Become a Beverly Hills Wilderness Girl!

One of my favorite movies from the 80's is Troop Beverly Hills. Yes it is a campy movie that could be categorized as a cult classic but I love every minute of it's corniness. It has everything the typical 80's movie should have and reflects the era of which it was made in.

Starring Shelley Long as Phyllis Nefler a privileged pampered Beverly Hill housewife who while in the middle of her divorce decides she wants to be the den mother to her daughter's Wilderness Girls troop. Many in the movie doubt that, including her soon-to-be-ex-husband Freddy Nefler (played by Craig T. Nelson) and her daughter Hannah since Phyllis is too flighty to keep focused on one project for very long. And while the movie progresses it seems that they may be right as Phyllis doesn't get the concept of having to earn patches as opposed to buying them. Her troop is made up of pampered Beverly Hills daughters, including a boxer's daughter, an alleged dictator's daughter, and the atypical rich girl/poor girl daughter who's parents are never home (portrayed by Carla Gugino in her film debut).

Then we have the villain of the movie, Velda Plendor played by Betty Thomas who's entire goal is to get the Beverly Hills chapter of the Wilderness kicked out as they do not in her mind portray what Wilderness Girls should be. She constantly hounds Phyllis and mocks her for her methods such as going to the Beverly Hills hotel when it starts raining on her girls' campsite. When she is met with opposition from the Head of the Wilderness Girls she enlists her second in command, Annie Herman (Mary Gross) to be a spy and try to bring the troop down from the inside. However the girls persevere even with sabotages from the inside out. Ultimately the girls manage to prove themselves not only to themselves but the others, with such methods as creating their own patches to get through the "wilds" of Beverly Hills, and managing to outsell Velda's troop in the annual cookie sale. They even show good teamwork skills with the hike at the end of the movie where they stop and help Velda, who has fallen and hurt her ankle and been left behind by her own troop (lead ironically enough by Velda's own daughter), thus losing the race they had a lead in but still winning when the head declares the other troop as disqualified since they didn't cross the line with their troop leader. This is typical of the 1980's movies where the main characters are met with tremendous opposition and manage to find the fighter in themselves and overcome their enemies.

Complete with the obligatory musical number in the movie "Cookie Time", the montage with typical bubble gum music while the girls are earning their patches, and a lesson to the girls that anything is possible no matter where they come from or who stands in their way, Troop Beverly Hills is a good movie to watch if you ever yearn for the nostalgia of the 1980's as it is a good reflection of the times with the outfits and music. The movie has everything you could want in a 1980's movies, as mentioned above and it's campy like most 1980's movies are. If you haven't seen the movie yet, even with all it's corny jokes I urge you to try because if nothing else at least you'll laugh at some point.

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