From Page to Screen: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

Gather together from the cosmic reaches of the universe. Here in this great screening room with comfortable recliners. Are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled. Keith.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Let's not get. Let's not.

Hold on.

Let's not get. Let's not get too far ahead here, Terry.

It was the 70s and 80s. They probably didn't care.

Derek, if you're looking to turn me on, you better cut that pizza. Correct. I'm gonna tell you what right now. And the power twins, Zapp and Jordan with their magical lemur Snort dedic to fumbling their way through movies one forgotten gem at a time. This week we get detention with 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High. This is fumbling through film.

Why don't you get a job, Spicoli? What for? You need money? All I need are some tasty waves. Cool. Buzz.

And I'm fine,

thanks. Can I use your bathroom? Yeah, go ahead. It's the first door on the. Like up this round, first door on the left.

No. No.

Okay.

What are you doing? It's safe behind the donuts. I'm watching this place. I know what I'm doing. Open it up. Open it up.

Okay. Come on. Come on.

I just started.

They just. They just taught me the procedure and I.

Let me figure it out.

Let me figure it out.

Come on, shithead.

Let's go.

Get out of my case, motherfucker.

Hey, no towels, man.

I got you, you son of a bitch. You're right. Awesome.

Totally awesome. Or I howled him.

Hello, and welcome to another one of a kind, genre defining, brand new episode of Fumbling Through Film. The only show that dares to bring together three dudes to talk about movies. These, however, aren't just any movies.

It's. It's totally radical. You say something like that, man.

It is. Because these are the ones we've missed, overlooked or feel are simply worth Revisiting. Therefore, 100%, that is every movie.

I don't know.

I don't fully agree with you, Derek. This could be any movie.

Oh, Ke's on my side.

Interesting. Well, never felt so betrayed. I'll remember this for my next veto.

Oh, I don't think you need any extra, but okay.

Terry's always got the veto locked and loaded.

It's true.

Anyway, my name is Derek. I am a Fumbler. Joining me this week here at the Fumble Dome is the prime minister of fumbling and film, Keith.

Hey. Hey, what's up, everybody? KG Fumbler extraordinaire. And, yeah, that's it. This. I. I think that that's it In.

In.

In any movie connoisseur.

In any movie connoisseur. Aloha. Kg.

Hello to you too, Derek.

That means hello and goodbye.

Figure out which.

Figure out which one it is.

Yeah, it does.

Listeners, Listeners. Choice.

Listener's choice. And if you're still here, aloha, listener. Because that other person you're hearing is the Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry.

That's right. If that didn't get you to Aloha, this definitely will. That's me, Terry.

If that didn't get you to Loha, this definitely will.

It's true.

I'm aloha. And all the time.

Yeah, I'm gonna start.

People are very confused by Derek all the time, too.

Very confused. There's nothing worse when somebody walks in on you while you're Aloha.

Oh, yeah. Nobody knocks these days.

Nobody knocks these days. Jesus.

I'm just trying to aloha in peace, and all of a sudden, here comes somebody barging in. That's not the aloha I meant.

Nope, Nope. Always, always make sure you lock the door before you aloha. I don't even know what we're doing anymore. People have aloha doubt.

Yeah. Aloha, listener. It was good to see you.

But those that are still here, let's tell them what it is we do every week. We watch movies, but not just any movie. Every month, one of us chooses a theme, a genre, a guiding light, some sort of pizza delivered in the middle of class on. Oh, yes, Someone else's time.

Oh, there's nothing.

The podcast is always on someone else's time.

It feels like it. Right? But what was I gonna say, Keith? You interrupt my flow. Anyway, this month is a me month. It's DTF, down to fumble. Y2. Year 2, M7. The M stands for month, and this was a me month. So I got to choose a topic, and I chose movies from page to screen, Movies that were adapted from written works. And the first week, I chose the

Heart Lifting, the upbeat the Road, the family drama film.

The family drama, Father's Day Spectacular. The Road.

Still pretty crazy that I watched that movie on Father's Day.

I know. And we talked about it on Father's Day. Amazing. That means this week is W2. The W stands for week here, and it's a Keith week. So, Keith, let us know what it is you chose.

I chose Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which was a Cameron Crow book.

Cameron Crow book that is currently out of print.

Yeah.

And is unobtainable.

It's a collector's item at this point.

It's like 500 bucks on Amazon. It's like, get out of town.

That's kind of crazy. I'm surprised it has not been reprinted at least, like, once in the recent. The Recent Times.

You'd think there's a beat, like a Reader's Digest collection of it or something.

Or it's just. Or it's just. It's all. All the copies are being sold by Cameron Crow because it just had boxes of them sitting in his house.

That could be it too.

I guarantee he's got at least 20 still laying around somewhere.

No, I would. If I wrote it Spike out in

a vault, he might have to break in.

I would. I'd have a vault. Yes.

Cameron Curl price hoarding them, causing this, like this. Just this need for the book. So that way the price will keep going up and up, and then he'll just start to, like, slowly release them to the public, knowing he can trickle them out.

Yeah.

That'll ruin the value, though. Unless he.

Yep. Needs to be slow about it.

Tactical. You're right. Tactical. Tactical release. All right, now, before we talk about the tactical release of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and before we even do our deep dive into the tactical release of Fast Times at Ridgemont High from. Oh, what year? 1982. 2.

Yes.

Did any of us have his previous knowledge, history, or experience with the Fast Times at Ridgemont High from 1982?

