Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

Director: Amy Heckerling [her debut- also did "Clueless"]
Writer: Cameron Crowe [also wrote/directed another 80's classic, "Say Anything..."]
Type: R-rated teen high school movie

Cast:

Brad Hamilton- Judge Reinhold
Spicoli- Sean Penn
Linda Barrett- Phoebes Cates
Stacy Hamilton- Jennifer Jason Leigh
Rat- Brian Backer
Mike Damone- Robert Romanus
Mr. Hand- Ray Walston (RIP- 2001)

Honorable mentions:
Nicolas Cage as a random dude in the bleachers at the football game
Forest Whittaker as Ridgemont High football star, Charles Jefferson

[With Nicolas Cage, it was his first silver screen appearance. He was then known as Nicolas Coppola, lied about his age when he auditioned for Brad, but didn't get it. Supposedly, his audition was too dark and he was only 17, so he couldn't work as many hours.]
**All credits go to IMDB

Write-up:

Opening Monologue- Skepticism

The first time I heard about this movie was from my 11th grade Social Studies teacher, Mr. Jablon. I think he said it was either one of his favorite movies or it was "the best movie." Mind you, this was ten years ago and I spent a great part of that year stressing out about grades and SAT scores.
I saw the movie a year or so later, but came away with little memory of it. I guess I expected the John Hughes 80's experience and wound up disappointed. I also saw the censored version, so die-hard fans like my dad would say I didn't really experience the movie.

Ten years later, we watched the movie on DVD [therefore completely uncensored] at the shore house.
I'm still of the opinion that it's not the best 80's high school I'd ever seen. On the John Hughes scale, grading it against his movies, I'd say it's better than "Weird Science" but not better than "Sixteen Candles." ["Pretty in Pink" is the next notch higher, followed by "Ferris Bueller" and "The Breakfast Club"]

In my view, the 80's was defined by a lot of high school movies. A genre that was more or less perfected in this decade and would later become predictable in later years [unless they're the rarities like "Clueless" and "Easy A" that either defined a generation or told an original/not-so-clichéd story].
In 1982, the genre was just coming into focus, but not completely hashed out.

One key example: this movie really doesn't have a plot. It had a couple of story arcs happening simultaneously, but there was never a central focus.
That may be why it was so hard for me to get hooked on this movie.

Another criticism that I can't help but echo: all the actors look too old to play high school kids. It's sometimes hard to find it believable as a high school movie.
At least Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall were teenagers when they did "Sixteen Candles."

SPOILER ALERT
Plot Lines and Highlights

1) Sean Penn giving an iconic unforgettable performance as Jeff Spicoli- the residential Ridgemont High burn-out- literally living the high life and we're simply alone for the ride.

This was, really, the only part of the movie I really remembered. This character who was totally rad [yeah, I'm typing this with a surfer dude accent]. How he was at constant odds with the teacher, Mr. Hand- perhaps THE BSer you don't BS [to paraphrase Jane Lynch in "Role Models"].

Two scenes that stand out with the two of them:
a) Spicoli orders pizza in class and Mr. Hand proceeds to give it away to the rest of the students (without having to say "I hope you brought enough for everybody")
b) Mr. Hand "wasting" 8 hours of Spicoli's time, tutoring him so he can pass the class

Spicoli also got away with the biggest transgression in epic fashion. He was driving the football star's sports car and, while distracted, got it in a wreck. But then he got it painted and blamed it on the rival football team.

2) Rat and Stacy are looking for love in all the wrong places... before they find each other, lose each other, and find each other again

maybe it's pure coincidence that Amy Heckerling had a mall scene in "Clueless" after introducing the iconic 80's shopping mall to film with "Ridgemont High"... the mere idea of the shopping mall is older, but this was the one of the first instances in pop culture where it was synonymous with "teen hangout spot"

This setting happens to be where we're introduced to these two characters. Rat's an usher at the movie theater and Stacy works with her friend Linda in the food court. He sees her across the way and spends the movie pursuing her, with the help of his scalper friend, Mike.

Stacy, meanwhile, is eager to lose her virginity. Linda gives her a crash course in oral sex using a carrot in the school cafeteria. This never comes to fruition on screen, which is probably the right way to go on this.
Her first is with a stereotypical hunky guy, but based on her expression, it wasn't what she thought it would be. It just seemed awkward.

One thing I will say for this movie: it has a hard R-rating. Not a soft R-rating that could be downgraded to PG13 when it was introduced in 1984.

When she and Rat finally go out, he foolishly forgets his wallet and calls Mike to bring it. Later that night, they're alone in her bedroom. (One of multiple scenes where she takes off her shirt and is magically not wearing a bra... between that and her sexual urges... I'm all for women taking charge, but I found that part of her character very off-putting).
For whatever reason, he's not entirely into it and bails before they get any further.

