Nerdly » ‘Beach Babes From Beyond’ Blu-ray Review

21st Jan2021

‘Beach Babes From Beyond’ Blu-ray Review

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Joe Estevez, Don Swayze, Joey Travolta, Burt Ward, Jackie Stallone, Linnea Quigley, Sarah Bellomo, Tamara Landry, Nicole Posey, Michael Todd Davis, Ken Steadman, Michael Roddy, Albert Andrukaitis | Written by Alexander Sachs | Directed by Ellen Cabot

Directed by Ellen Cabot (aka David DeCoteau), Beach Babes From Beyond is technically not a Full Moon film, as it is in fact one of the earliest releases from Charles Band’s 1993 created Torchlight label which specialised in genre-tinged softcore porn comedies. The imprint only ever produced three films between 1993 and 1998, including this film, its direct sequel, and a softcore vampire flick entitled Blonde Heaven, all of which were directed by David DeCoteau under his “Ellen Cabot” pseudonym.

A ridiculous blend of 60s beach party flick and direct to video porn, the official synopsis for Beach Babes From Beyond. goes like this: “An intergalactic babe borrows her dad’s T-bird ship to do a little planet hopping with her two friends, but they run out of fuel unexpectedly, and must land on earth. They land on the California coast and run into some guys, where they have fun and a few close encounters at the beach. One of the guys’ Uncle Bud, who just wants to meditate and hang out, is being threatened with condemnation of his beach house unless he puts some money into repairs. The alien babes offer to enter the bikini contest with their way-out designs to try and win the money he needs, but they are hampered by the garment designer who will stop at nothing to win. It s up to the three out-of-this-world beauties to help the holistic hipster the only way they know how by busting loose in a wet and wild bikini contest that sets the strand a-sizzle, and proves once and for all that the Pacific Coast Highway leads straight to hard-body heaven!”

Which is bizarrely more plot than actually features in the film! Yes, Beach Babes From Beyond suffers from a complete lack of plot and inordinately long musical numbers features extras dancing, badly may I add, on the beach, all interspersed with numerous softcore porn scenes featuring various members of the cast swapping partners and getting their freak on with each other. Thankfully this new Blu-ray presents the film in a longer ‘Directors Cut’ version of the film, every inch of skin and salaciousness intact – which essentially means most of the deleted scenes on the previous DVD releases are now reinstated in the film.

One of a number of “bikini beach” movies made in the early 90s, Beach Babes From Beyond is probably best known for starring porn star Roxanne Blaze (under the name Sarah Bellomo) and for the amount of celebrity relatives in the cast: Sly Stallone’s mum, Martin Sheen’s brother, Patrick Swayze’s brother, John Travolta’s brother and bizarrely, former Robin to Adam West’s Batman, Burt Ward.

The picture quality of this new Blu-ray release is leaps and bounds above the previous version I owned, the UK DVD from 88 Films (which isn’t hard TBH). That version looked like a VHS rip that had been overly DNR’d, whereas here we in “acceptable” picture quality – whilst Full Moon claim this is a new remaster from the original negative, the presentation is not the kind of pristine 2K print you’d find on other – more mainstream – Blu-ray releases but MUCH better than Full Moon’s previous release of this film.

To be fair, Beach Babes From Beyond should look better on Blu given that Full Moon now seem to be making more of an effort when it comes down to the prints they use… Even better, this Blu also contains a feature-length “Making Of’ to add a hell of a lot more to this release, definitely making it worth the upgrade.