This is one of those movies I hope to see again. I often surf the internet hoping to find this movie released on DVD. A great soundtrack, a good cast and an interesting angle on growing up... surf style. Includes the best recording of "California Dreamin" extent, and the instrumental "Brothers Theme" is haunting! The sub plot of re-living the glory days by an over the hill surfer in contrast with the adolescence of the kids around him provides sort of a retrospective view of life. It is a deeper movie than it seems to be on the surface, which makes the comedy funnier, and the sad moments even more so, kind of like a good episode of MASH. A cleaned up 5.1 enhanced DVD release of this movie would be most welcome by me!

Back in the days when HBO was young, I remember seeing the previews of this movie and wanting to watch it. Living in Hawaii most of my life, it was nothing new for me in terms of the "beach scene." While watching it I felt compelled with the story and characters. TT was such an obvious dork, but I pulled for him as he began to blend in with the locals. Glynnis O'Connor was an attraction with that 70s style bikini and the surfers led by Mike were comical and immature. My friends and I frequently used quotes from the film to goof on each other, and today it definitely reminds me of the times back then. Similar to the 80s movie "North Shore" in the theme of an outsider who tries to make it with the locals in a beach environment. I am still looking for either a clean VHS copy or a release to DVD. Last time I saw this was on cable a few years ago, and I should have recorded it. A must see if you want to re-live the times, it's a shame that some of today's youngsters probably won't get it. I give it a generous 8 rating because of what this movie brings to me, a humorous flashback of that era.

I have just recently seen this movie for the first time in almost 20 years. Originally, the final credits rolled while we heard the Eagles signing their great version of California Dreaming. But the current version has some mindless, goofy music at that point. I find it unbelievable that the movie California Dreaming no longer is shown containing the song of the same name.

According to George Carlin, the term "Extremely not bad" should be used more often ... as in, "Gosh, this turnip casserole is extremely not bad."California Dreaming follows the trials and tribulations of TT (Dennis Christopher) as he arrives in California with some recordings of his recently-deceased brother's jazz music. The idea is to play the music near the ocean, because his brother loved the ocean. While in California, TT stays with an old surfer (Wynn, in probably the best role he's ever had ... should be, though, because he wrote the script), who offers TT a place to live. TT becomes a surfer, woos his landlord's daughter, gropes gratuitously-displayed breasts; so far, it's pretty standard surf-movie fare.Near the end, though, there was an actual plot twist; the plot had been so thin up until that point that I didn't even notice it coming. I'm not as easily manipulated now as I did when I first saw this movie (when I was about 15), but I was so blindsided by this development that it actually gave the ending a strong emotional impact, for me.Great cinema, it ain't, but Glynnis O'Connor and Tonya Roberts were both hotties, the surfing scenes are pretty cool, and the acting is convincing, if not outstanding.