Having actually watched this (while doing other stuff!), I was left to wonder: who really watched these movies when they first came out? I was in elementary school through the 'beach movie era', and found them lame and vapid then
I found sharper wit, and more emotive acting, in my Saturday morning Bugs/RoadRunner/Sylvester cartoons.
I'd really love to know how "It's a Bikini World" got written, made, and put together. There's just so much that's wrong.
I'm not looking for gritty realism, but the jokes are so, so bad if one understands the difference between a joke and groaner, these are groaners. The slapstick is awkward and clumsy: check out the 'cake in the face' segment. These are supposed to be teens or, at least, the target audience for a magazine called 'Teen Scream' but Pickett was 29 in 1967. And, I might add, a mature 29.
The race segments, especially the 'cross-country' segment, were interminable and devoid of either humor or excitement, with the possible exception of the appearance of a camel-race segment.
So why did I even start to watch this? I was curious to see the musical acts. Now, remember, this movie was released in 1967, a time when a whole new sense of cool was evolving. And you really can't help but feel that the acts appearing in this movie knew that all to well. Each of them has something approaching a teeth-clenched "We've got to get new management " look about them. Except for The Animals. Now remember, the Monterey Pop Fest was held in 1967 Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin and The Who were the cutting edge, and time has told us that's definitely where Eric Burdon wanted to go. The Animals were unraveling, and it was a substantially revised line-up that released the fairly psychedelic "Winds of Change" album only a few months later. All this just to lead into: with all due respect to the other reviewer, I have never seen a performer so stoned and so looking like he wanted to be somewhere else than Eric Burdon when singing "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place."
I'd really love to know how "It's a Bikini World" got written, made, and put together. There's just so much that's wrong.
I'm not looking for gritty realism, but the jokes are so, so bad if one understands the difference between a joke and groaner, these are groaners. The slapstick is awkward and clumsy: check out the 'cake in the face' segment. These are supposed to be teens or, at least, the target audience for a magazine called 'Teen Scream' but Pickett was 29 in 1967. And, I might add, a mature 29.
The race segments, especially the 'cross-country' segment, were interminable and devoid of either humor or excitement, with the possible exception of the appearance of a camel-race segment.
So why did I even start to watch this? I was curious to see the musical acts. Now, remember, this movie was released in 1967, a time when a whole new sense of cool was evolving. And you really can't help but feel that the acts appearing in this movie knew that all to well. Each of them has something approaching a teeth-clenched "We've got to get new management " look about them. Except for The Animals. Now remember, the Monterey Pop Fest was held in 1967 Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin and The Who were the cutting edge, and time has told us that's definitely where Eric Burdon wanted to go. The Animals were unraveling, and it was a substantially revised line-up that released the fairly psychedelic "Winds of Change" album only a few months later. All this just to lead into: with all due respect to the other reviewer, I have never seen a performer so stoned and so looking like he wanted to be somewhere else than Eric Burdon when singing "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place."