Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This sits alongside other decidedly "classic" 80s comedies, like Caddyshack and Trading Places, that I just don't get. This is sporadically funny, but mostly it just feels like a collection of random vignettes whose final product is just a lesser version of so many better 80's teen comedies.

The 80's had a lot of great teen movies, in my opinion Fast Times In Ridgemont High is one of the best. Sex, drugs and rock n'roll(but mostly the sex) are the prevalent themes for the film. While the movie is hilarious, there are some pretty serious situations that the film takes on(minors having sex with adults, abortion,armed robbery,etc). The tone is mostly light, but very effective when there are serious situations. The cast is excellent and a lot of them went on to have success in the film industry. It should be no surprise that Sean Penn went on to become a big star as he steals the show with his iconic performance of surfer stoner dude Spicolli. Also we get awesome early performances from Judge Reinhold and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz and Nicolas Cage also appear and lets not forget about major 80's babe Phoebe Cates, who really shines in the pool scene. This is pretty accurate and authentic film about life in high school for teens in the early 80's. Fast Times.. really holds up and is one of the best movies of the teen comedy/drama genre.

... before zero tolerance and before hand held computers. It is a year in the life of a bunch of high schoolers, accent on Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh), 15 years old. The first thing you notice in the first shot of the film is the traditional mall - people used to have to go OUT to shop, or meet other people or do anything else. The internet is 15 years in the future. Furthermore, teenagers used to work at minimum wage jobs in the mall for spending money. At some point in the past 35 years this got to be beneath them.Stacy works at a pizzeria with her friend Linda (Phoebe Cates). The mild mannered and rather non-descript looking Mark Ratner who works at the movie theater has a crush on Stacy. Both Mark and Stacy get very bad advice from their friends Mike Damone and Linda, respectively. Judge Reinhold plays Stacy's older brother, a senior in high school. He takes life just a little too seriously and thinks he has life by the reins. Life is about to teach him differently.Meanwhile the inexperienced Stacy is actually believing the advice Linda is giving her, who says she is in a long distance relationship with a much older boy. The adults in the audience can tell that Linda is obviously lying about her experience and is clueless about the value of the advice she is giving out and even how this so-called boyfriend of hers sees their relationship. Linda doesn't know the difference between sex and love because sex is still a thing of wonder to her, and she is leading Stacy down the same road to - if not ruin, heartbreak - that she is on.Now I'm making this sound like some kind of tragedy, but it is also extremely funny. This is almost like Charlie Brown because although you hear about the adults, they are seldom seen except for the no-nonsense history teacher Mr. Hand played brilliantly by Ray Walston. Then there is Mr. Hand's nemesis Jeff Spicoli also played brilliantly and just a little too genuinely by Sean Penn. Spicoli is a stoned out guy who fancies himself a future surfing champ and really has no place in his life for rules and schedules, the stuff Mr. Hand lives and dies by. Don't worry, Mr. Hand gets his revenge in the end, and not by failing Spicoli either. Mr. Hand is smart enough to know that would only hurt Mr. Hand. When I say Penn plays Spicoli just a little too genuinely, Penn said in an interview one time that playing Spicoli was easy for him because all he had to do was channel his teen aged self.Highly recommended as a bit of a cross between Clueless and "The Last Days of Disco" as far as relationships and the sexual revolution go. It's a look at teen aged life when we didn't take ourselves quite so seriously.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High now boasts three Oscar winners with Sean Penn, Forest Whitaker and Nicolas Cage in a blink and you will miss him role.The sweetest and brightest performance is by Jennifer Jason Leigh who plays Stacy who works in the fast food restaurants in a LA shopping mall talking with friend and co-worker Linda (Phoebe Cates) about sex and men.Mark (Brian Backer) fancies Stacy but when he goes out with her gets nervous. His friend a ticket tout Mike (Robert Romanus) who gives Mark lots of advice on women does get an opportunity to have sex with Stacy and gets her pregnant. It results in Stacy having an abortion.Stacy's brother Brad (Judge Reinhold) is having problems with his own girlfriend and also fantasises about Linda that results in an embarrassing situation in the bathroom. Brad also works in fast food but becomes increasingly irritated by the uniforms he has to wear.However the film is not about high school kids hanging about in malls or working fast food. It is about Ridgemont High, where wall to wall MOR music is played and all the girls give that 'come on' smile to the boys. In fact the entire film is women giving that kind of smile to men which is rather unrealistic. With the tits and ass on show in this film it comes as a surprise that the film was actually directed by a woman.The plot is flimsy, Stacy wants to lose her virginity but realises that she just needs a good friend. Brad goes through a succession of fast food jobs because in this recession hit Reagan's early 1980s USA where jobs are easy to come by. Mark and Mike try to resolve their differences over Stacy.The most interesting character is surfer dude and prototype Bill & Ted slacker Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) who has been permanently stoned for years and orders pizza while he is class. His relationship with Mr Hand brings some spark to the movie.The film bounces along because of the soundtrack, seeing some famous actors in early roles even though a few of them look too old to be still at high school. It is a fantasy version of a high school, I doubt even Hollywood High is like this.