Stacy's next target: Mike. Perhaps to make Rat jealous enough to crawl back to her. Instead, this results in a pregnancy, an abortion and a revelation for multiple characters (in the view of themselves, their co-stars and the audience).

*Linda turns all the girls in the school against Mike after finding out he knocked her up and wasn't exactly helpful afterwards.
*Stacy finally slows down and resolves to look for a real relationship rather than a cheap one-night stand.
*However goofy he may be at times, Brad is the best big brother EVER

3) Brad Hamilton's various misadventures

Due to multiple unfortunate circumstances, Brad cannot hold onto a job. He was probably one of the main honor students when he was in school. A real teacher's pet/goody-two-shoes type. But he cannot catch a break.
The most hilarious: he gets fired after cursing out an irate unsatisfied customer. Honestly, the [customer] dude had it coming, very rude. In Brad's defense, he was following procedure. Having him fill out paperwork about his dissatisfaction. If not for the whole, "Mister, if you don't shut up I'm gonna kick one hundred percent of your ass!" comment, he might have gotten away scot-free.
[still love that quote, I burst out laughing and cheered during that part of the movie]

The most famous scene that all the guys remember about this movie is the Phoebe Cates fantasy sequence. The edited version I saw on TV stopped it just as it began, so I didn't see much of it.
Speaking to the nudity, Phoebe Cates was perfection.
Can anyone really blame Brad for getting hot and heavy about it? [Her reaction to walking in on him was priceless as well as authentic surprise... IMDB mentions it on their trivia page].Despite all those iffy moments [although for me, I didn't mind him nearly as much as the other characters did], Brad shined in the post-abortion scene. We see Stacy after the fact in the recovery room, telling the nurse that her boyfriend is waiting for her outside [she can't go home by herself], and goes downstairs to find Brad waiting for her. She didn't come out and say where she was going, but he looked out for her like a good big brother should.

And that karma rewards him in the final scene. His 3rd job in the span of this movie [burger world and the pirate restaurant were the others], which happens to be at your clichéd 7-11 type place that frequently gets robbed. Lucky for him, Spicoli was shopping at the time and had the genius idea to throw hot coffee in the would-be robber's face.
After which, Brad grabs his gun and holds him there until the police arrive.

"Way to go, Rosewood. You're some kinda cop, you know that."

[My love of "Beverly Hill Cop" also led me to this movie and kinda had me disappointed with the overall product... but this actor did not].

Probably the best part about this movie:

We find out what happens to all the characters afterwards. It's not a luxury we're often allowed, but in this case, it was nice to get some closure. It certainly provided more laughs, something I found this movie short on.

• Rat & Stacy get together and are taking it slow.
• Mike gets more bad karma when his scalping ways catch up with him... involving Ozzy Osbourne tickets.
• Linda moves in with her UC Riverside Abnormal Psychology professor [why she's taking that course, I have no idea... unless she got the idea from that field trip to the morgue... led by the actor who played the Subway ghost in "Ghost"].
• Spicoli blows the money he got for saving Brooke Shields from drowning on a Van Halen concert- for his birthday party.
• And yes, Mr. Hand still believes everyone's on drugs. Probably did until the day he died in 2001... well, the actor did. But Mr. Hand is definitely one of the most memorable movie teachers.

Final Word: Music

Gotta hand it to the 80's for their music and how it's often used in movies in clever ways.

One of the songs led me to write this entry in the first place. "Somebody's Baby" by Jackson Browne was on the radio this morning and played at least three times through the course of the movie... almost like it was Stacy's theme song.

I forget which song it was, maybe "We've got the beat" by The Go-Go's. But we heard it on the radio when we went out for dinner after watching this movie and the DJ namedropped the movie after it finished playing.

And I'd since heard "American Girl" at least three times. :P it was just a couple months ago where Kurt & Blaine performed it on "Glee" and I loved it, thinking how I hadn't heard the song in years and they did a great job with it.

15. Beverly Hills Cops (1984)

Code-name: Red Meat

(the quote in question will come later on, no worries)

Director: Martin Brest (other credits includes Al Pacino's Oscar winning "Scent of a Woman" and the ill-fated Bennifer flick "Gigli")

Composer: Harold Faltermeyer

Type: cop film, dramedy, 80's classic

Cast:
Detective Axel Foley- Eddie Murphy
Inspector Todd- Gilbert R. Hill
Detective Billy Rosewood- Judge Reinhold
Sgt. Taggart- John Ashton
Victor Maitland- Steven Berkoff
Lt. Bogomil- Ronny Cox
Jeffrey- Paul Reiser
Jenny Summers-Lisa Eilbacher
Serge- Bronson Pinchot

Notable Win and Nominations:
Grammy- Best Album of Original TV/Movie score
nomination- OSCAR- Best Original Screenplay (Daniel Petrie Jr and Danilo Bach)
nomination- Golden Globe- Best Picture (comedy/musical)
nomination- Golden Globe- Best Actor in comedy/musical- Eddie Murphy

Write-up:

First ImpressionAgain, I don't know just how this movie came to my attention. I just remember picking it up at Blockbuster, interested in seeing a good comedy.
Eddie Murphy was always good for a few laughs and he did not disappoint. If I had to guess, this was after "Mulan" and one of the "Doctor Dolittle" movies... so the early 2000's for sure.
The only other thing that stood out to me was Billy Rosewood. The dude was just hilarious to me... still is, actually.