Yeah, 100% I knew of this movie. This is one of those ones where the reason why I agree you, Derek, of this is because this fell both into, I think, originally the category of things that I think need to be rewatched. But then as I watched it, I was really probably, I need to watch this one because I missed it. I mean, I. I know all, like, the. The key scenes, but I don't. I didn't remember the whole movie altogether.

Gotcha.

Yeah, I'd heard of it, but I've never seen it before. But the name is very familiar. Definitely heard of it before at some point in time.

Definitely hadn't read the book because I didn't know it was a book until we had this subject to come up with.

No, I had no idea this book either. I do know that I had seen 95 of this movie. Not in, you know, in order. I'd seen a little bit here, a little bit there, maybe 25 minutes there, maybe like a scene there. And I did not know how it all went together. And I. I do know there's a handful of scenes that are, like, iconic, I guess you could say.

One.

One. Yeah. And that. And then Judge Reinhold's pirate head, I think.

Yeah.

Things that lots of people know about, even if you've never seen the movie. And you might not know where it came from, but whatever. All right, well, you know what, Terry? What? You and I, we gotta relax. We gotta go get a pizza from the mall.

Yes. I'm so glad you called this pizza guy into the. To the recording. So I can just get there. Eat the pizza.

I think it was Pizza Guy, wasn't it?

Was it Pizza Guy?

Yeah. His name was like Mr. Pizza Guy or something.

Yeah. He said. He was like, I'm pizza man. I think that's what he said.

Yeah, but that was what said on his shirt. So that was like the brand of pizza.

Wow. I love it. There's a. There's a place called Pizza man right near me.

Oh, my gosh. I wonder if it's inspired by Fast Times at Richmond.

It might be. It might be.

Or what if it's like an original? Like the last remaining location?

It's the last one.

Yeah. It's like, you know the Ponderosa Steakhouses we talked about? It's the last Pizza Guy.

Yeah. It's like a historical landmark.

They used to be all over the place. Oh, it's the first Pizza Guy. And then they went west just in time for Fast Times at Richmond High.

They were expanding and then they slowly died out.

Ever since then, people have been hunting them down one at a time.

Oh, there's a pizza guy killer out there.

Yeah, yeah. He kills him with one of those pizza slicer things.

It's all over the news. Every time someone opens up a pizza guy, the pizza guy killer shows up and just takes everyone out.

Speaking. I don't want to derailed too much on pizza, but there was a trend. No. What? No, no.

Get that clean. Give me that more clean.

Yeah, that was disgustingly terrible. Anyway, there was this trend on. On.

I don't know.

It was a trend, but this guy. This guy worked at a pizza place, and he kept sharing videos of himself, like, quickly cutting pizza and boxing it up. And the cuts were so terrible. Right. This is like. Like there had to be a one piece of pizza that was like a 2 inch by 2 inch, you know, triangle. And then one piece of pizza that was like 90 of the pizza because his cuts were so uneven. He was just like going so fast. But it would. He had like the salt bay sort of Vibe to him where he's like trying to be sexy and cut pizza. And it was really funny, but it's

like not precise at all.

No, people were just what they, what they call it, Duetting it or whatever when they record a video. It was like, it was remarkable.

Cutting pizza quickly is not really that sexy to begin with, but cutting pizzas fast and inaccurately is even more sexy.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, what is he trying to do with this?

Yeah, if you're looking to turn me on, you better cut that pizza correct. I tell you what, right now there's nothing sexier than eight perfect pizza triangles.

I agree with that.

Derek's wife wooed him in the first place.

Hell yeah. Like, watch this. Slowly pushing the thing across. Slower that. Jack's pizza is almost perfectly in half.

Derek's pulling out tape measure. These are all perfectly, perfectly the same distance across.

It's like that. Have you seen that German game show where people have to cut things in half?

Yeah, it's like that close we can get to.

Yeah, it's a real show. Yeah.

You've never seen that, Terry?

No, I've never heard real show, Terry. Well, I'm surprising.

Day and age we live in. Of course it's a. It's a real show.

Yeah.

Gonna be like, is it cake? But is it pizza?

Yeah, but this is what, like, is it cut in half properly? Anyway, Terry, we need to cut our time not quite in half because this is still like the first 10ish minutes of the episode. And then we still got like hour 50. Have this.

Yeah, depends how close I can actually get us.

Yeah, so Keith's gonna get us so close, dangerously close that we can never imagine in another patent pending fumblers deep dive.

All right, all right. Fast times. Ridgemont high came out 1982. As we discussed. It's rated R and sits at, you know, that golden spot for me. One hour 30 minutes.

Oh, yeah, that.

And that includes credits. So a little bit less than that. Kind of perfect. A group of Southern California. Now the parts that aren't perfect. I think a group of Southern California high school students ignore their studies in favor of indulging in their teenage distractions.

Wow. Shame on them.

I know. The nerve, the nerve of these 20 somethings playing teens.

Also, you get taglines such as, at Ridgemont High, only the rules get busted.

Okay.

Even though I think like more of the movie takes place outside of the high school than they actually in the high school. I don't. Fast cars, Fast girls.

Hold on. Are. Are you like upset that there wasn't more high school time?

No, no, no. I. I just think that they spend a lot more time out of the high school that.

Yeah. Want to see him go through classes? No.

Fast. Fast Times at Ridgemont Mall actually would have made much more sense.

I would have liked to see classes. I'm fine.

I'm fine.

Summer, December.

