Summer Dreams 1990

[carlydenise]

this movie is more focused on Denny than the band.  I liked An American Family much better, not to mention all the actors chosen to play the characters were spot on, they looked almost exactly like each character in American Family, well perhaps except for the BLONDE Van Dyke Parks  .......I don't know who did the casting on Summer Dreams, obviously they didn't know what the BB's looked like, except for maybe the girl who played Karen.
Carly

[HeyJude]

The 1990 movie is really a lot of fun, in a totally bad way. For those around me who I've shown the movie to, we often use quotes from the movie in conversation at random points for fun. There are some hilarious lines in the movie. "You're out of the band Buckwheat!",  "I can't have music in my head if I'm always on the road!", "Duh, Al!", and a bunch of others. Plus, the fake beards are legendary. The Murry is actually pretty good, better than the 2000 movie version. Then there is the fake Dennis song. Al has like one or two lines in the whole movie (one of them is "Cool it Brian!" or something along those lines when Brian goes nuts on the plane.)

The 2000 movie is just more disappointingly bad. The first part of it wasn't that bad, but the second part was a travesty. The 2000 movie wasn't without its bloopers either. In one scene Mike's beard starts coming off but they used the scene anyway.

My favorite review of the 2000 movie said something alone the lines of "Apparently ABC is going to make a Beach Boys movie every ten years until they get it right." (The 1990 movie was also on ABC).

So I'm wondering if we should expect another one in about three years.

[Rocker]

I don't know if that was just in the german synchronized version but at one point when Brian tells Dennis about his deaf ear, he says that he can hear every music only in stereo (!)...

I think Murry was great though and Mike was also well chosen, although the Mike from 2000's series was really looking like the original only with more hair. I liked Greenwood's performance but he doesn't look like Dennis. The fake-song was very beautiful btw. I think Brian was better played in "Summer dreams" than in the miniseries which show him as a complete idiot.

[Pretty Funky]

Did someone mention the beards?


http://www.brucegreenwood.com/mov-tv/summer/sd45.jpg

http://www.brucegreenwood.com/mov-tv/summer/smd8.jpg

[Beach Boy]

"An American Family" is way better. Really a beautiful film. "Summer Dreams" is bad. Just love the scene when Mike and Dennis are fighting. *looooool*

[carlydenise]

I don't know if that was just in the german synchronized version but at one point when Brian tells Dennis about his deaf ear, he says that he can hear every music only in stereo (!)...

I think Murry was great though and Mike was also well chosen, although the Mike from 2000's series was really looking like the original only with more hair. I liked Greenwood's performance but he doesn't look like Dennis. The fake-song was very beautiful btw. I think Brian was better played in "Summer dreams" than in the miniseries which show him as a complete idiot.

The fake-song is pretty...

[Sheriff John Stone]

I don't enjoy any of the movies, because I can't relax. They get my blood pressure rising. I'm literally yelling at the TV "he didn't say that", or "that doesn't even look like him", or "that's not when that happened", or "this is embarrassing".

Give me a well done documentary any day...

[wgolly]

I used the card to get a copy of endless harmony so no summer dreams for me I guess....

The beards were pretty incredible though.  Maybe they used the endless summer cover for inspiration.  If you can get it to the funeral scene on yutube, you'll see them.

[tpesky]

Is that the funeral scene where Carl and Al are the only 2 Beach Boys there and then Carl thanks Al for coming, not sure if Al has a response or just kind of nods. Its tough to remember, he might have said something like "I wouldn't have missed it"...his character only had 2 or 3 lines all movies.

[Kirk]

The real question is which Charles Manson is better....

I remember seeing Summer Dreams on TV twenty years ago and thinking how funny it was they cast Crispin Glover as the Wizard. I swear this guy at the 3 minute mark is doing Crispin Glover doing Charlie! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5taTzrv400

American Family's Charlie, on the other hand, is pretty dull http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkJB6LSyTbo&feature=relmfu (4 minute mark)

[Paul J B]

"An American Family" is way better. Really a beautiful film. "Summer Dreams" is bad. Just love the scene when Mike and Dennis are fighting. *looooool*

WHAT? ...........Was there "An American Family" that I missed and was a beautiful film 'cause the one I saw was  horrible. The one I saw made Brian out to be a a complete dolt.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

The real question is which Charles Manson is better....

I remember seeing Summer Dreams on TV twenty years ago and thinking how funny it was they cast Crispin Glover as the Wizard. I swear this guy at the 3 minute mark is doing Crispin Glover doing Charlie! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5taTzrv400

If this hadn't been made in 1990, I could swear it was Amy Poehler.

Despite how truly awful this movie is, it marked my first really big obsession with the band. I had liked them before but I loved them after this. I was 9 or 10 years old.

[37!ws]

Paul J B - actually, both movies in their own ways made Brian look odd in their own ways...like in Summer Dreams how he dressed when he went to the beach to call Dennis home.

And in An American Family...they made him look like an absolute raging lunatic (that is, more than he probably really is in real life)...how he was obsessing over how Mike was looking at one of the girls on the set of the "California Girls" TV shoot...

[Paul J B]

Paul J B - actually, both movies in their own ways made Brian look odd in their own ways...like in Summer Dreams how he dressed when he went to the beach to call Dennis home.

And in An American Family...they made him look like an absolute raging lunatic (that is, more than he probably really is in real life)...how he was obsessing over how Mike was looking at one of the girls on the set of the "California Girls" TV shoot...

