BEYOND THE SEA!

"Hey! Let make some movies!" That's right boys and girls. "Friday Movie Suggestion Night" resumes with BOBBY DARIN'S biography Produced, Directed, Acted, Sung and Danced by the multi-talented Kevin Spacey who took five-long years to make this dream come true! Moreover it's officially Summertime! And I wanted a film that you could watch with the volume turned up that flat out brings back the finger-popping era of "Cool". Speaking of "Flat Out", Larry King calls this "FLAT OUT WONDERFUL!". Who else? I am not wearing my reading specs, but some guy named Sam Robin at KTLA-TV chimed in with: "ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR". Ebert & Roper gave it a "TWO THUMBS UP!" But as Jim Morrison once said, "Ah, what do we care?" Well, to each their own. Let's talk trash!

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Kate Bosworth is just as riveting as Spacey in her role of Sandra Dee. I watched this twice over two nights before trumping myself and deciding to recommend this movie. If you get the DVD, there's a terrific second DVD that takes you "Behind the Scenes" that is a "Must-See"! Spacey is one hell of a good singer! Yes, it's true. NO Britney Spears/Milli Vanilli games here with the lip-synching. In fact, Bobby Darin's original Manager, who continues to manage Bobby's image to this day (played by John Goodman) initially said "No way" to Spacey's actually singing 18 of Darin's hits--many with a full orchestra. I had no idea Bobby wrote 163 songs and made 486 recordings! "Splish Splash" took him only 20 minutes to write and got him on "The Ed Sullivan Show", which was really a way to kick ass in the 1960's if you were a musician going from singing at Bar Mitzvas to The Copacabana! "Mack the Knife" is great and Spacey actually blows the incomparable Sinatra away. My favorite scene is where Spacey strolls out onto the stage and opens with a performance of "Hello, Young Lovers". Spacey, I've come to learn has been appearing in musicals from age 14 to age 20. His dancing is flawless. Much of the film was shot in Berlin in 3 degree weather, with the actors pretending it is summer. The set construction for the nightclub venues were borne of genius (and done quite economically under Spacey's credible direction). Movie-ola's take note!

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This is basically a "Rags-to-Riches" story of a man and his dream who remained true to his convictions in music, in love and in conscience. For those of you who still feel lost, let me just say this and close out. I've worked in the Nostalgia Radio format, and with the resurgence over the past five years of "The Rat Pack" (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and Shirley MacLaine) and the "Cool, Hip" attitude of social defiance and having fun with a whole new set of rules they introduced (just ahead of the Peace Movement) Bobby Darin--strangely--is the only guy who has been forgotten. I say "strangely", because when God gave us Sammy Davis, Jr., he also gave us Bobby Darin. We had two of the finest night club entertainers and only one was forgotten.

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UNTIL NOW...

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CRANK UP THE VOLUME AND ENJOY A GREAT STORY!

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