People talk about 'Fast Times At Ridgemont High' being the representative slice-of-life teen comedy for the early 1980s in the same way 'American Graffiti' depicts the early 1960s and 'Dazed And Confused' the mid-70s. 'Fast Times' deserves special kudos because it came out when the times in question were still taking place - in fact 'Fast Times' would go on to define its era as the must-see comedy for those who made up the movie's subject matter back in late '82 and early '83.

Here's my problem: It's not much of a comedy. Sure, it has funny moments, but it's very downbeat too much of the time. The two main female characters, played by Jennifer Jason-Leigh (Stacy) and Phoebe Cates (Linda),give solid performances but have hardly a true laugh between them, other than Cates' simple action of opening a door. The male characters have their funny scenes, too, but in-between acts of such casual cruelty and harshness that it really doesn't compensate. Here's something to ponder: The funniest performance in this film is by a guy whose only other comedies were 'Shanghai Surprise' and 'We're No Angels.' Sean Penn is very good as Spicoli, but he's got the one character you are encouraged to laugh at, him and Ray Walston's Mr. Hand, of course, both hilarious. 'Jefferson was saying if we don't get some cool rules pronto, we'll be bogus, too!' When they aren't in the film, my attention drifts. As a comedy, it's alternately funny and flailing. As a drama, this is an afterschool special with swear words and nudity.

'Fast Times' is fun to watch simply for the time-capsule elements. Writer Cameron Crowe really had his ear to the ground as he took measure of a LA-area high school in the guise of a student, and director Amy Heckerling has a clearly sympathetic understanding for the tribal rites of the young. The score is warmed-over '70s mellow guitar rock already past its prime, but offers great songs, none better than Jackson Browne's last great hit, 'Somebody's Baby,' which had its first release on the 'Fast Times' soundtrack (and might be subtitled 'Stacey's Sex Theme' as it shows up whenever she gets it on.) Heckerling doesn't gloss up the sex (the first such scene takes place in a grimy concrete bunker with the memorable graffito 'Surf Nazis' over Stacy's head),and that's to her credit. The film's grittiness works in this way for me because the early '80s seem on retrospect a less innocent time than the earlier eras depicted in the other teen films, the first time in which sex between young people could be truly casual while traditional religious and social strictures seemed to fall mute. In that way, she hits the right notes.

But Heckerling accepts this casualness to the point of promulgating it. We see Stacy unabashedly learning about oral sex with a carrot and getting an abortion in which her main source of pain seems to be about getting a ride and money from the guy who knocked her up. With AIDS just around the corner, and a host of moral issues surrounding unbridled sex among minors, I find myself wanting to scream at the screen like Mr. Hand: 'What are you people, on dope?'

That's a personal issue a lot of 'Fast Times' viewers won't join me in feeling. What I think is a broader problem is the shallowness of the story lines and the characters, how lacking in deeper resonance they are. As Heckerling points out in her joint DVD commentary with Crowe, Mark (Rat) Ratner is someone who finds sex as difficult as others find trigonometry. He's a nerd, and I can relate, so how is it the attractive, sexually active Stacey chooses him and seeks a relationship with him? Hot girls don't chase nerds, simple as that. The film might have tried to flesh out this relationship and offer some explanation why else she likes him other than his awkward smile, his obvious desire, and his willingness to offer her some encouragement after Mr. Vargas' morgue demonstration, but you are left with a couple of half-finished, awkward conversations and the sense that they had to wind up together because they are the lead actors.

'Fast Times' is a fun film to watch, but thin as the soles on a pair of checkered loafers. It's the definitive teen film of its time, but 'Valley Girl' and 'Sixteen Candles' have better narratives, 'The Breakfast Club' more interesting characters, and 'Last American Virgin' a stronger ending. If it was just Sean Penn and Ray Walston sitting at Perry's Pizza for ninety minutes, in a sort of 'My Dinner With Spicoli,' I think 'Fast Times' would have been more fun.