I'm fine. With the title class at Ridgemont High. The only rules. The only. Only the rules get busted. Nothing really happens at the school in the movie. Like the kid gets busted the one time for coming in late to the class and then gets, you know, kicked out. But the rest of it's all pretty much stuff outside. There's no real. Nobody getting busted for anything. Another tagline. It's awesome. Totally awesome.

Okay, I don't mind that, I guess.

And the last one, apparently was Fast Cars, fast girls, fast carrots, dot, dot, dot. Fast carrots.

Carrots. Oh, cafeteria.

Yeah.

Practicing the thread. That's really what we're going to highlight, I guess.

I guess so. The budget for this one, $4.5 million in the US and Canada, then made a grand total of 27.1 million. Had an opening weekend of 2.55 million.

It's a certified hit.

Yeah. So Universal originally planned to only release this film on the west part of the United States for a few weeks before sending it off directly to cable because they didn't think there was any audience for it after. Excellent response, the film went wide three weeks later with big opening in eastern United States and a long run in theaters.

So I'm gonna tell you what. The more we talk about movies and learn about stuff, the more I am willing to say that people that run movie studios do not know anything about movies.

No, they don't. They're just like, nobody will like this. It's like Dune 2. They're like, yeah, we'll just send that straight to streaming. Like, why?

It's just like, they got the jobs because their dad had the job or something like that. Yeah, they don't know what they're doing or talking about.

Like, what does. What about this? Do they not think there's no audience for. Maybe it's because it's about high schoolers. But it's rated R, so in theory, high schoolers can't go see it. Is that the problem?

Maybe, yeah.

Yeah. Technically, yeah. You probably wouldn't have been old enough to see the movie unless you're, like, a senior or unless the places you went to really didn't give a shit who you went with. Because I saw A lot of R rated movies when I was younger.

Yeah. Wow. I didn't get a CR movie till

I was 24, so yeah, that's when

I had to sneak in.

All right, so as I mentioned, they only opened this on the western part of the United States. So the weekend of August 13th, number one movie, brand new, fresh out the gates. First week open Friday 13th. Part three was number one.

Okay.

Oh, that's a good one. Number two, making 8.4 million 60 days into release was E.T.

of course.

Number three was An Officer and a Gentleman.

Okay.

Number four movie we've talked about before, the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Oh, the Dolly Parton film.

Yep. And number five was a re release of Star Wars Episode one, A New Hope.

Episode one.

When it was still called Star wars because this would have been the five year anniversary of the Star Wars. Yeah. And so it was the number five movie because it wasn't even in the top ten the previous week. So it just came out for the weekend and that came in at number five. Now fast times. Richmond High dropped in at number seven. It opened on only 498 screens. Eventually it would peak at its highest in its third weekend. That'd be September 3rd of 1982. And that's when they opened it up to the east coast and gave its most most amount of theaters. It was still under 800.

That's not very many at all.

No, but still makes this movie did really well though there.

Yeah.

This movie was directed by Amy Heckerling. Now first Universal pitched this to David Lynch.

Whoa.

And he passed on it.

That'd be awesome.

And then I think it'd be a much different movie.

I would love that. Why did this happen?

Dang it.

This is Amy Heckerling's first full length directorial debut. Shortly after doing this one, she did Johnny Dangerously, Michael Keaton and Joe Pisco.

That's a combo right there.

She did National Lampoon's European Vacation.

Oh, I like European Vacation.

She wrote and directed Clueless.

Oh, good for her.

In 1986 she did three episodes of Fast Times. TV series based on movie. And then in 1996, she did four episodes of Clueless TV series.

Oh no. Wow.

Yeah. But in 1989 and 1990, back to back years, she wrote and directed look who's Talking. And look who's Talking Too.

Oh, goodness.

After a single career minded woman is left on her own to give birth to a child of a married man. I don't remember that part at all. She finds a new romantic chance and a cab Driver. Meanwhile, point of view is of the newborn baby as narrated through voiceover. Christie Alley is the career minded woman. John Travolta is the cab driver. Abe Vagoda. I don't think that's the married man, but he's in this as well. And then Bruce Willis is the voice of Mikey, the baby.

Yeah, he's the baby.

Doesn't Luke, who's talking to have like another baby?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Spoilers.

Hold on.

Let's not get, let's not get too far ahead here. Siskel and Ebert quoted as saying the first movie sensational.

No questions at this time. Derek.

Yeah, that's on the DVD cover. It says Cisco, Lenny Burke, Sensational in quotes.

Look who's Talking is sensational.

Yes. Now the sequel added Roseanne Barr as little sister Julie also. And folks, if you're looking at what day it is and all, I do believe today is Mel Brooks's 100th birthday and he is the voice of Mr. Toilet in that movie.

Mr.

Toilet? What. What is that?

I'm guessing it's some sort of a toilet training thing and they had a voice for it.

Is it sentient?

I don't think. No, I, I don't think it's sentient. I think he just talked to the kids as they try to use the bathroom. But he's in this as well. I just mentioned that because today is, I do believe, his 100th birthday.

Happy birthday, Mel.

This spun off a third movie, also not written and directed by Amy Heckerling, but third movie was made in 1993. It's called look who's Talking. Now the kids have grown up a bit so they can talk on their own. But they added two dogs voiced by Dan DeVito and Diane Keaton.

The dogs talk and look who's Talking three.

They, they do voiceover stuff of like the people only hear them barking. The, the dogs talk to each other.

So in all these movies, nothing's actually talking. It's just inner monologues.

Yeah, well, because the little, the little kids can't talk yet. They're young enough where they can't talk.

