Beach Girls (2005) User Reviews

Better than I expected

[MovieAddict2016 · 7/10 · 28 September 2005]

I had no intention of watching "Beach Girls," but I ended up being stuck between something or nothing... I chose something.

I actually found the miniseries quite enjoyable. At first I was like, "Oh yeah, right, this will be real fun," but as time progressed I found myself glued to the screen. The end of the first episode is a real pain - they purposely leave you hanging... I felt like an 80-year-old granny watching her "stories"! Rob Lowe stars as a big city attorney who decides to take his teenaged daughter to a beach named Hubbard's Point, where he and the girl's mother met years before and grew up.

His daughter at first resents having to move there but quickly makes friends with local girls - in particular a feisty and strong blonde-haired girl who refuses to have sex with anyone.

This leads to a subplot involving a gang of boys making a bet over whether the lady's man can get her into bed.

Other stuff happens - Lowe's old female friend/his dead wife's ex-best friend pops up as a possible romantic interest and Lowe's daughter becomes friends with her against his wishes...so on and so forth.

Give this show a go. You may find yourself surprised by how entertaining it is. And for what it's worth, the acting is pretty strong considering it's a made-for-TV program.

Beach Movie Determined To Downgrade Men.

[jehaccess6 · 7/10 · 8 April 2008]

I liked this mini-series so much, I watched it in one go! All the female characters were interesting and basically people you would like to know, despite their human frailties. The men came off much the worse in this production. The female writers obviously had an Axe to grind in their opinion of the males of the species. Still, the young female eye candy kept the male audience engaged.

I was mostly interested in watching Julia Ormond again after watching her in 'Sabrina' about 100 times. She has changed drastically over the 10 years between the two productions, having had a baby the year before 'Beach Girls'. Julia mastered an American accent for this effort, never even attempting not to sound British for 'Sabrina'.

Rob Lowe portrayed 'Jack Kilvert' the most self-centered, insensitive, nasty-mouthed, jerk imaginable. The female writers must have chuckled over handing Rob the script to portray such an unlovable character. At least they didn't have him display an unhealthy interest in under-aged girls as happened in real life a few years ago. The script at least allowed 'Jack' to mellow over the course of the production, absorbing wisdom at the feet of his teen-aged daughter 'Nell' and old flame 'Stevie'.

There are few positives in the male characters here. They only improve when they realize that they are hopeless cases devoid of any virtue until they submit their wills to the infinitely wiser females in their life. Only the few hopeless Neanderthal males never realize what bliss they are missing by refusing to bow the knee.

I watched some of the lifeguard scenes with a vague sense of familiarity that troubled me. Then it hit me, these scenes could easily have appeared on 'Baywatch'. I half expected Pamela Anderson to saunter past the camera. Still, 'Beach Girls' rises firmly above the abysmal level of 'Baywatch', faint praise as that is.

Beach Girls is Great

[bizybea2002 · 10/10 · 22 August 2005]

I wish they would make a real weekly series and run it for at least 52 weeks. I think the crew of actors are great in the Beach Girls. It is a Good old down to earth American Life Style Story. I could watch it every Night. Thank You for letting me vote and comment on the show.I think more down to earth shows should be on TV. We have more than 100 channels of nothing but News and silly shows, we need some Stories with some real life type plots. Anyone with a Family and Teanagers should appreciate a show like this. I think Beach Girls could be the best thing that has happened to TV since Dallas. We are due some real Life like shows and if i were allowed to vote on this one twice, I would.

Bea

Beach Girls series

[wlynnr · 9/10 · 11 October 2005]

I found Beach girls to be refreshing and interesting. Would love to see it come back as a weekly series. The reality shows are jokes. There are a few good comedy shows on and a few good mystery shows such as LOST, etc. This could be a great weekly series to show how the girls deal with the teen years and go into adult-hood. It would also be nice to see where the relationship could go for Jack and Stevie. Also could deal with more of the past of the previous beach girls with the relationships they had among each other. Was interesting to find out that Jack & Stevie had a relationship before he married. Life at the beach can be refreshing to what's on TV now.

