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Writen by Cameron Crowe from his novel, Directed by Amy Heckerling, produced by Irving Azoff
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A high star power quotient, clever writing and plenty of hijinx propel this otherwise typical cinematic effort up into the stratosphere. We`ve got a large cast of teen stereotypes: a fast-food geek with a few followers, a schemer, a stoner and his toadies, a couple of not-so-innocent girl waitress types, a jock or two, and other assorted mall rats.
Ray Walston is very human as the strict, but fair and honest teacher to Sean, the inveterate stoner beach bum, and others. Sean, with best buds Eric, Nicolas and Anthony, break new ground, and are more than Half-Baked. One sees the seeds of Wayne and Garth here, as well as a potential source for Beavis and Butthead.
The best things in this movie are the little slices of teenage life which Heckerling and Crowe expose, both verbally and visually, over the course of the school year they cover in this film. Many things happen, both tragic and ridiculous, but always humorous, and our boys and girls deal with most of them fairly well.
Everything ends up nicely for all of our heroes, and the road seems seems to go on forever, despite the DUI`s a few of them may have committed along the way.
Trivia: Back in `85, while on a trip to L.A. to visit an old friend, YMP was exiting a hip boutique on Melrose with a few gift T-shirts, and a guy about to enter pulled the door open and held it for him. Upon seeing his friend outside, YMP was informed that it was none other than Nicholas Cage! This failed to make an immediate impression, for YMP was not well-versed in the ways of FFTTM`s at that time. That same day/evening YMP also saw two actors from the then-hot police series Hill Street Blues. Also, on that same trip YMP had sushi and sake with his friend at the Beverly Center, the mall where all the kids from Fast Times worked and hung out.
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