I thought this, these movies had like a literal talking baby.

No, no, it's not like boss baby. It's just, it's okay. The kid is saying stuff and like all the parents here is like Goo Goo Gaga.

It's a missed opportunity.

Agreed.

So this is written by Cameron Crow. As we have mentioned, it's based off a book that he wrote after spending a year at Claremont High School in San Diego, California. He went undercover to do research for his 1981 book, now out of print. Fast amount times original high, true story. Unless you want to go and spend a lot of money on ebay. It's out there. It's about his observations of high school and the students that he befriended there, including then student Andy Rathbone, who the character Mark Rat Ratner was modeled.

So he was pretending to be a student?

Yes.

Now, did the school know this was happening?

I. That. I don't know.

It was the 70s and 80s. I didn't care.

It probably wasn't a big deal.

Just show up.

How old was he when he was doing this?

He was in college, so I think that's what it's based on. He wrote. He was writing this while he was in college.

What's that guy like, Steve Buscemi? What's up, fellow kids?

Well, he was born in 1957. When did he do this?

81.

So he been, like, 24.

Interesting.

Interesting, indeed.

I wonder. This calls for further investigation.

Yes.

How did this work exactly? Did he have a. Like, a fake mustache or something?

Well, so probably inverse of a fake mustache. He's got a fake hairless skin.

He went undercover to do research for his 1981 book. So he probably went undercover in, like, 79. Early age, 21, doing. Yeah. So he's probably 20 or 21, and it's still highly legal if he did that. But it's obviously, you know, is it

illegal to go to high school when

you're 21 if you're going undercover because you've already finished high school yourself and you've moved on to go write a book?

Do you think there's a law in the books that prevents that from happening?

You know what? Maybe not now in California, because that's where, like, 21 Jump street also takes place. So they send the kids undercover all the time as cops.

I think it's. It's only illegal if nobody knows you're doing it. Like, it's probably fine if it's only

illegal if you get caught in the.

Exactly.

And you're doing. If you're just hanging out with the kids and, like, taking down notes, you're not in trouble.

Revealing all their deepest, darkest secrets.

If you're doing.

If you're doing. If you're doing a lot of other things.

Maybe.

Maybe.

I think that the students have to, like, give them permission to use their stories.

I think they would. Yeah. I mean, he seems to have gotten, like, the one. Apparently he, you know, became friends with Andy Rathbone probably must have given him some. Okay. All right. Also, Andy Rathbone himself became famous on his own for writing many of the four Dummies help book series.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Good for him.

So maybe in return for. Hey, camera, I'm gonna sue you for a bunch of. You're saying your movie about me. He goes, hey, man, let me help you get those for Dummies books published that you always talking about.

That's a gold mine right there.

This one, obviously the screenplay written based off his book. But he did not direct this. But Crowe is mostly known for writing and directing things such as Jerry Maguire.

Oh, yep, yep.

Or say anything. Almost Famous, which he won an Oscar. That's. That's. That's another one of those ones that falls into our. Any movie categories that's there. Why do you rewatch that one at some point?

Oh, okay.

Any movie falls into any movie.

No, there's still some things that aren't there. And no, the parts I agree with. That movie falls into it.

Interesting. Changing sides already.

I know. Earlier he said washiest.

I said that falls into the category.

Earlier he said he was 100 with Eric, and now he's starting to fall back.

No, he's trying to, like, nitpick movies. See, like, that movie literally falls in. Into the realm of any movie.

You're right. You know what else does? 2004's Vanilla sky with Tom Cruz that he also wrote and directed.

Oh, yes.

But in 2011, he wrote a screenplay for and directed a. A book or movie based on a book. We bought a zoo. It's set in Southern California. Father moves his young family to the countryside to renovate and reopen a struggling zoo. This stars Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Hayden Church. I've seen this movie.

Me too.

I saw this movie in a theater, and I'm having one of those vulnerable moments here. I cried like a baby through this entire movie.

Wow. Okay.

My dog at the time was not doing well, and I walked out of the movie when it was done. I called my wife and told her to schedule appointments, put him down. Because he had to be put down.

Oh.

And I had been holding out far too long on it. And there's a scene with a tiger, and tiger's sick, and it. It doesn't want to take its medicine. And he's just like, come on, take your medicine. You need to do it. The tiger just doesn't want to do it, so he knows he has to put him down. And I'm just. I swear, these people, other people. I Went by myself because I had the day off.

Oh, no.

These other people in the theater must have been looking at me like, what is wrong with this ass?

It's like this movie's really hitting this guy. Wow.

Like he is over there just tears streaming down his face about this goddamn

tiger really hit home. Yeah. Wow.

I. I bought the book at one time. I was going to read it and I was like, hell with this. Get to that.

Change your tune. That.

I want nothing to do with this.

Yeah. I mean, it sounds like you got enough out of the. The film. You got enough out.

I did, I did.

I did.

Yeah. It's a moment I'll never forget this movie. Let's talk about some of the actors in this movie. There's a lot of them. This movie is the acting debut of one Nicholas Copa, aka Nicholas Cage.

He's on screen for 30 seconds.

Ah, no, in the TV versions, he's on screen more. Apparently it actually has some dialogue.

No, he said nothing in this movie.

He. You see him in like the stands at the football game at one time. Oh, that's right. That's where I noticed him.

Like he was working at like the fast food place.

He's.

He had a grin on his face and that's the only time I saw him.