Bad. No, horrible. No, really like so totally horrible.

[hhfarm-1 · 2/10 · 19 July 2010]

This is soap-opera bad: dialogue, story, plot, and acting. It wouldn't be worth discussing but all 6 reviews here are positive. K?

Mom died. Dad takes 16-year-old daughter to the beach he goes to every summer. Except this is somehow her 1st time there? She meets new boy and girl friends. They are snooty at 1st but they open up later and a real bond develops as they share problems/ hopes/ aspirations/ concerns.

Daughter's dealing with issues about her mom's death. Her new friends struggle with various issues while their parents have issues too. Other townspeople have various other issues.

Her dad has issues but he has help from a hot young girlfriend, whom daughter dislikes. This is complicated by some passion between dad and a maybe ex-, who was one of the dead mom's 3 best friend's. The 3rd best friend is dad's sister, who has a drinking problem and was driving the car when mom was killed.

Dad finds out mom had a secret life (bank account, affair, more). And dad has a job offer in CA. Will he turn it down in favor of his family? Find out in episode 6.

Cloris Leachman has old house that will be torn down if the new highway goes through. Bribes may be involved w/ the highway plan. A local cop is having sex with an underage girl. Someone's brother died of leukemia and her mother still has issues about that.

The story unfolds as follows: Some characters have an emotional encounter; someone storms out, visibly upset; he or she walks along the beach; then goes to someone to pour out his/ her feelings. Repeat over and over. Virtually every scene change is precipitated by a long camera shot of a pained facial expression.

Everyone's well-to-do but, hey, the wealthy have real emotions too. Oh lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.

You can fast-forward through entire sections without missing any material aspects of the story. Although you might miss key lines eg. "It's no good if I have to ask you if you care when I needed to know how much you cared. And now I can't"; "How well did you REALLY know your wife?"; "I need to know what happened that night."

Net, it's the movie equivalent of teenage girls texting each other "OMG I bet it's not the 1st time she let him touch her there."

The only plus is that Julia Ormond's is often braless and her headlights are on all the time - even when she's sitting quietly in hot sun. OTOH, her accent comes and goes.

Every time I watch a TV-movie I'm nonplussed and how dreadful it is. Presumably this is what TV viewers want. It's pretty sad.

Lowe's not much of an actor but he heads above anyone else (Ormond doesn't have much of a role). In his reflection it's amazing to see how pathetic directing, acting, and scripting can be - and still make it to the screen.

beach girls

[iycediamonds · 10/10 · 18 December 2005]

very good mini series, I didn't think I would like the show but I did. Does anyone know if there is going to be a rerun of this mini series and if so when we it be. Too bad it wasn't on the TV line up. I wondered what Rob Lowe was going to do after West Wing I hope he gets involved with another mini series. The series was perfectly cast. It was extremely enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately I missed the last show in the series. I truly hope the show comes back with some reruns for those of us who missed some of the shows. It was one of the more enjoyable mini series. TV land needs more shows along this line. I hope they bring more to TV land.

Beach Girls A Surprise Hit in My Book

[Brookic0 · 10/10 · 28 August 2005]

I loved Beach Girls! At first I was critical, because Stevie Moore (Julia Ormond) looked older than Rob Lowe's character and they were supposed to be the same age and Nell's character is a little drab looking. However, when I got into it a little bit, it was really good. It had well thought out characters and a strong steady plot line. I haven't read the book, but if it is as good as the movie, I think I might. I am a big Rob Lowe fan but, the only thing I was disappointed in was Jack, Rob Lowe's character. He came across as a jerk, I hoped that it would get better as it went along, but he always came across that way. I was truly impressed with the actresses that played Clare, Skye, and Nell. Stevie ended up being a good character as well. I would recommend Beach Girls to anyone....I would also like to see more of these books made into mini series things...