Product Details

• Actors: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Robert Romanus, Brian Backer
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: X (Mature Audiences Only)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: May 16, 2000
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (253 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0783233078
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #168,193 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Before he became an overrated filmmaker, Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire) was a reporter for Rolling Stone who was so youthful looking that he could go undercover for a year at a California high school and write a book about it. He wrote the script for this film, based on that book, and it launched the careers of several young actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, and, above all, Sean Penn. The story line is episodic, dealing with the lives of iconic teen types: one of the school's cool kids, a nerd, a teen queen, and, most enjoyably, the class stoner (Penn), who finds himself at odds with a strict history teacher (a wonderfully spiky Ray Walston). This is not a great movie but very entertaining and, for a certain age group, a seminal movie experience. --Marshall Fine

Product Description

Item Name: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Widescreen Special Edition); Studio: Universal Studios

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasure on so many levels, April 10, 2004

By 

Eolake "eolake.blogspot.com" (Lancashire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Collector's Edition) (DVD)

"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" Is a strong contender for the best teen movie from the eighties.

The case for the movie is easy to make: It is written by Cameron Crowe, who wrote Jerry Maguire, Say Anything, and Almost Famous. It is beautifully filmed and directed. (Director is Amy Heckerling, who apart from being awefully cute has made such wonderful movies as Clueless.) It is funny and real. And it has a magnificent cast of young actors who where unknowns then.

The surfer/stoner is famously played by Sean Penn in one of his first roles, and he is awesome. Jennifer Jason Leigh is perfect as the young innocent fifteen-year-old. (Amazingly she was about 20 when she played it, but you'd never know it.)

And Phoebe Cates... As Amy Heckerling says in a featurette: The boys just loves Phoebe... the rental cassettes always track a lot around the place where she takes off her top, they've been freeze-framed so much..." Which is as good a reason as any to get the DVD version, they slow-mo and freeze-frame a lot better... But seriously, Phoebe is a wonderful actress who has been woefully underused by Hollywood. And she is also just stunningly cute to boot. Even if this film had nothing else going for it, get it for her. (She is also excellent in the later film Princess Caraboo, and she is buck nude in the light "Paradise", which I hope they will put on DVD soon.)

Eolake

55 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Another FT ripoff - still no no missing scenes restored!, February 2, 2005

By 

Edmond Gauthier (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Widescreen Special Edition) (DVD)

I can't believe the director of this movie keeps standing for the out and out censorship of this! It's (at least) the third release of it on DVD, and this latest (Nov. 2004) try is still a dud. The big problem remains the scenes which they only include in the cable TV versions of this, but keep cutting from the DVD. Why the heck do they?

One of the missing scenes is a very cool safe sex/birth control scene in the mall, for instance. Fast Times sticks out as one of the very rare films that this odd censorship has been performed on. In fact, out of thousands of releases since DVDs started in 1995, this is almost the only one this has ever happened to!

So again we can only ask why? WHY?

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fast Times indeed!, July 10, 2006

By 

James Ferguson (Vilnius, Lithuania) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Widescreen Special Edition) (DVD)

One of the classic high school movies, Fast Times spawned a slew of teenage talent on the big screen, but no one was more memorable in this movie than Sean Penn as Spicoli. Amy Heckerling cuts out a slice of Southern Californian life from a San Bernardino high school that shows both honor students and misfits alike. While the signature moments belonged to Spicoli, there were many other great scenes such as the ongoing burger war in which Judge Reinhold finds himself on the short end of the spatula. Meanwhile his little sis, a seemingly innocent Jennifer Jason Leigh, experiments with dating and sex with an amusing pair of misfits, Brian Backer and Robert Romanus. Phoebe Cates tries to set her young prodigy straight but to no avail. Forest Whitaker even has a significant moment in this movie as the bruising defensive lineman who takes out the destruction of his prized car on the opposing team. Little did he know that Spicoli had a hand in it. But, it is the hilarious relationship between Spicoli and Mr. Hand (Ray Walston) that steals the show. Fast Times may appear a bit dated, but it hasn't lost any of its humor.