Yeah. Because Brad got pissed. He's like, I got all those guys those jobs there. He was actually originally. Nicholas Cage was actually originally considered to play the role of Brad Hamilton, but the studio thought his performance was too dark. More importantly, he had been lying about his age to get a bigger part. When producers eventually found out he was only 17 at the time, they couldn't do it because a lot of the movie was filmed at the mall. Stuff was all filmed overnight and at nighttime. And when you're under 18, there's rules. Yeah. That actually apply even back then. You can get. You could sneak into a high school and pose a student, but heaven forbid

you work overnight at a mall.

Worked overnight at any part of this movie and put in too much time. So this movie also stars Eric Stoltz in his first non TV project and Anthony Edwards in just his third movie as two of Spicoli's. And there are. This is the character's names. They're both stoner buddy. And speaking of third movies, this film also features Forest Whitaker as football phenom Charles Jefferson. And this was his third movie credit on his IMDb list as well.

Oh, nice.

Apparently first. Apparently the first thing he actually auditioned for. The other stuff, he must have just walked on. Yeah.

Offer only Forest Whitaker, even at that age, is very identifiable. There's just something about Forest Whitaker and his look. He just. He looks like Saw Guerrera, but yes, as a. As a 18 year old. Okay.

Young Saw.

Yeah. Yep.

Yeah, It's. He's a giant monster of a man. Even if you were playing football against him and he wasn't pissed at you.

Yeah.

This movie also stars Vincent Chevali as Mr. Vargas. He's a biology teacher, and I only mentioned this because he was Dr. Kaufman, the, like, assassin, interrogator guy. And Tomorrow Never Dies.

Yes.

Oh, wow.

Cool. Yeah.

Wasn't he also in Buckaroo Banzai?

I think so, but I really. I really remember from Dr. As being the guy in Tomorrow Never Dies and then having to figure out where we saw him before.

Yeah.

At that time as well. In Buckaroo Banzai, Brian Backer, he plays Matt Rat. Ratner. He only has 19 other acting credits. The ones I recognized the most were the Money Pit. Also Police Academy four Citizens on Patrol. Oh, a clown in Babylon actually didn't recognize that one, but name kind of funny.

Yeah. What's that all about?

I don't know, because I was focused more on 1985 when he was in moving Violations. The goofy students of a remedial driver's education class. Finally, you wanted to do that instructor. It stars Bill Murray's brother John, also as Jennifer Tilly and of course, Brian Becker.

Like Jennifer. Jennifer Tilly. But the words clown and Babylon did, like, grab you.

Are you in.

I've seen moving violations before, and I.

Situation.

I'll be honest.

It's.

It's been on that, like, long, like, list.

There's no way. You want.

You want to remodel this?

I would like to revisit. Come on.

There's no.

If you were in a room with two doors and one said moving violations once said the clown of Babylon, you wouldn't go through the door. Said clown of Babylon.

Two doors. It's an easy choice.

Yeah.

Even. Even if it was, like, blank clown, blank, blank. Be like, I got to go to that one. Or if it was blank, blank, blank Babylon. Like, I got to go to that one.

Oh, yeah. Either of those words are like buzzwords that will immediately get me in the door of any situation.

Or even if it was a blank in blank or. Or moving violations. I taken the A blank and blank.

Yeah, I mean, I like what it was.

A cat in a hat.

Yeah. I would take that over moving violations.

Oh, God, 100%.

Boo. Talk about moving violations.

I hadn't even Heard of it until today.

A movie that was forgotten by time. Yes, much like Clown for Babylon, but it's got a great name.

My bad. I'm sorry. I. I went with the nostalgic pick of mine. I didn't realize we're rioting over here. Why? I didn't realize this was gonna be a problem.

Holding out some signs to get a picket fence going. Even hear about Clown for Babylon.

Like, it looked your list of his movies was like Enron stock. It was like the Money Pit and then Police Academy 4 and then a clown in Babylon.

Yeah, and you're like, I didn't actually recognize that one.

I'm, like, haunted by a childhood memories of his father's murder. Frank Carroll, private detective slash circus.

Why would we never talk about this?

Private detective circus. Clown interest is super, Pete. Super.

That's a great combo of professions.

The only thing is, mission event, biggest squeaky shoes. Like, it's hard to sneak around.

Yeah, but it's really funny, you know?

I think I'm being followed by a clown.

You turn around, you see a clown. Just, like, falling into a pie, trying

to act all nonchalant. There's a clown. He picks up the menu at the restaurant and pulls it over his face real fast.

He tries to cause a distraction, you know, just, like, starts slipping around everywhere.

I love the idea. Okay, so he holds up the menu real fast, but it's got the hair that sticks on the side, so it still sticks out the side, so you see it on either side of the menu.

Can. Okay, so let's. Let's. Let me dive into this a little more. Haunted by childhood memories of his father's murder, Frank Carroll, private circus clown, sets out on mission of vengeance.

Yep.

Jingles, Carol. Jingles, Carol. A gentleman in a red nose was gunned down in cold blood by Max and Fudge, two members of a secret society.

What? Two guys together.

Max and Fudge. Fudge.

And they're murderers in the secret society killing Keith.

Clown killers.

I. I will be honest. I knew you guys were probably gonna perk up a bit at that one, but I didn't realize it was gonna be like this.

You thought we might perk up a little?

I know I was gonna be turned around, shamed for picking moving violations. All right, Jennifer. Jason Lee is also this movie. She stars as Stacy.

Which one was Stacy?

The main girl who meets up with Rat Ratner.

Oh, Judge Reinhold's sister.

