Ultimate Party Collection Widescreen Special Edition (Dazed and Confused/Fast Times at Ridgemount High)

Rating:
Summary: Two Sweet-Azz Movies
Review: These were my two favorite movies to watch on those all night parties back when I was in school, something good to have on in the background.

Dazed & Confused --
The year is 1976. It's the last day of school, and it's time for the new seniors to do some hazing on the new freshmen! Paddling the guys with those wooden boards, and making the girls look like fools.

Now that's that done, we spend the rest of the movie drivin around, getting dazed and confused; hanging out at the pool hall; and trying to find a party to go to.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High --
The year is 1982. Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll is the story of this movie.

Jeff Spicoli is a surfer dude who always being harrassed by his scrict teacher: Mr. Hand. The teacher won't even let Spicoli enjoy a pizza that he ordered in class; no respect for stoners.

We've got other characters like Brad Hamilton who's having a hard time finding himself in his senoir year, going from job to job - but he does find a cute girl swimming topless in a pool (played by Pheobe Cates). His sister explores her sexual life.

And of course, we have the nerd.

Like I said before, two awesome partying movies - like the name of the box set says.

Rating:
Summary: High-water marks for teensploitation/stoner comedy
Review: This two-pack is an amazing pairing of like-minded high school comedies that are also suitable contrasts in that "Fast Times..." was generally a contemporary "classic" defining of its time (the frosted-blonde locks and Vans sneakers found their way IMMEDIATELY even to my burg of an Atlanta suburb high school in Lilburn, GA and fostered a class of Spickoli wanna-bes), whereas "Dazed..." was essentially a nostalgia piece, a throwback film designed to recall another time entirely.

Both films do as fine a job of depicting the reality of high school life as being equally dismal and comic, categorizing the cliques that were more specifically targeted in the John Hughes films of the 1980's as being less than specific sub-groups than being variations of the same theme; we're all somewhere between childhood and adulthood, and we're all equally screwed.

Both films are also similar in that they highlight the performances of actors who would eventually become well-established within the industry (even going so far as to win an Academy Award in Sean Penn's case) in the early stages of their careers; Sean Penn and Jenifer Jason Leigh in "Fast Times..." and Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey in "Dazed...", to say nothing of the actors in smaller roles (Nicolas Cage and Anthony Edwards in "Fast Times..." and Parker Posey Milla Jovovich in "Dazed...", just to name a few).

As a suburbanite old enough to remember both eras covered in these two films (I could've been anyone's little brother in "Dazed..." and could've passed for Mark Rattner in "Fast Times..."), I can heartily vouch for the authenticity of both movies as well as the competance with which both screenplays were written. The performances of all the actors as well as terrific soundtrack scoring in both films make this two-pack a no-brainer; both films are absolutely worth their price and should find themselves in the collection of anyone who thinks that the "American Pie" series is the perfect representation of young adult life in America. Both of these movies showed it first and portrayed it better.