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Average User Score: 7 (7 sources)

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aplourey

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This is definitely one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Not just because of comedy, but how ridiculous the plot is. Florence Forrest cannot understand why the other girls flirt with the surf guys. She also can't understand why she doesn't...
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This is definitely one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Not just because of comedy, but how ridiculous the plot is. Florence Forrest cannot understand why the other girls flirt with the surf guys. She also can't understand why she doesn't have breasts. She becomes the first girl surfer, which shocks most of the surfer boys as they don't believe she'll be able to surf as surfing is a guy-only sport to them. She is named Chicklet by the other guys. She befriends the wise leader of the surf, Kanaka, the guru of the surf. She typically takes a liking to him, a liking that is a bit more than a friendship. But he isn't interested in her. Well not her exactly. He isn't interested in Chicklet. His affections go to a sexually aggressive woman named Ann Bowman. But Ann Bowman shares the same body as Florence. You see, Florence has schizophrenia. When she sees circles, she turns into Ann Bowman or Tylene, a sassy black woman who is very bossy and forceful. Every time she changes into a different personality, Florence blacks out and cannot remember what happened whilst in the trance. Only problem is, whenever she blacks out, someone dies. She becomes one of the suspects in the beach murders. I'll leave out the rest as you should see it. This is hilarious because of the stupidity of the plot.

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Posted dec 9, 2006 5:54 am pt

• [+] The New York Times
  
  80
  It is surprisingly timely.

  by Stephen Holden | Read Full Review »
• [+] Boston Globe
  
  75
  A little Hitchcock and some good Psycho fun at the beach.

  by Jay Carr | Read Full Review »
• [+] San Francisco Chronicle
  
  75
  If it doesn't always come off, enough headlong energy develops to carry it through.

  by Bob Graham | Read Full Review »
• [+] Austin Chronicle
  
  67
  Its cheeky, good fun is what makes Psycho Beach Party an enjoyable, if weightless, romp.

  by Marjorie Baumgarten | Read Full Review »
• [+] New York Daily News
  
  63
  Smart, fun and mildly subversive, but it rides the wave of its joke a little too long.

  by Jami Bernard | Read Full Review »
• [+] San Francisco Examiner
  
  63
  Overstays its welcome until the jokes curdle and the satire becomes a blunt instrument, but not before Busch throws some priceless one-liners.

  by Wesley Morris | Read Full Review »
• [+] Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  
  58
  For all its energy and inspired moments of giddy goofiness, Psycho Beach Party gets stuck in the sand.

  by Sean Axmaker | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Tribune
  
  50
  There's nothing here that's outrageous, startling or daring enough to give your funny bone a jolt.

  by Marc Caro | Read Full Review »
• [+] Miami Herald
  
  50
  While there is archival value in permanently recording this work on celluloid, the best way to really enjoy it remains live on stage.

  by Charles Savage | Read Full Review »
• [+] Portland Oregonian
  
  42
  Never maintains the spark necessary to sustain a feature film.

  by Kim Morgan | Read Full Review »
• [+] TV Guide
  
  40
  This unsubtle parody probably worked better on stage; its candy-colored artifice looks more than a little strained on film, and the actors are all trying really hard to be camp.

  by Maitland McDonagh | Read Full Review »
• [+] LA Weekly
  
  40
  Ultimately, Psycho...can't overcome the redundancy of parodying a genre that long ago sank into its own satiric muck.

  by Ernest Hardy | Read Full Review »
• [+] Film.com
  
  40
  The problem is, director Robert Lee King has a hard time sustaining the aimed-for camp tone, and while there are a few well-spaced giggles to be had, the movie sputters more than it soars for most of its 95 minutes.

  by Ernest Hardy | Read Full Review »
• [+] Los Angeles Times
  
  30
  Psycho Beach Party is, from the start, in dire need of the electroshock therapy that Florence ultimately undergoes.

  by Kevin Thomas | Read Full Review »
• [+] Village Voice
  
  30
  The viewer is left to ponder the number of levels on which this counts as a pointless exercise -- a parody of parodic movies, a deconstruction of transparent genres, a self-negatingly knowing example of camp.

  by Dennis Lim | Read Full Review »