Yeah. Yeah, those two are, I guess, considered the. The lead. Like, okay, the two leads. Stories of this, I guess. I don't know.

I'll be real honest. Like, the character names other than Spicoli and Mr. Hand are lost on me.

That's right. She was in things such as Easy Money with Ronnie Dangerfield, Backdraft. She's in the Hudsucker Proxy.

That's a good movie.

The Road to Perdition.

That's an excellent movie.

She was nominated for an Oscar for supporting actress in the Hateful Eight, but in 1992 movie she's probably known very well for. Single White Female, starring opposite Fonda. A Manhattan professional takes in a new roommate after a breakup, only to find the woman gradually copying her life, appearance, relationship, turning domestic space into the site of an escalating identity erasure and violent possession.

Jared, you know that movie?

No, not at all. Sounds interesting.

Did you know Hudsucker Proxy, Backdraft, Road to Perdition, Hateful Eight or Single?

No. Those I had heard of. I heard of all those.

Okay. Yeah.

Are you making fun of the fact I said it's probably one she's best known for?

The one she's best known for. Yeah, yeah.

She's probably very. But I mean, that's the movie I think she's very well known for. Because that movie in. In the pre. Terry era of the world, it was a well known movie.

That is what it's known as.

Yeah. In P. P. Yeah. Yeah.

PTE and the pre.

Terry era at. What's the after.

After Terrier.

No, we're in the DTE right now.

Down to Terry era.

During Terry era.

Settling down to Down.

Terrier. Yeah. That's where everything's going downhill. Yeah. But no, it's. She's the main person. Hateful A. Right. Like the criminal.

I don't remember because I've only seen that movie once and I actually didn't like it that much.

Oh, okay.

It's. It's like my least favorite of Quentin's movies. Judge Reinhold. He plays Brad in this. He's been a lot of things. I think a lot of people know him as a detective. Billy Rosewood and Beverly Hills Cop. 1, 2, 3. And the Netflix Axle F movie that they put out.

Oh, I didn't know he's in that.

He plays Neil Miller in the Santa Claus. One, two, and three.

Nice, Nice. Close. Those are classics.

He's the close talker in an episode of Seinfeld.

Yep.

And he's the voice of Honorable Judge Reinhold in one episode of Clerks, the animated series.

And I believe he was also the same role on Arrested Development. Not mistaken.

Honorable Judge Reinhold. They Only list him as. As Judge Reinhold on that one. So I didn't know if it was. If he.

Yeah, I think it's the same situation. He's a judge in that.

Yeah.

As well.

Yeah, probably like, oh, look at this joke being used over and over.

I mean, it's his name. Oh, if I were named judge, I would hope I get many roles as a judge.

Yeah, me too.

Thanks, Terry.

Now this movie has three different people who actually won Oscars and multiple people who were. Four people who won Oscars plus people who were nominated. Stuff like that. Nick Cage, Forest Whitaker, Cameron Crowe. But the guy who's probably the most honored member of that group and the real breakout star from this is Sean Penn as Jess Piccoli. He's a three time Oscar winner for One Battle After Another, Milk and Mystic River. He was nominated three other times as well. He's been in movies such as the Falcon and the Snowman Colors, famous gang movies. A lot of hip hops on the soundtrack.

Well, Ice T, I think that was like the big song.

Dead Man Walking, which is one of the ones he's got an Oscar nomin for Nice.

Okay.

He's uncredited appearance and being John Malkovich.

Or did he play one of the Malkoviches?

I'm assuming so this is uncredited. He was in Carlito's Way. Definitely not a movie I need to rewatch at some point in time. He played pizza guy in a 2020 table read of Fast Times at Ridgemont high.

Wow.

In 1997 though. He's a really good movie that I like a lot. Called the Game. An arrogant, isolated investment banker is a target of enigmatic entertainment company plunging into an escalating reality bending conspiracy orchestrated by his estranged brother to shadow his emotional detachment. It's all part of like a birthday present.

David.

It's directed by David Fincher. Stars Michael Douglas. Is an excellent movie. Fast My Times Reach My High is included among the times. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Sorry. It's included among American Film Institutes 2000 list of the top hundred funniest movies.

Top hundred. It's 20, 000 list of.

From. From the year 2000.

Oh.

Now I think this might not be updated all because I think they just redid this.

I don't know. It's still on there.

Yeah.

Because I think they just really. They did. Somebody just did a list because it said that Blazing Saddles is like the funniest mov. I think that might have been American Film Institute. So it might have been like a new updated version of that Funny film.

I got kicked off.

Yeah. In 20. I. You know what? I didn't notice it said 2000 list, so. There might be there. Who knows? Maybe it's on there. I'm gonna say maybe it's still there because six years later in 2006, Entertainment Weekly, this is number two on their 50 Best High School movies.

Nice. Okay.

And it is part of the 1001 movies. See before you die.

Hey, there you go.

I'm sure I could name 50 high school movies.

I bet you if you tried, you

could probably get High School Musical. High School Musical 2. High School Musical 3.

Okay, you're already on a roll. I didn't think of that.

No. 21 Jump Street. 22 Jump Street. I think there's 23 Jump Street.

It's coming out.

Y. Yeah.

Okay. You got like five I fast.

Faculty.

The faculty. Shoot. Okay, we're good.

Clueless Mean girls.

Yep.

Mean Girls. The musical edition.

High School High.

High School High.

Sky high.

Technically. Yeah, that's probably. This is high school. Yeah.

The zombies. Zombie High or whatever that's called. The musicals.