PlotEddie Murphy plays Axel Foley, a brash talented young detective in Detroit. After the opening credits, we catch up with him as he pulls off a drug bust... he succeeds, but in the process, a lot of public property was damaged. One of many things going array in his career.
The latest thing: one of Axel's friends is murdered outside his apartment after they had a night of drinking and gallivanting and his superior, Inspector Todd, forbids him from going near the case.

So what does Axel do? :-P he interprets the orders as "I don't want you doing this case in Detroit"... so he goes out to Beverly Hills to investigate on what little his friend Mikey told him about the latest job he got hooked up with. He sees their old friend Jenny Summers, asking about the guy who hired Mickey, and he winds up marching to his office. Only to get arrested by the authorities after he makes somewhat of a scene.

The Beverly Hills police decide to keep an eye on him to make sure he stays away from this case. While they fail at THAT, Axel cracks the case open and winds up getting help from the first team sent to "watch" him: the duo of Rosewood & Taggart.

If loving this movie wasn't enough incentive, hearing that those two guys would be back in the sequel did it for me. Whether the sequel is better, I'm not sure. I haven't seen either in a while, but both have great points worth a revisit.

Casting

Obviously the biggest part of this movie's success was Eddie Murphy. Not just because he made Axel Foley one cool cat, but he could improvise like nobody's business. In a way, I guess you could say he was an uncredited writer on this movie because they sometimes used his ideas when they were stuck on how to proceed on a given scene.
The most notable bit of improvisation: the "super cops" scene where Axel tells this story about how Rosewood/Taggart apprehended two thugs at a strip club. Eddie Murphy had this regiment of not doing any drugs, including coffee, while working on this movie. But after working long hours on this, he relented and started drinking coffee. The state he's in during the "super cops"  scene is the result of his first caffeine buzz on set.

It's hard for me to believe that Sylvester Stallone was originally cast for the lead and people like Scott Caan, Richard Pryor, Al Pacino and Mickey Rouke were also considered... for me, that just wouldn't work. It might not have been Eddie Murphy's first role, but it was certainly a "break-out" role for his career.
Part of the reason I wanted to see "Trading Places" and later on, "48 hours," which to me was a gross disappointment. The character he played there was no Axel Foley :P he didn't even get his own theme music (more on that later).

As for everyone else, I think I watched the 3rd Beethoven movie because Judge Reinhold was in it, but I have no memory of it, so it probably wasn't all that great. I think his first role was "Fast Times at Ridgemont HIgh," which again, I have no memory of, but I'm willing to go in for a rewatch because it IS a classic.
Maybe I was just expecting another brat pack-type 80's music, which it really wasn't.

Bronson Pinchot, who plays one of the art gallery employees Serge was in some TGIF sitcom... maybe it was "Step by Step," but again, it wasn't memorable to me. He's a good looking guy and this small role was memorable.

Steven Berkoff played Victor Maitland, a gentleman with quiet confidence and dastardliness, almost in the style of Alan Rickman in "Die Hard."
I didn't think of him much more than just another good movie villain. Then I saw him in "Under the Cherry Moon," a movie Prince starred in and directed in 1986. He and Jerome Benton (Morris Day's partner-in-crime in "Purple Rain") played gigalos that got rich by sleeping with wealthy divorced women. Then Christopher Tracy (Prince's character) falls in love with Mary Sharon (Kristen Scott Thomas's first role), initially after going after her for her $50M trust fund. She falls in love with him too, her daddy (Berkoff) gets angry (he wants her to marry another guy so their families can combine their fortunes) and *SPOILER ALERT* has him killed.

Sure, it's not the best written or directed movie, but killing him off was just senseless to me. But unlike "Less than Zero," I have yet to rewrite a more satisfying ending.
So yeah, I have a small vendetta against Steven Berkoff because of that movie (despite the fact he didn't pull the trigger himself... but then again James Spader only supplied Julian with the drugs that killed him at the end of "Less than Zero" and I have yet to get over that).... the fact "Beverly Hills Cop" came out before "Under the Cherry Moon" doesn't make me feel better about this... Steven Berkoff getting killed at the end of this movie only to come back to life as another character who kills Prince playing a role other than himself.

