Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a quality film. It's over 20 years old and has become one of those iconic teen movies and it's pretty easy to see why. It has everything you would expect; the bad hair, the bad clothes, the bad music, teenage awkwardness...all the clichés and stereotypes that we've seen repeated in basically every teen movie since then. And it has Sean Penn playing a stoner surfer. Sean. Penn. I'm pretty sure this movie is funnier now just because Sean Penn has had a successful career as a proper dramatic actor, and he plays the ultimate surfer dude perfectly. The grudge between himself and Mr Hand (Ray Walston) is great and probably produces the best (or at least funniest) moments of the film.
All in all, Fast Times is fun. It might be because it's dated, cheesy, and clichéd, but it still does the job and it is entertaining.
All in all, Fast Times is fun. It might be because it's dated, cheesy, and clichéd, but it still does the job and it is entertaining.