You know, talking about zombies. Zombies. 1, 2, 3 and 4. Yes, I know them. I know them well.

You know them well. Okay.

Yes.

Better off dead.

Oh, there's that. What's that movie called? Spontaneous. That's really good. Where the people start spontaneously exploding.

Combustion. Yeah, yeah.

It's actually really good. Yeah. Okay. Okay. You know, if you gave me like a year and I could just sit in a room by myself, I could probably come with 50.

We just came up with 106.

I think so. Yeah.

All right.

For the. For the masturbation scene. This movie.

Oh, of course we're gonna talk about that.

Well, you know what? Well, all right. I already mentioned it, but he brought

a large come up with movies that masturbation was Featured.

No top 50 films.

No, I. I put some. I put some 2,000. Hold on a sec. Let's. Let's do this instead. So prior to the films August 19th, 19th, 1982, Los Angeles release, a new story reported that the Motion Picture association of America had granted the film an X rating due to love scene between Stacy and Mike, which fe. Which was going to feature a full frontal male nudity scene as part of the scene. And they went through and they. They rearranged, uh, and did some editing because, uh, as the picture was the first major studio film in some time to be given an X rating. Universal agreed to edit the scene. It's just taken from some different angles so that you don't actually see It. The film was then dropped to an R. This. Later on in the 2021 Criteria Collection, Blu Ray restores the full brief full frontal nudity in the pool house.

Oh, they brought it back.

Yeah.

Wow. I didn't get that version.

Me neither.

In the broadcast television version, Ron, the show Tons of Dicks make up for it. The. The guy who works at the. The stereo shop in the mall.

Yep.

Yeah. He breaks up with Stacy after finding out her real age. And early VHS releases had the majority of the original music replaced with generic sound alikes.

Oh, this. The soundtrack is excellent in this movie.

Yeah.

They replaced the songs. That seems like a bad idea.

Well, it was probably had to do

to licensing rights, come up with something else to use. Come on. Not just like generic sound alikes.

Well, they didn't have the. When he gives the like his five bits of advice for, you know, and he tells them to play the.

That's.

That's a different. But that's the wrong album. And it's because they didn't have the. They couldn't get the rights to play side A of whatever the album was that he told most. So he plays that instead. And I. I didn't know. I didn't know that wasn't the right one. Yeah.

Very romantic song, but it's a great song.

A couple other quick little notes here about casting. Christopher Reeve was considered for the role of Jeff Spicoli.

Weird.

He was 29 at the time of filming. He would have been the oldest of the quote unquote, teenagers.

Yes.

Ron Johnson, stereo salesman. The actor DW Brown is only seven months older than Jennifer Jason Leigh. In real life, Phoebe Cates is 18. Jennifer Jason Leigh is 19, Sean Penn's 22. And Brian Backer is 25. In this movie, Tom Hanks was considered for the role of Brad Hamilton.

Okay.

Justine Bateman was offered the role of Linda. That's Phoebe Cates one. But she turned it down to star in Family Ties instead.

Good move.

And Matthew Broderick was also offered the role of Spicoli, but he turned it down.

Wanted to be Spicoli. That seems like a good role. I'd be speculating. Yeah. If someone asked.

Well, I think a lot of people turned it down. It was due to objections over the tone of the sexual content of the film, including the role of Mr. Hand that was originally offered to Fred Gwynn.

Fred Gwynn.

Oh, come on. They should have got him. He.

He was offered. He didn't want to do it because he said it's too sexual.

You Fool. Then he was in pet cemetery. Cool. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, there's no sex in pet cemetery.

There's dead kids.

Yeah. There's no on screen sex.

No.

But yeah, there's plenty of off screen sex.

Tons of it.

It's implied.

I think if you watch the film, it's very implied. I mean, how did all those kids get there?

God damn it.

So deep.

So close.

Dude. I thought I was getting really deep and apparently I. Again, I didn't go deep enough because I didn't do Clown of Babylon.

My bad.

No, no, you went deeper. We, you know, that's what we like, Keith, is you were able.

You were.

You dug deep at our request. Sometimes Derek and I get a little eager and we're like, keep digging, dig.

Speaking of. Speaking of digging, I saw that. I saw that preview for the new Tom Cruise movie, Digger.

Yeah.

And I really. Pun intended. I really dug how they set that thing up by showing all those clips of him in other movies.

That's too long.

Yeah, I didn't like that at all. It.

You know what? I. I had watched it once on my phone and didn't care much for it. And then I watched it before Supergirl and I was like, wow, this actually is kind of interesting way that's doing this. It kind of leads up to it. Really nice. Because you're. I. I'm guessing you're not supposed to recognize that's him. You know, I. I doubt.

I don't really like this. It's like hyping up the man, not the movie. Like, what does that. Why.

I have no idea what the movie's

about either, do I. But he does. He doesn't really do movies where you can't tell it's him. So I think maybe that might be the point of it, is that he's doing something that's.

It's. What's a Birdman guy?

Yep. I like his movies.

Yeah.

Maybe it'll be good also.

Also saw the preview for Whale Fall.

Yes.

And I had watched it before because I sent it to you guys, but seeing on the big screen, I. I was getting a little anxious. Had a little anxiety attack watching it. I. It was freaking me out.

Yeah.

You.

You do not want to be swallowed by a whale.

Yeah. And I wasn't. I wasn't even watching on imax. It was just like the normal laser screen. And I was like, man, this is really, like, messing with me here.

I'd say that's on the top 10 things I don't want to happen to me.