...all the more reason for me to prep myself with spoilers before seeing the next Avengers movie. If Ultron kills Tony Stark, there's no way I'm getting over that.

Anyway... back to business...


Music
I'll get the "small fries" out the way first.
A lot of great music in this movie, first of all.

The biggest stand-outs are the use of The Pointer Sisters and Patti LaBelle tracks. They feel like part of this movie's identity especially since they're used during the scenes with Axel Foley is in Beverly Hills.
As a little side-note, it was kinda cool on the part of the crew to show a lot of extras and scenery from Detroit and Beverly Hills, giving us a scene of the place Axel Foley is from and the dramatic difference between that and Beverly Hills. I guess you could say it's a "fish out of water" story, but Axel adapts better than anyone else I'd seen in that motif. He certainly stands out with how he looks and dresses, but gets along just fine.

One bit of music I want to draw attention to is at the strip club. The first couple times I watched this movie, I felt like it gave the strip club its own unique vibe and considering how the lyrics kept using the word "nasty" in a provocative way, it was perfect.
Years later, I found out that Prince wrote it for his girl group, Vanity 6. Once I watched the behind-the-scenes on the DVD to see if they mentioned him (I know Eddie Murphy's a big fan because he was at the red carpet for the premiere of "Purple Rain"), but they only said one of the strippers on set recommended it.

Of course, the most notable piece of music is the score. I'd mentioned Harold Faltermeyer briefly in my "Top Gun" review, but this is where he really shines. Watching the movie again just a few hours ago, I was marveling at the genius of how the music was used. Axel Foley has his own unique theme movie that's actually called "Axel F."
Critics of the 80's can nitpick all they want how cheesy it is to have this score carousing in the background, it pulls everything together. Throughout this, I took notice how it was used to paint the tone of the picture. How it explodes right off the bat and then quiets down to build the tension. Notably in one of the earlier scenes where Axel sees his apartment had been broken into, only to find it was his friend.
Then there are times where there's no music at all and it comes back to let us know that "the plot" has resumed.

And for the record, I had pieced together the main part and a few other pieces of "Axel F" on keyboard. It's just a matter of finding the right setting to get the same sound. Haven't found it yet, but then again, I only have a Yamaha.

Other Comments

Another thing I found fascinating, though somewhat disturbing: in the original script, Billy Rosewood dies in a massive chase/explosion scene. It was something Sylvester Stallone wrote but was later deemed too expensive a scene to shoot. Ultimately what saved Billy (Judge Reinhold): his chemistry with Taggart (John Ashton).
The two of them play off each other like an old married couple.

The "red meat" line; funny enough that was a scene improvised at the audition that got both of these guys their designated roles, and made it into the movie.
The set-up: Rosewood and Taggart are waiting in front of the Beverly Hills Palm Hotel for Axel to return (he was checking out a warehouse, following a lead about Mikey's murder). While killing time, we see a couple scenes of them where Billy makes a comment and we laugh at Taggart's reaction.
My favorite:
Billy (reading a magazine): Wow. You know, it says here that by the time the average American is fifty, he's got five pounds of undigested red meat in his bowels.
Taggart: Why are you telling me this? What makes you think I have any interest in that at all?
Billy: Well, you eat a lot of red meat.

GREAT chemistry between these two. Billy's the happy-go-lucky yet responsible young guy and Taggart is the stoic, by the rules, professional.

Lots of random scenes in general where things seemed so outlandish but they worked for the comedic aspects.
One priceless bit of pop culture from this movie: the banana in the tail pipe scene. Never mind that, I was bugging about the fact Axel had room service serve the cops in their stake-out unmarked car. That just blew my mind that he got away with that.
Pretty much, Axel can talk his way into anything, but getting out often proves to be the tricky part of the deal.

I also love how he starts to grow on the other cops. One of the big payoffs of the "super cops" dialogue: after Taggart blows up Axel's story with the truth, Axel explains how his story was working and they messed up; we get a smile from their boss, Lieutenant Bogomil.

A lesson that Taggart made sure NOT to forget at the end of the movie after this big shoot-out scene.
Speaking of which, Billy has some great comedic moments in these final moments. Firstly when he barely gets to run the Miranda rights past the gunmen at Victor Maitland's estate and then he tells Taggart how their predicament is reminding him of the end of "Butch Cassidy"... one of two reasons I wound up watching that movie ;)

As for the sequels: I'd seen both of them. I have next to no memory of the third, only that Billy returns but not Taggart and Serge gets a little extra scene time.
As for the 2nd one, it's like with the "Karate Kid," it stands up to the original really well, but I wouldn't necessary say it surpasses it. What I found hilarious about it: they reveal how Billy is a bit of a gun enthusiast with Axel and Taggart worrying that he might have issues with the amount of firepower he possesses.

"Billy, we gotta talk" is the running gag throughout the 2nd half of the movie.