Last week I was taking in my daily summer evening movie viewing with my pal Rolando, and he mentioned he hadn’t seen Fast Times At Ridgemont High. I hadn’t seen my dvd of it in about 2 years, so we decided to watch it. Another thing that spurred the viewing was seeing the Family Guy episode “The Kiss Seen Round The World” that has Meg fantasizing about Tom Tucker with him in the Phoebe Cates role during the pool scene.
Talk about a down and dirty take on high school life. They really leave no stone unturned. A girl losing her virginity in the most unglamorous way possible (Not all virginity losses are “magical”) drugs, premature ejaculation, dead end jobs, Nicholas Cage as “Brad’s Bud”, and Judge Reinhold stealing the movie.
That last bit is something I’ve just come to realize. We all love Spicoli. Sean Penn did Bad Boys the next year to avoid being stereotyped as a funny stoner, and his constant trying to be a nuisance to Mr. Hand. “YOU DICK!”
With all that we’ve got Judge Reinhold as Brad. He works at All American Burger and seems to have his life in complete order. He’s got a great girlfriend, he’s popular, and has a cool car. Then he blows up at an asshole customer (like we all dream we could do) and says one of the best lines in the this movie full of great lines: “MR. IF YOU DON’T SHUT UP I’M GOING TO KICK 100% OF YOUR ASS!”
Probably my favorite scene of his has him washing a mirror in the bathroom where he works, while he rehearses his break up speech with his girlfriend (Y’know, because that’s what guys do. They break up with their girlfriends because they think they’re going to get laid tons in college) and as he calmly rehearses the speech, the words BIG HAIRY PUSSY are written on the mirror. I just lost it with his calm demeanor as he slowly washes it off. (Get it? He’s washing a BIG HAIRY PUSSY!)
Every character stereotype is in the movie. The (possibly) slutty best girlfriend, the awkward girl who experiments, the awkward guy, the awkward guy’s best friend who thinks he’s a lady man, the popular Senior, and of course the laidback stoner who makes everyone laugh.
Of course the most popular scene in the movie is the pool scene. We have Phoebe Cates in Judge Reinhold’s imagination as The Cars’ “Moving In Stereo” plays and she takes her top off in slow motion and starts making out with him while in reality he’s JACKIN’ OFF. Then he provides one of the other greatest lines. “Doesn’t anybody fucking knock any more?”
The soundtrack is definitely worth a mention. I have the LPs of it, and Jackson Browne’s Nobody’s Baby, as well as “We Got The Beat” are standouts. My favorite still is “Moving In Stereo” because it fits the pool scene perfectly and just sounds so sleazy.
If you haven’t seen the movie, chances are you’ve seen a parody of it on some show, or heard one of the songs. Definitely seek this film out.
Here’s another reason:
Rene’s song of the day: “Moving In Stereo” by The Cars.
Thanks for reading my blog and see you next time!