Movie Review: Teen Beach 2: Back to the Beach: Part II: Back to Teen Beach 2: Back to the Beach

This is part 2! You'll find part 1 here: http://girlmeetsworldreviewed.blogspot.com/2015/06/movie-review-teen-beach-2-back-to-beach.html



Continuing off...

Yeah, lack of laugh track is good, but have you ever seen a multi-cam style sitcom (aka stuff like Seinfeld, Friends, Boy Meets World) without one? It's weird. It actually screws with the flow. The set-up actually kind of calls for it. It's only single-camera sitcoms (aka stuff like The Office, New Girl, Community) that works without them, in my opinion.

As for the greaser guy who thinks he's Harley Keiner, my guess with him is he was an important character in the first one. If Tanner was the Romeo, and Lela was the Juliet, he was probably the Tybalt. Only because he's a Disney Channel antagonist, probably they all became friends at the end. So, because he (and the rest of them) don't fit into into this new storyline, they're struggling to give him something to do, even though there's no reason for him anymore. Not sure if you're familiar, but I'm going to call him Yamcha.

Sorry, buddy, I just can't get into Lela the way you can, math or no. Character's cool, actress is good, and she's pretty, but my feelings for her are strictly platonic. Mac's more my type. Or maybe that other biker chick who doesn't talk as much.

Movie Review: Teen Beach 2 (Back to the Beach)

*Post writing edit:* This review is long. So grab a snack, and a flashlight. And maybe a stuffed animal.

Alright, cats and kittens, let's do this shit. Here's everything I know about this going into it ahead of time:

1. It's got the guy who plays Austin on Austin & Ally, which I've seen a bit of before and after GMW. I've never been too impressed with him from what I've seen.
2. It's the sequel to Teen Beach, a movie I know nothing about.
3. It has a pretty catchy song called "I've Gotta Be Me" in it that they played during commercials for GMW sometime.
4. I think it may involve time travel?

I've got some opening comments myself. Having played "Teen Beach 2: Beach Bop Adventure," I know the names of the four main characters, I know there is a beach, some sort of time travel magic, and I know that Lela is my favorite. After using Lela in the game I did a little research, and I am smitten. The actress's name is Grace Phipps and she's like a cross between Alison Brie and Natalie Dormer. 

She's the same age as me too. God help me. So naturally I'll be giving unfair attention to her and her character in this review. Speaking of age, there's actually only one "teen" in the Teen Beach. The lead blonde male is 19, while the other three leads are all over 20. 

Okay, let's do it. 

Special Announcement: "Teen Beach 2: Back To The Beach!" (for real this time)

We've got two weeks before a new episode of Girl Meets World. What to do, what to do?

I made an offhand joke about Teen Beach 2 that I didn't expect anyone to even notice, but it actually started a bit of buzz. In his infinite wisdom, Christian suggested to me, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Let's just fuckin do it." 

In an ideal world, we'll both be able to watch the movie and get a conversation going by the end of the weekend, similar to the timing for our GMW reviews. 

As a sort of appetizer for that exciting event, I recorded two let's-play style videos of Disney's official Teen Beach 2 game, "Beach Bop Adventure" over on the Disney Channel website. Both videos are only a couple minutes, don't worry. The game's audio is louder than it should be in the first one, I apologize, but it's fixed in the second. 

*edit* Blogspot sort of wrecked the resolution, which you'll notice if you watch in fullscreen, but life goes on.

So there you have it. The pixel art is genuinely charming, and the (limited) soundtrack is really catchy. I enjoyed it thousand times more than I expected, and I'm hoping I can say the same for the movie. 

Anything you wanna add here Christian?

Sorry, just seeing this now. I should really get email updates about when there's a new post or something. The only thing I have to add is that I have given myself a rule for this project, and that's that I solemnly vow to not learn a thing about Teen Beach 1 for this. If I'm confused or need context, I will not look into it, I will only glean what can be gleaned from Teen Beach 2. I will, however, be making several assumptions about the original, probably.

When we doing this, Sean? I'm starting to watch it now. Not sure I'll wanna do it one sitting.

Episode Review: "Girl Meets Hurricane" (#2.08)

007: Goldentext here. 

007: The Man With The Golden Text also works. 

I would not stand for this crap if I were Shawn. If you ever needed proof that Shawn Hunter has grown the fuck up, look no further than the fact that he doesn't scoff and storm out of the room during this first scene. Does he have to deal with this every time he tries to hang out with Cory? The girls constantly ambush him with their not-so-subtle "father" schemes. He just wanted to have dinner with his friends!

...He just wanted to have dinner with his friends ;____;

But hey, the best way for people to grow is to set them in unfamiliar circumstances. Granted, this is the nuclear version of that concept, but still. 

Episode Review: "Girl Meets Rules" (#2.07)

Hey everyone, Sean here, I'll be starting things off tonight. Before we jump into the episode review, I have a quick announcement. 