National Lampoon's Animal House was a fantastic sex obsessed teen comedy, Porky's wasn't, and American Pie years later revamped it, and this one came in between, from writer Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire) and director Amy Heckerling (Clueless). Basically this film follows the students of a Southern Califonian high school, Ridgemont High, who go through all forms of insightful, sympathetic and of course funny growing up, or coming of age. So Stacy Hamilton (Road to Perdition's Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Mark 'Rat' Ratner (Brian Backer) are both looking for a love interest, Stacy has experienced friend Linda Barrett (Gremlins' Phoebe Cates) to help, and Rat has sleazy Mike Damone (Robert Romanus). Stacy's dorky senior student brother Brad Hamilton (Beverly Hills Cop's Judge Reinhold) is struggling to keep a job and also has deal with his girlfriend dumping him, but he picks himself up slowly. In the centre of all of this is constantly stoned surfer dude student Jeff Spicoli (young Sean Penn) is struggling to keep up with his studies, and has a little head on with history teacher Mr. Hand (Ray Walston),who thinks all students are on dope. The poignant moment in Stacy's story, besides practising giving a blow-job on a carrot, is when she and Mike have sex, and she ends up pregnant and needing money for an abortion, but Mike doesn't help at all. Rat of course finds out and gains to courage to stick up for himself, Linda is also very angry and punishes Mike with constant "Prick" abuse, don't worry, everything settles when it comes to the end of high school and the prom, oh, and Spicoli learns his lesson from Mr. Hand. In the end, Brad saves the day in his new job at the mini-mart, Mike is arrested for the flogging of tickets, odd teacher Mr. Vargas (Vincent Schiavelli) switches back to coffee, Linda attends college living with a doctor, Stacy and Rat are together having a love affair with no sex, Mr. Hand still thinks all students are on dope, and Spicoli saved Brooke Shields from drowning, but blew the reward money on getting Van Halen to play at his birthday party. Also starring Scott Thomson as Arnold, young Forest Whitaker as Charles Jefferson, Eric Stoltz as Stoner Bud, Anthony Edwards as Stoner Bud, and look out for young Nicolas Cage, then credited with the surname Coppola, being the nephew of Francis Ford, as Brad's Bud. At times is has the same style as American Pie with young people wanting to lose their virginity, but seeing the consequences of some of their decisions is much more dignified, and seeing all the then mostly unknowns doing it is really fun. The casting, especially Penn as the early Beavis and Butthead / Bill and Ted style incarnation, is fantastic, the situations presented are both there to make you laugh, and at times feel for the characters, so it is not just a typical teen comedy, it is certainly a must see. It was number 87 on 100 Years, 100 Laughs, and it was number 84 on The 100 Greatest Sexy Moments for Reinhold's daydream with Cates removing her red bikini bra coming out of the swimming pool. Very good!

Everybody's teens and early twenties are fraught with wonder, worry and waking up to the realities of life. For a group of California high school students, life is one big long party that they hope will never end. Their senior year comes together in this enjoyable collection of individual stories where different personalities have different perspectives, and their situations are ones that teenagers of practically any generation can relate to. It's bittersweet, funny, touching and hopefully promising.

There are big stars, minor celebrities, familiar character actors, flashes in the pan and a few surprises cast in smaller parts here, so this is a film that has nostalgia for many reasons. Is best known as the film that put Sean Penn on the map, and his role of Spicoli is certainly one of cult interest. In fact, he gets the best scenes in the film with an actor not even have his own generation, but a beloved TV star and stage actor from the 50's and 60's: Ray Walston. "Are you people on dope?", He exclaims in one of the film's funniest sequences, but his character of history teacher Mr. Hand is not your typical sour old man. He is a man of purpose and even if he doesn't always show it, he intends to make a dent in the life of Sean Penn's pot-smoking potential failure.

it's a shame that Judge Reinhold never went on to great things in films because he is perfectly charming and likable, and next to Penn, the nearly most remember actor in the film. I felt his pain in dealing with a rude customer at the burger place where he explains to one trainee that the secret sauce is actually thousand island dressing, something I can relate to from a fast food restaurant that I worked at in Los Angeles in my early twenties.

While Penn and Reinhold are the most familiar of the young male stars in leading parts, they do not really have romantic interest here. The two young women in the film are Jennifer Jason Leigh and Phoebe Cates who went on to success but never became by their own choice a-listers. Reinhold deals with his lust for Cates in a very funny scene that has been often-repeated or ripped off. Leigh becomes torn between supposed friends Richard Romanus and Brian Backer, respectively playing a con artist in the making and his virginal innocent protege, ultimately with Romanus betraying Backer. it all culminates of course with the high school dance at the end of the school year where are all these situations dealt with are resolved comfortably in a short period of time.

Of course, there's the great 80's atmosphere and that fabulous music that still hits the dance floors on retro nights today. You can Glimpse such future stars as Anthony Edwards, Nicolas Cage and Forest Whitaker in smaller roles, but my favorite minor part is soap actress Kelli Maroney as the peppy cheerleader who has to go off on the student body when they show no enthusiasm for her spirit.

This really has no linear plot but a series of vignettes that are a combination of various emotions and gives modern young generations the opportunity to see the type of activities that their parents were involved in oh, something that teenagers of the early 80's hoped that their parents had lived and related to after the success of "Grease" just a few years before this. I can watch this and feel comfortable in the knowledge that teenagers don't change be on new trends and new styles, and perhaps it will help older generations continue to try and relate to the generations coming up.