Rating: 
Summary: The background of Fast Times...
Review: The film itself is a classic, from the soundtrack (which features recently broken-up members of The Eagles), Stevie Nicks, and Jackson Browne. Cameron Crowe wrote the true story of teenagers in late 70s San Diego (Clairemont High) from his own perspective, originally written for Rolling Stone magazine. Because he looked so young at the time, he was able to go to school and fit in. Even though Crowe changed the city to the LA area (the movie also takes place in LA), the Clairemont High schoolers were upset with a lot of it. "Rat" is now the writer of some of the "Dummies" books. The film itself is an essential 80s comedy classic, a lot of subjects bold at the time, a lot of new talent to move on to bigger paychecks (Forest Whittaker, Sean Penn, Nicolas Cage).
Cameron Crowe should make a film about the story behind making "Fast Times" as a sequel to "Almost Famous". I think it would be great if Crowe and Heckerling did a commentary with the original cast members as well as the Clairemont High students to give added perspective on the fact and fiction of it all. I think people would want to know if these people really existed, and what happened to them.
Rating: 
Summary: "hey bud! what's your problem?"
Review: this is such a good movie, you won't want to miss it. it's a hilarious movie, and you should see it.
Rating: 
Summary: Another FT ripoff - still no no missing scenes restored!
Review: 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. Sure it cleaned up the flatter-sounding audio of 2.0, but if you don't have an expensive 5.1 sytem, who cares?
But the big problem remains the scenes which they only include in the cable TV versions of this, but keep cutting from the DVD. Why? 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 happened to. So again we can only ask why? WHY?
Rating: 
Summary: special edition my butt
Review: Let me start off by saying that Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a good and pretty much realistic movie about high school life even if it is a bit outdated and summed up in 90 minutes (hence the name "fast times"). Just incase some of you don't know, Network Television has included additional scenes over the years when airing this movie. Now one would think since the previous collector's edition release didn't include the restored footage that this new special edition release would. But no, not only is the restored footage still missing, the special edition version has the exact same features as the previous collector's edition with no additional extras to speak of. I would only recommend the DVD just for viewing the good features that are on it but if you want to see the full version of the movie than wait until it airs on network TV. Since the film industry likes to milk money from their customers, I wouldn't be surprised if yet another addtition of Fast Times comes out with all of the restored footage included.
Rating:
Summary: Don't let the 5.1 audio fool you.
Review: I was excited when I read that this movie was being re-released with 5.1 audio because the original mono version just didn't cut it.
Basically what you're getting here is a center dialog channel and a left/right music channel in the front. The rear channels are practically non-existent, except for a few sound effects like distant dogs, etc. And the music is often too loud for the dialog channel.
However, it is nice to hear these songs in stereo.
Also in comparison with the original release is the menus and extras. Almost identical with both versions of this DVD. I hoped with the new release (as I had with the original release a few years ago) that some deleted scenes and the scenes that appear in the TV version of the film would show up as extras. But again they were left out.
Summary: If you already own this movie in the mono form, you might want to keep it. The upgrade isn't very substantial. Wait for the Super Deluxe Party Edition, or whatever they're going to call the re-re-re-reissue of the movie. Maybe it will truly be worth the upgrade.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, 5.1 audio
Review: We all know the movie is a comedy classic with more stars(before they were stars) than any movie of it's kind.
Why a "New Special Edition"? Because finally it's been remastered in a 5.1 audio mix.
The downside in the past has always been, the sound.
On every previous DVD or even VHS release the soundtrack was in a dull flat sounding Mono. Which if you have a home theatre kinda takes away from the whole thing.
But now in all it's glory, we can enjoy this classic with great audio.
Pheobe Cates taking off her top to The Cars "Moving in Stereo" in 5.1 ? I've died and gone to heaven.
Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: this movie is a 10! but does anybody know what "no shirt, no shoes, no dice" means???? it baffles me
Rating:
Summary: Where are the deleted scenes?
Review: I first saw this movie when I was in 9th grade. I loved it. Over the past 21 years I have watched it many times. I practically have it memorized. It is a true classic. When they released this version I thought for sure they would have the deleted scenes that were only shown on the cable tv version. I was very upset. I have only seen the deleted scenes one time. I wanted to see them again. Why even release this movie again without the deleted scenes? I don't understand. Sure there is some different commentary. But, the movie is the exact same as before. Releasing it again the way they did this time is just a waste of time.
Chad Smalley
Rating:
Summary: Sporadically Funny, but not the end-all be-all
Review: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, although sporadically funny and well-acted, never really goes anywhere and leaves its characters undeveloped.
I laughed in this movie quite frequently. Never were they big laughs, but there were certain situations and lines that were quite funny. However, the audience never gets a feel for any of the chracters, because they're not really characters at all, just steretypes. There's the token black guy, there's the nerd, the virginal-but-curious girl, the stoner dude, the sexually-knowledgeable girl who mentors the virginal girl, the sexually-knowledgeable guy who mentors the nerd, etc. Although the acting was solid, especially Sean Penn as the stoner surfer dude (especially funny in the wake of his solemn performances in Mystic River and 21 Grams) and Jennifer Jason Leigh, it's hard to identify with these people. In addition, the movie feels very rushed; we've barely been introduced to the characters and they're graduating, and never really attempts at a plot, instead showing how several characters experience a year of high school. 5.5/10
Rating: 
Summary: Why was this released?
Review: First off, I love this movie. It's one of my favorite movies of all time and I thought the first dvd release was excellent. This dvd has the same exact special features as that one. So why do we need this "special edition"? So that Universal studios can make more money because they believe that no one will buy it unless it's a new release. To me there is no point in doing a re-release if nothing but the sound changes from the previous edition.
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