I know. I thought they both sucked as do most people. I'm shocked that someone actually said "Family" was a beautiful film.

[Aegir]

And in An American Family...they made him look like an absolute raging lunatic (that is, more than he probably really is in real life)...how he was obsessing over how Mike was looking at one of the girls on the set of the "California Girls" TV shoot...

I mean, come on, the lipsync was terrible in that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ1UqDnY7as

[punkinhead]

I'm searching for this particular movie just as a "souvenir" from one of my earliest encounters with the BB world. (not the best one in retrospect!  )

American Family is my first encounter of the Beach Boys too! By the way I always thought that Kevin Dunn was WAY more effective as Murry than the Summer Dreams Murry. But I agree I dont like the Brian in American Family. But I think Mike and Murry look pretty realistic in American Family whereas the actors in Summer Dreams look pathetic (on the whole), especially Carl... who casted him as Carl?? If I saw that Summer Dreams movie first (thankfully I didnt) I would have thought "man these guys are gay" whereas luckily I saw An American Family and thought "wow, these guys are really cool and weird". And yes it had Brian acting like a weirdo too early in the piece but that just made me want to go and learn about this weird band. And I think I am right in saying that there is much more (though still ridled with errors) historical accuracy in An American Family, would that be right (I mean, Im guessing here, but does anyone agree?) I guess you could say I have a soft spot for An American Family

This is exactly the reason I got into the band in the first place.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

I really dig Bruce Greenwood in this. I know he doesn't look or sound like Dennis but you can tell he cared about his performance and wanted the "Dennis" character to have some depth.

[Pet Sounder]

Or how about the way they portrayed David Marks leaving the band in An American Family?  If memory serves correctly he complained about having to carry his own equipment and then yelled out "I hate you, Murry!  I quit!"  When I first saw that I knew next to nothing about David but something told me that wasn't exactly how it went down...

The Brian in both movies was terrible.  I'd love to someday see a decent Brian Wilson biopic circa 1965 - 1967.   

[Craig Boyd]

Summer Dreams' Charles Manson is ridiculous! He's like village scarecrow. But AF even funnier. There are many scenes that are very laughable. But also enough of sad things showed in this film.

What I dislike is that in both biopics Al's character is showed incorrectly and only in a few episodes not mentioning no one of 2 actors looks like Jardine. As Al's fan I certainly was disappointed by that.

On the other hand, actors who played Mike were fairly convincing. They like his twin bros. Guy from AF even has the same speaking voice as Mike! Anyway good acting work from two!               

Isn't Al about 6 feet tall in American Family?? 

The guy who played Mike in AF was uncanny in every way, even had the Love swagger! I think the guy in SD would make a good older Mike as he was a bit more "portly" shall we say. Dennis wasn't really captured that well in either film although I think both actors did try and get into the character but with someone as complex as Dennis was that's never going to happen really (same with Brian although his portrayal in AF is disgusting). Both Murry's were great I thought!

[Joel Goldenberg]

Yeah there's a lotta sh*t wrong with this film. The way they looked in certain years in the film isn't what they looked like in reality in those years and that fucking irritates me. Bruce Greenwood doesn't look like Dennis at all, the guy that played Brian didn't look like him, the guy that played Carl didn't look like him even slightly. And Bruce doesn't get any acknowledgment whatsoever in the movie. I went and bought it recently on dvd cuz I hadn't seen it in years and I still get irritated by a lotta the sh*t that they fowled up. And yeah Good Vibrations wasn't even mentioned; most of the film was about Dennis and his downfall. 

Bruce was mentioned, after the band says they had toured with Glen Campbell and they scoff about how he wants a solo career. Brian, in saying he no longer wants to go on the road, mentions Bruce as a replacement and cites the Rip Chords' Hey Little Cobra. The actor playing Bruce, natch, looked nothing like him, but at least they had him singing the right part in God Only Knows.

[NateRuvin]

I have this on tape and to answer one of your questions, no it doesnt have original music. So the actors sing the parts (and boy are they bad!!). But if you want a good laugh (as this movie gave me) then I recommend it, but just dont expect anything too spectacular. Just watch it knowing how much of a joke in terms of accuracy the movie really is and just approach the movie light-heartedly because if you expect it to be a great overview of the band then you'll be dissapointed. An American Family (the other TV movie) is MUCH better in my opinion.

I agree. Other than making Brian look like a fool in part two, I love American Family.

[Coda Hall]

An American Family was the first time I ever got to know the Boys. It was Summer 2012, the BB were in the middle of 50C, and I loved watching VH1 Classic. It happened be on one day, I watched it. It came on a few more times on TV, I knew I loved the Beach Boys. Personally, I love the film. SD is funny to watch, and AAF may not be the most accurate, but I still enjoyed the film, and I'm very thankful I choose to sit down that Summer day and watch TV, instead of actually go outside.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Or how about the way they portrayed David Marks leaving the band in An American Family?  If memory serves correctly he complained about having to carry his own equipment and then yelled out "I hate you, Murry!  I quit!"  When I first saw that I knew next to nothing about David but something told me that wasn't exactly how it went down...

According to David, that's pretty much how it went down. Maybe not those exact words, but the tenor thereof.

[Bud Shaver]

You're out of the band, buckwheat!

[Lonely Summer]

You're out of the band, buckwheat!

Well, it was network tv; the real dialogue was probably 'you're out of the bad muthaf---er!"