It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

You would have had to have grown up with these incredibility corny movies to find them even mildly interesting. I did. But the one take-away was when the native girl says to Frankie " here on the island, we have a saying 'if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with". Now, did I hear that correctly? Sure enough, next scene, 'Cassandra" says the exact same line at the beach party. Now did Stephen Stills really get this line from Billy Preston for his first solo hit single? "Love the One You're With" Or did he watch this movie five years earlier and forget where he first heard this line?

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965)* 1/2 (ouout of 4) Frankie (Frankie Avalon) is serving in the Navy on a beautiful island when he gets worried that Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) might not be being faithful so he goes to Bwana (Buster Keaton) for a potion. Back in the states Dee Dee finds herself desired by a man while a bikini salesman (Mickey Rooney) is looking for the next big model.HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI would bring the original Beach Party series to an end and while it's better than SKI PARTY there's no doubt that the series had ran its course and the final two pictures were rather lame to say the least. In fact, this last installment only has a few scenes of Avalon who was apparently cut out of the original screenplay when he asked for a pay raise.The film's biggest problem is that it really doesn't have much of a story and instead we've just got a bunch of half-brained scenes that don't add up to much. The Avalon stuff is just lame and the Funicello stuff isn't much better as they had to shoot her in full clothes (while everyone else is in bikinis) because she was pregnant in real life. Rooney gives an energetic performance but poor Keaton isn't given much to do.For the most part this was a decent series but there's no doubt that the final two movies were made just to try and milk whatever success was left. Neither film were all that good so sadly the series came to a bad end.

The second to last Beach Party movie. In this one Frankie Avalon is separated from Annette Funicello by being in the Naval Reserve. While on an island he gets a witch doctor (Buster Keaton!) to see if Annette is being faithful to him. Keaton sends a pelican (???) to spy on Annette. Meanwhile handsome, attractive Ricky (Dwayne Hickman) is hitting on her. Then there's Mickey Rooney looking for the boy next door and girl next door for an ad campaign.Even for a beach party movie this is pretty desperate. Funicello looks way too old to be hanging out at the beach (and her pregnancy is clearly visible); the dialogue is more inane than usual; the songs are (to be nice) terrible; the jokes are stubbornly unfunny; Hickman is as bland as they come (even worse than Chris O'Donnell); Harvey Lembeck returns as the incredibly unfunny Eric von Zipper; the "comical" motorcycle race at the end is incredibly stupid; and it's kind of sad seeing Keaton and Rooney reduced to this. Still, this is kind of fun in a silly sort of way. It's not even remotely good but I kept watching. The Claymation opening is fun and I did laugh out loud at the "Bewitched" joke at the end. Also this is perfect for young kids. So it's not good but it's harmless. It's certainly better than the next (and last) beach party movie "Ghost in the Invisible Bikini"!

Fairly desperate "Beach Party" entry (the sixth in the series!) has Annette Funicello contemplating a new boyfriend while Frankie Avalon is overseas. Enter...Dwayne Hickman? Frankie actually has a rather large cameo role for not receiving a livelier billing, and there's a cute ending, but these kids are starting to look more mature and their hijinks are starting to get musty. Annette sings two solo numbers and a duet, and she's perky and attractive despite being covered up to conceal her real-life pregnancy. The rest is mediocre, particularly leading man Hickman (eternally bland) and supporting player Mickey Rooney (game but charmless). ** from ****