Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Aaron1375 I watched this film and watched it to the end and perhaps I missed something or maybe it was the fact that I watched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 cut that I missed the beatniks. What was in this film was not a beatnik as I know them. I think of some anti-establishment persona that sits in a cafe slamming poetry as well as the man! The only thing these guys have in common with beatniks is the fact they are anti-establishments. However, these guys were more like rebels and not even that, just closer.The story has a group of friends that rob a place and then head to a diner where one of the guys decides to sing where an agent overhears it and decides that this guy is going to be a star. Unfortunately, the guy's friends are a bit of a hindrance to the guy's chances at singing. Well the one dude who was named Mooney is the main problem as he likes to stab, to shoot and wants to be famous himself...by being a super killer! So the deck is stacked against the guy, but he has the belief of his agent and the agent's secretary to keep him going and perhaps he will make the right choice! This one made for a very funny episode of MST3K and I find it funny that this film was called Beatniks and featured no one remotely resembling a beatnik and they also did a film called The Rebel Set where the characters were more like beatniks! So in the end, not a great film, but I will say by the end of the film you will want Mooney dead! How could someone be so stupid as to see his buddy about to make it big, but instead of riding the coattails, he instead wants to sabotage said career! So a film with shootings, stabbings, aspiring singers and a whole lot of other things...except beatniks.

Dextrousleftie God, its awful. Yet in such an inept, cheesy, lame sort of way that I always end up laughing hysterically whenever I watch it. Moon is especially hilarious, with his drugged-up weirdness and schizophrenic behavior. Him screaming in that shrill voice: "I killed that fat barkeep!" Makes me laugh every time. The women are both mannish and homely as hell, the 40 yr old 'teen' is just pathetically amusing...and the music being sung IS very femmy and ridiculous, especially when the hood singing it is supposed to be a beatnik. Beatnik my booty...Eddy's just an idiot, who should have ditched his loser friends the moment he was offered a recording contract. The continuity errors are many in this film, including some terrible editing in several scenes and the appearance of the boom shadow on the wall in several others.

bkoganbing If there's anyone out there expecting to see a film about the Fifties counterculture prototypes, skip this one by. Skip it by for that reason and on general principles.The Beatniks is about a gang of punks who bully and rob people for kicks and one of them, Tony Travis is discovered in true Hollywood tradition in a roadside dive by an agent. He's got a decent singing voice and the agent promises to make him the next Elvis.But our lug-nut of a hero instead of saying goodbye Daddy-O in true beatnik fashion, doesn't want to lose the old gang. And the old gang don't want to let him go. Especially Peter Breck, a twisted psycho with some gay leanings who's crushing out on Travis big time.Despite this film where he gives an over the top performance like Jack Palance on amphetamines, Peter Breck was the only one in this no name cast to have anything resembling a career.The Beatniks is a film without a lot going for it. This was one of those drive-in flicks which one could get down to serious business at the drive-in without missing anything of importance.

mark czuba Maybe for the time is might have been, especially with a tag-line like that. This pretty obscure film is about Bad singers, Sleazy Talent scouts, teen gangs, robbery and general pandemonium. No Beatniks here, really. Ginsberg and Kerouac probably couldn't believe what they had wrought-this certainly was not it.If you want to see a better example of one of the so called "beatnik" films that were created around 1959 to 1961, (where Exploitation Producers latched onto popular media phrases like "Beatnik"), check out The Beat Generation starring Mamie Van Doren, or Beat Girl starring a then unknown Oliver Reed. Although these were not about 'niks they had a somewhat inkling to what a "beatnik" was.As with all exploitation films very few of the catch phrases and trends used in marketing the films were used very accurately, nevertheless the films did make obscene amounts of money because they were presented to the public within a few months of a trend that was in high gear.