weingartena-819-142661 I am not reading any of the reviews (yet) until I compose this one. This is a teen movie, for sure, but I have been waiting to catch this one for a while, and finally caught it on TV here in Sydney. As far as teen flicks go - I liked it (otherwise I would not mention it): almost no inter-teen cruelty, no gratuitous nudity (almost), just - a kind treatment of the characters involved.

MisterWhiplash I watched little bits of this before, because it's impossible to be aware of pop culture and not see some of it (ie I Love the 80s on VH1 years back couldn't help but show scenes from this, or just flipping channels on cable), but never from start to finish. Thats over tonight. And damn if this doesn't have enough charm to charge up a mall during a holiday season. The entire cast is game and having a great time, and Heckerling is able to tap into that in such a way that shows how sleazy other teen comedies of the period were; it follows the Truffaut maxim of only wanting to see the joy or pain in making a film in the former sense. But I also think Ray Walston doesn't get quite enough credit here. Of course he's the old man in the cast, literally, since the bulk of them are "kids" relatively. As I watch Walston though, he finds the perfectly droll, bemused attitude to take when up against the students ("What are you people? On DOPE?") and with Spicoli, who was the totally-method Sean Penn. I'm not sure if I saw the movie when I was much younger if he would be be as appealing; now in my 30s, I found him to be one of the funniest things in the whole thing.Jennifer Jason Leigh looks... So young. Which makes how her story turn out so wildly interesting and I love love LOVE how (spoiler) she deals with abortion as just another plot point. I cant think of other teen movies that would do that today, not to mention from a gaze that if it isn't identifiable female then it's certainly not male (take the scene where JJL loses loses her virginity and keeps looking at the scenery, is "Surf Nazis"). It's a remarkable performance among remarkable and alive performances, all tapping in to the mood of the thing: high school is lame, but this guy or chick is cool! This really is one of the most influential movies of the past 40 years isn't it? Not necessarily *best*, but its commitment to anthropology - yes, anthropology - for the world of high school at this time is spellbinding. At the leasts its value is inestimable for giving us Freaks and Geeks.

Davis P Fast times at Ridgemont High (1982) is considered by many to be an 80s classic. Is it worth such a prestigious title? In some ways yes I can see why it's loved by many, but I do have some objections to the film. First of all, I don't care for the use of the derogatory term f*g, which is used by Sean Penn's character Spicoli. Maybe that was consisted alright back then but it's not okay with me. And I could've done without the photos of naked girls EVERYWHERE in Spicoli's bedroom lol. The casting is good for the most part. I really loved Jennifer Jason Leigh in this movie, she was my favorite part actually. She goes through a growing up phase and a learning experience if you will. She has to learn throughout time in the movie that men should look for more in her than simply the potential to have sex. Not that that's wrong or that you shouldn't have some fun with it when you're young, but she has a couple of pretty bad flings and one ends up causing her some pretty bad pain. And that pain is only made worse when the guy she screwed with did something even worse to her, for which he's never really held accountable, would've liked more resolution there. Sean Penn plays a surfer dude who is literally high all the time and his vocabulary is limited to dude and man, didn't really think his character was funny or amusing, a little annoying actually. The rest of the cast does an alright job. The comedy is kind of sketchy, I didn't really laugh much. The thing I liked was Leigh's journey in the movie and seeing her storyline unfold. In my opinion there are much better 80s movies to be seen other than this one. 6/10.

calvinnme ... 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.