music is used in the film although the actors poorly lip sync throughout the whole movie. If you want the real story though, buy "Summer Dreams", it's worth the money for a true beach boy fan.

It's hard to believe that all of the Beach Boy's music in this TV movie has been recreated by other artists.
Kudos to Jay Levy the musical director for an incredible job.

Excellent momentary entertainment. The "God Only Knows" sequence is beautiful and entertaining. I've been listening to the Beach Boys ever since this film came out on TV.

A GREAT MURRAY WILSON > Arlen Dean Snyder. He should've been in the 2000 release "The Beach Boys: An American Family" as Murray and not in this cheesy re-make with a "really short" Brian Wilson. Kevin Dunn as Murray is okay in "The Beach Boys: An American Family" but Snyder "is" Murray Wilson.

I can't let our "11-year old viewer" do all the work on this interesting 'B' TV-movie (good work, kid.. I've seen your other reviews, too.. turn the caps lock off, though.. ok? (--: ) - I didn't know too much in the early 90's (when I first saw this thing) about the life of the early Beach Boys - I had heard that Brian Wilson had 'weirded out' somewhat.. so, this film, with its uncompromising look at the abusive, hard-driving father, Murray, hit me like a rock.. it also showed the troubled personality of a very unhappy Dennis Love and speculated on what might have led to his drowning.. the critics didn't like this presentation too much, and it's overshadowed by THE BEACH BOYS: AN AMERICAN FAMILY now, I suppose.. but, of the two, I still prefer "Summer Dreams." it's shorter, and there's no candy-coated tribute words about Murray at the end either. You will understand what Brian Wilson meant when he sang about needing sanctuary "In My Room". With Wilson's recent beyond-belief performance at the Queen's Party in Britain, let's hope the dude is finally enjoying some peace of mind..

Note: this review was written by two people.


This is a truly awful TV version of the Beach Boys Story. None of the actors even come close to capturing the real people they are playing, with the actor playing Carl Wilson being the absolute worst. With casting this poor I guess we should just be glad that Karen Lamm was not played by Moms Mabley. I mean seriously. there are hours and hours of footage of the real Beach Boys to study - didn't anyone bother to watch any of it? A lot of the costumes and make-up are also poorly done, even by low-budget TV movie standards. The long hair and big 70s beards look like cheap disguises that were stolen off the Halloween clearance rack at Wal-Mart. Brian's "sideburns" in one scene look more like Chia Pets in need of some pruning. Of course, We probably shouldn't put-down Chia Pets, as a Chia might have done a better job of fact-checking than the screenwriters of this movie. A whole lot of things are just factually wrong - from small details like the types of guitars used, to medium-sized gaffes like the order in which the Beach Boys biggest hits were released, to major offenses such as the way the death of Dennis Wilson is portrayed. In real life, Dennis's "friends" were drunk and didn't stop him from diving into the water, nor notice him missing, nor call the Coast Guard for hours. The way it's portrayed in this movie, everyone was so sober-minded and heroic that you almost expect the "Baywatch" theme to kick-in as David Hasslehoff runs down the beach to save the day. Also, the casting of Bruce Greenwood as Dennis seems ironic...Ironic because he seems to be playing someone other than Dennis Wilson. We also got quickly annoyed with the writers penchant for "cutely" dropping Beach Boys song titles and lyrics into people's conversations - after the first few We were thinking; "Would It Be Nice" if this movie was over! For those of you who love trivia, it's interesting to note that for the video release of this film the tagline was changed from "The Story of the Beach Boys" to "The Naked Truth About the Beach Boys". This simply means that they added a few topless ladies that weren't seen in the TV broadcast. Sadly, the actors playing Carl & Brian are still the biggest boobs in the movie. All in all, This movie is to Beack Boys fans what the films of Ed Wood are to serious sci-fi buffs - something that is so bad it's fun to laugh-out-loud to once, but you probably wouldn't want to revisit too often.

I'm a long time fan of the Beach Boys having spent my life since the age of ten listening to their music and having read Heros and Villians by Steven Gaines. The book goes into much more detail but the movie hits some of the high points.
I especially liked the portrayal of Dennis and Brian and Murray.
It's worth your time to see it.

I am a Beach Boys fan. Let's get that out of the way first. I have trouble being objective about them and their music. I also have read, watched and studied many books, videos and articles about them over the last over 30 years.

So, for me this movies was a must see based on all of that. And I kind of liked it. It is more from Dennis Wilson's point of view (or at least the writers and producers version of that) and therefore some of the other Beach Boys get short shrift. Also, the music is NOT the Beach Boys performing, however, it is pretty good ( I think former Beach Boys band member and current Brian Wilson Band member, Jeffrey Foskett had something to do with it).

As for the movie itself: it is dramatically at least a notch better than AN AMERICAN FAMILY, which suffers from classic "Movie of the Week" syndrome: campy overacting, some ridiculous conflation of parts of the history (this one has a lot of that also) and some stupid writing. Truth is, I like both movies, God help me, because they tell the story, albeit very truncated and Hollywood versions of the story.

If you are a true Beach Boys fan, and like me some what obsessive-compulsive and need to have everything by or about the Beach Boys, you will probably want this, if only to have fun putting it down. IF you are someone who does not know much about the Beach Boys and wants to know more, I would go for the documentary ENDLESS HARMONY instead. It too has its bias and flaws, but it features the real Beach Boys talking about their music and their life (and each other!), as well as some great rare performances and recordings.

This is more of a dramatic "shortcut", that while not bad, is not great either. It is entertaining though, and not expensive.

When I purchased this DVD I was thinking this was the VH1 original movie that I saw years ago. It's not but it's not bad. The VH1 movie was better as it centered on Brian Wilson and his problems. This movie is centered on Dennis Wilson and his problems. As any Beach Boy fan knows, Brian was the genius behind the music. Dennis wasn't a real contributor to the music. He could barely play drums and wasn't much of a singer either.

The VH1 movie was also more about the music! It showed how Brian was inspired by Phil Spector's Wall-Of-Sound production style and how Brian incorporated it to his own use starting with the album Pet Sounds.

This movie is about Dennis and his rebel ways. The guy playing Charles Manson isn't even as good as the VH1 movie. This Manson looks like he's wearing a fake wig and beard (which he no doubt is).

For some reason, I can't find a DVD version of the VH1 movie. I would love to have a copy of it. When it aired on VH1, I recorded it onto VHS but it has since been lost. Believe me. That was a much better version of the story of The Beach Boys.

This is a terrible, exploitive movie. Rent it on Netflix, it's not worth owning.