My closest friend of the last decade, and I'm talking like Shawn/Cory close here, was recently diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma. Chemotherapy is not cheap, and we're in our low 20's, so his main financial goal recently has been just to pay rent. Needless to say, the medical bills have become overwhelming. As such, I'll be hosting my first ever ever 24 HOUR ANIMATION JAM/CHARITY STREAM tomorrow, June 12th, starting at 5 pm (eastern), and ending Sunday at 5 pm. I will be animating for 24 straight hours, streamed live on my twitch channel here: http://www.twitch.tv/kbmstudios 

We'll be taking donations all through the stream, and you'll find a link to the gofundme page there on my twitch channel. It would mean the world to me if you could tune in for a bit, hang out and say hi, and maybe even toss a donation to the gofundme. I'll have a facecam and microphone and everything, so it'll be fun. And I'm going to be working damn hard for those donations! Everything helps. I hope you'll stop by! 

By the way, my friend's name is Jason, which was of course the name of Eric's best friend in the first two seasons of BMW, though my Jason has curly hair like Cory's. And obviously my name is homophonic with Shawn's. IS IT ALL A BIG COINCIDENCE? IS THAT POSSIBLE? YOU TELL ME.

Now, on with the show.

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Better jump on this deal, you guys....

https://www.groupon.com/deals/broadway-break-thru-1

"Actor Peyton Meyer from Girl Meets World leads an intensive acting class; participants will also receive a photo and signed picture."

Up next... Ben Savage teaches a hair-straightening course.

Episode Review: "Girl Meets The Tell-Tale Tot" (#2.06)

I've noticed Girl Meets World episodes often have a habit of starting off pretty strong and then the wheels fall off the wagon near the end as they try to HAMMER. HOME. THE LESSON. This episode is no exception. I enjoyed the first half immensely. Riley and Maya were both charming, there were funny moments throughout. Lucas was conspicuously absent from the classroom scenes too, though Zay scooted up and took his spot and I'm not sure that qualifies as an improvement. 

Like Sean said in an earlier post, I like this premise. It's probably something that would have worked a little better if they were a few years older - high schoolers can blend into a college party, middle schoolers can not. But otherwise I'd still like it. These are real shenanigans. While I was never naive enough to think Disney might actually tackle the real dangers a coupla fourteen-year-old girls might face at a college party, I did think they might make some tacit reference to at least... drinking. A little bit maybe? Sadly, no. Really, though, while this didn't look like many college parties I went to, it did kind of feel like an accurate representation of what just... hanging out in a dorm is like. People chilling on beds talking, people coming in and out. So, that was fine. And how well Riley managed to fit in was pretty funny too. Riley was actually awesome throughout in this one. 

Girl Meets World Special Investigation: Farkle's Mother

Christian and I started having a conversation about it, and I know all you readers want to weigh in, so I'm just going to transcribe it into a blog post:

http://tvline.com/2015/06/05/girl-meets-world-farkle-mom-minkus-wife-clues/

Seriously, who the hell is she?! I have no earthly idea. We need to do a post where we systematically go through the options and theorize.

It can't possibly be Lauren. 

"Radically different and evolved", "last person to be married to Minkus," I would have previously believed Dana but after those two statements she doesn't make a lot of sense. I don't think anyone would want to see Dana be radically different. I certainly don't. It would be awesome to see her again, but not if she's radically different. At the moment I think Jennifer is the best fit for all the criteria. 

Lauren Surprisedshenevergotalastname

I just honestly don't think the average fan would remember Jennifer. Even Dana's gonna be a little "Wait, which one was she?" to most people. And what's the point of making it be either of them? There's not going to be, like, shock value. It'd be like Cory and Topanga going "Oh, you married Dana? Okay." Why all the secrecy if it's Dana or Jennifer or someone like that? And why do it at all?

I agree - it couldn't be Lauren. How could it be Lauren? Linda Cardellini's like... a real actress. She's got her own Netflix show right now. She was just in Avengers 2. When she guest stars on things, it's to be in stuff like Mad Men, not Disney Channel shows. And yet... Lauren's the only person who makes sense in this context. I really think she is. I'd immediately understand why they did it, if they did it.

But yeah, I vote we list out every candidate in a post, and rate the odds of it being them.

Matthew Lawrence returns as Jack Hunter

Well, the news broke yesterday but may as well make a post about it now. If you missed it - Matthew Lawrence will officially be returning as Jack Hunter in an episode later on this season, specifically "Girl Meets Semi-Formal."

As can be seen in this picture, mercifully, Eric will be appearing in this episode too. I doubt Shawn will be, but I guess an episode focusing on Shawn/Jack and Eric/Jack probably wouldn't have left much room for, y'know, Riley and Maya. Still, as much as Eric's antics took up the lion's share of his storylines (since, let's face it, Eric and Jack were the B-Team, and Shawn was on the A-Team), I do think Shawn is (or, at least, should be) Jack's most significant relationship on the show. As much as I hate to say it *sigh* they should probably bring Matthew Lawrence back for one more episode after this to see where he and Shawn are now too. 

Possible spoilers after the jump.