Fireball 500

This attempt at a more adult oriented follow-up to the Beach Party movies plays more like an Elvis movie ... and kind of lacks Elvis at the center of it. Avalon was never a bad actor, but his presence is too lightweight to sustain this slightly more gritty material. Fabian is almost a complete non-entity on screen. Funicello is given almost nothing to do, even though she is supposed to be the focus of both Avalon's and Fabian's affection.

I thought that this was more than just another Beach Party film in different surroundings. It feels like they threw a couple of scripts together: a race car flick with stock footage and rear projection, a darker moonshine part with a whodunit aspect - and also mandatory music numbers to please Frankie and Annette fans. It doesn't all work, but I was entertained and probably prefer it to most of the BP flicks. Fabian was a nice addition and Frankie gets a chance to act a bit tougher than usual.