"It was the '60s! And even the good girls knew that O.D. meant Ocean Drive.."
Various teenaged thirty-somethings - a gang of girls from "Leon College" and a group of lads from "A Great Southern University (not the one you think)" - head off to the infamous Ocean Drive for a weekend of drinking, dancing, and whatever else kids in the '60s did for fun. If they were anything like our protagonists in Ocean Drive Weekend, it seems they didn't do much at all.
Jeanie is feeling lovestruck, hung up on her ex-boyfriend Danny, much to her best friend Linda's dissatisfaction. "Ah hell, let's not start that again - Danny is the biggest slug in North America!".
Next we've got Alan; the kid so desperate not to be drafted that he is willing to shoot a hole in his foot to prevent the inevitable. His pal Kirk is the funnyman of the bunch, having earlier stolen a motorbike and somehow lost it in the sea, to his amusement.
Serious Chuck and overweight party animal Miller are on a mission to find themselves some women but instead have too much to drink and get in trouble with local cops the next morning when they go out for breakfast and find they have no cash to pay for their meals. Miller insists they escape by jumping off of the pier, but as they swim to shore they are greeted by and unimpressed cafe owner and police. Luck changes for Chuck when he later meets Jeanie and falls head over heels for her, and they dance the night away with the rest of the kids at a Rivieras gig.
Two of Miller's pals, Hank and Billy, borrow his Dodge and go cruisin', but when they decide to poke fun of some guys from another college, it begins a chain of disastrous events that winds up involving half of the kids at Ocean Drive! When Miller gets his car back later that evening, he is stopped and kidnapped by the same college kids who'd earlier been taunted by his pals. The police then find his beat up dodge abandoned at the end of the street and when word gets back to Hank and Billy, they vow to rescue Miller from the clutches of evil and recruit Mark, Chuck, Marsha and the rest of the kids to help.
VERDICT: ★ ½
Ocean Drive Weekend is a really obscure and somewhat bizarre movie. One look at the cover art on the vhs box and you'd assume what you were looking at was your typical eighties T&A beach romp. On further inspection of the cover, you'd notice the Troma logo, and your expectations would be lowered to "terrible eighties T&A beach romp". Unbelievably, Ocean Drive is a semi serious tale, with absolutely zero nudity or bad language (okay, the f-bomb is dropped once!), and is so tame that it only earned itself a PG:13 rating on release. Although the movie features beach scenes, the bikini-clad torso on the cover really does give the wrong impression, and I would go as far as to say that Ocean Drive IS a drama film. It is like Troma's response to American Graffiti. Perhaps another good comparison would be Shag The Movie - this is the amateur version, complete with godawful acting, over-ripe "stars", and not really a whole lot of plot.
Under The Boardwalk by The Drifters was used about four times in the movie - there's nothing wrong with that, of course, except for that it continually reminded me how I would have much rather been sitting watching Under The Boardwalk (1989), a much better beach movie.
Ocean Drive Weekend is a really obscure and somewhat bizarre movie. One look at the cover art on the vhs box and you'd assume what you were looking at was your typical eighties T&A beach romp. On further inspection of the cover, you'd notice the Troma logo, and your expectations would be lowered to "terrible eighties T&A beach romp". Unbelievably, Ocean Drive is a semi serious tale, with absolutely zero nudity or bad language (okay, the f-bomb is dropped once!), and is so tame that it only earned itself a PG:13 rating on release. Although the movie features beach scenes, the bikini-clad torso on the cover really does give the wrong impression, and I would go as far as to say that Ocean Drive IS a drama film. It is like Troma's response to American Graffiti. Perhaps another good comparison would be Shag The Movie - this is the amateur version, complete with godawful acting, over-ripe "stars", and not really a whole lot of plot.
Under The Boardwalk by The Drifters was used about four times in the movie - there's nothing wrong with that, of course, except for that it continually reminded me how I would have much rather been sitting watching Under The Boardwalk (1989), a much better beach movie.
Incredibly, Ocean Drive Weekend isn't quite as horrifying as you would think. Yes, the acting is nothing more than piss-poor, but where you'd presume it absolutely worthless, there are a few hidden surprises. That said, it is by no means a good movie, and wont ever be regarded as anything other than garbage. The ten or so central characters does make for a stupidly confusing story that it is best not to even try and follow, but it does deliver a few laughs, even if most are sort of unintentional (an example being one of the main characters - an overweight slobbish type who looks about forty and claims to still be a virgin). It seems, though, that Ocean Drive Weekend is destined to lurk in the cavernous depths of low-grade cinema for all of eternity. Do yourself a favour and leave it there.
IMAGES/VIDEOS: [movie clip]
SOUNDTRACK:
The following songs were featured in the movie:
IMAGES/VIDEOS: [movie clip]
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SOUNDTRACK:
The following songs were featured in the movie:
1. Showdown - Smitty Flynn & The Rivieras
2. Under The Boardwalk - The Drifters
3. Double Shot - Smitty Flynn & The Rivieras
4. It Will Stand - the Showmen
5. Peanut Butter - Smitty Flynn & The Rivieras
6. Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy - The Tams
7. 39-21-46 - Smitty Flynn & The Rivieras
8. Come Go With Me - Smitty Flynn & The Rivieras
9. Girl Watcher/Boy Watcher - Karen & Ron Killette
