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.
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.