As Beaches opens, 11-year old Hillary Whitney (Marcie Leeds) is on vacation in Atlantic City when she gets lost on the Boardwalk. She meets CC Bloom (Mayim Bialik) a young singer who is on her way to an audition. The two spend the day together and form a bond before Hillary must return home to San Francisco. Despite the distance, the two girls become devoted pen-pals, and write one another for years. CC (now played by Bette Milder) pursues a career in show New York, while Hillary remains in the San Francisco area and pursues a law degree. Eventually, Hillary moves to New York, where she moves in with CC and the two solidify their friendship. But, life is also changing. CC falls in love with John (John Heard) and finds fame on Broadway. Hillary marries a fellow lawyer and lives a life of luxury. With these changes come issues which will challenge the friendship. Is their bond strong enough to overcome distance, petty jealousy, and general bad feelings?

There are plenty of people who claim to be movie lovers, but when pressed, you would most likely learn that they only like certain kinds of movies. I am a movie lover and I firmly believe that a good movie is a good movie, no matter what the genre. A good movie will make itself known and make you love it, even if it seems like something which you wouldn't like. (Stay with me here, this is going somewhere.)

Anyway you slice it, Beaches is a chick flick. As a rule, I don't like chick flicks. However, there are some that I do like, such as Legally Blonde, 13 Going on 30, and The Help -- those are all movies which transcend their genre and are simply good movies. So, when I say that I did not like Beaches, please do not assume that it was because it's a chick flick. No, it's because it's not a good movie.

The first thing that jumps out about Beaches is just how bad the acting is. I've mentioned before that I rarely noticing acting and I'm very tolerant of mediocre acting, but the performances here are simply terrible. Midler may primarily be a singer/performer, but she'd acted in a number of movies before Beaches. So, that doesn't explain why she looks as if she's never been in a film with this performance. Sure, she's known for being over the top, but her mood here goes up and down, and it doesn't always match the scene. Also, there are times where it appears that she doesn't know the dialogue. Hershey underplays Hillary, creating a character who is so meek at times that she barely exists. Are these bad actresses? No, Garry Marshall is a bad director. Despite the fact that he's had hit after hit, Marshall has rarely shown any talent as a director of actors or as a storyteller. Many of the scenes here look like first takes. There are seemingly random shots of nothing. The narrative flow stops and starts at times. These are all issues with the director.

Beaches also suffers from story issues. The movie is based on a novel, and I can certainly see a tale of pen-pals who correspond over decades working well in a book. As a movie, this approach makes the movie difficult to embrace. While CC is an open book (pun intended), Hillary is such a stereotype that we never get to really know her. In addition, when their relationship hits a rough patch, it doesn't feel organic. The finale is meant to be a tear-jerker, but it left me feeling cold, as the reason for the finale came on rather quickly and the whole thing felt very manipulative. So, in conclusion, "Wind Beneath My Wings" is a great song. Beaches is not a good movie.

Beaches made me embarrassed for Mayim Bialik on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Touchstone Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 29 Mbps. I'm not sure if care wasn't put into this Blu-ray or if this was simply seen as a bargain title, but this is an ugly transfer. The picture is very soft and lacks in strong details. It's flat and shows none of the depth which quality Blu-ray transfers can hold. The image is filed with grain at times, as well as what appears to be "snow" from a digital filtering system. The colors look OK, but they are somewhat faded at times. The only good news is that the image is never too dark. Even my wife kept commenting on how bad the picture looked. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.3 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. This isn't an incredibly dynamic audio track, but it fares better than the video. There are some nice stereo and surround effects during crowd scenes, but they are subtle. The songs in the film sound very good, offering rich tones. I didn't detect any subwoofer effects, but a few of the songs do offer notable bass.

The Beaches Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director Garry Marshall. "Beaches Bloopers" is a 7-minutes gag reel which is presented as a fake trailer. "Mayim Remembers Beaches" (12 minutes) is an interview with the actress who played young CC, who discusses how she got the role and what the production was like. We get the MUSIC VIDEO for the song "Wind Beneath My Wings" by Bette Midler. The song is also remembered in "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs with Bette Midler" (1 minute), where Midler talks about the meaning of the song, which was ranked #44. "Barbara Hershey Screen Test" (6 minutes) shows the actress trying out for her role opposite Midler. The final extra is the THEATRICAL TRAILER for the film.