I agree. Nor Desire.

Yeah.

Yeah. There's no desire at all. Don't even try it. Whales.

Yeah. Stay away, Whales. Stay away. Get.

Too many times. I have to, like, shoe them off. They're trying to swallow. Listen, I'm not into it, all right?

Like, sometimes I'm leaving for work. When I used to go to work, I'd get to the door and I'd look out the window. There'd be like six, seven whales sitting outside my door. I'm like, christ, I gotta wait for the wheels to leave.

Knock on the door. Who is it?

Land whale. Land whale. Land shark. Yep.

I hate when I open the door and I was like, wow, it's so dark outside. And then I like, look up and there's just a bunch of teeth and

a tongue flapping around, mouth open, waiting for you to walk into it.

Wait for me to walk right in there.

Oh, boy. All right, well, we need to do. We need to talk about fast. My times at Richmond High.

I think we should.

I said it on purpose. Nobody even said anything.

No, mom makes that. I'm used to it now.

Yeah. I'm numb. I'm numb to the miss the misspeak.

Fast.

But times. All right, let's do it. Fast time.

Sorry.

I'm still sorry. I heard you say it. I'm still. I think I keep messing up because I'm really thrown off by this Babylon thing. Clown and Babylon.

That's all I can think about right now.

I will edit that out. Your apology. Your apology will go unheard.

The listeners will be so angry with you. The ultimate revenge.

That's for telling me to shut up when I said, what is it isn't. Look who's talking to Shut your mouth.

Don't you dare talk about. Look who's talking too.

Yeah, after I. After it was literally just brought up.

No questions. Do it. Don't even get me started on three where the dogs start talking.

So, I mean, look, this movie is almost 45 years old now, huh?

Yep.

I am surprised that, like, one of the streamers has not latched on and somehow figure out a way to get this where they can make like a. Like an eight episode series out of it.

You said there was a TV show already.

Yeah, but that was like in the. That was like 1986. Like a. That was like. Like, you know, ABC or cbs, like, sitcom type thing. Like, especially with, like, stuff, you know, weird stuff out there, like euphoria and stuff like that.

I.

This came across me like they probably could have made like a decent series, like a.

Why, though? It's a good movie. Just let the movie live.

I. I don't. It's an okay movie.

Oh, I like quite a bit.

I didn't. There's parts of it that are funny here and there, but overall, I don't know. It just like. One of the reasons I picked that opening clip is because that's like the main thing that seems like a storyline to me through the whole thing is Brad really going from like, you know, having everything to struggling all. You know, keeps getting fired or quitting these jobs and things get worse for him and his girlfriend leaves him before he can break up with her and. But then event at the end, he stops the guy and he gets, you know, then he becomes the manager of the place again. He's back on top. He's only six payments away from paying off that car when everything starts falling apart.

To me, I thought Stacy was like the main storyline.

Yeah, well, yeah, but like. But like it's just her. Like, I don't.

There's no.

There's no like really in depth thing to any of the people's that she's meeting up with. She's got her friend telling her to, you know, have sex with everyone.

Some drama with the abortion thing.

Yeah.

I guess. I don't know.

I just love the love triangle. That was pretty tense. I was mad at.

That was too. Yeah. Yeah.

Was it Mark, his name, the friend Mike or Mark? Which one was evil?

Mike was the bad one.

Yeah. I was getting real upset with Mike.

Scalp and tickets everywhere.

I thought that was the. The meat of the movie. Like this is true because this movie does have like three different like perspectives. Like there's the Stacy stuff, there's the Spicoli stuff and then there's. Yeah.

The.

The other guy you're talking about. Hamilton. Yeah.

And like the Spagholi stuff is just in there as, you know, like he doesn't really have a storyline. He's just in there. It's like humor.

Yeah. That's at this point.

Like I said, like. And like I said, they ended up having to like beef up his role because of how good they thought he was in. In the movie.

What's funny? Talking about it, like, so Stacy is. Is clearly the main. The MC here. Right. But Spicoli is like all those kids are just kids and they're all being dumbass kids. Like none of them are genuine people. Everyone's putting on a front.

Yep.

To be whatever. Right. Like girl with. With the boyfriend in Chicago or whatever. Right. Like always. You know, it's like Having a. My girlfriend goes to a school in Canada. You don't know her. Right. Sort of thing. Like it feels like that, like that's all. Like her experiences with sex. Oh, yeah. Like just 30, 40 minutes. Yeah. Just like, come on. All right.

She's just making that up. Yeah.

And then she, and then Stacy's making up. Like they're just liars, right? They're lying kids. Because that's what kids do. They want to sound cool to one another. And then you got scalp and guy. He's not genuine because he was. He's probably never been with a girl his entire life until that moment. But he talked about it like he was a big game guy. Right. But that's what 17 year old kids do, right?

That's the most genuine one there.

He is the most genuine. Him and Mr. Hand. Oh, and the biology teacher. They are the most true to themselves individuals in this entire movie. And it's so funny that the biology teacher, you could tell, man, he, he wanted to have sex with that corpse. He was so excited by that opportunity to dig into a dead body, ripping the heart out like he is. He is fantasized with killing people before this.

Field trips for him. That's not.

Yes, exactly. And they do it every year. That doctor knows. Like.

And it doesn't.

It does.

That rush does never wears off on him.

This is one chance to do it.

Ripping the heart out of a corpse.

Yeah, I, I, you know what? I, at this point in time, he probably doesn't even want to have sex with corpse. He just rips the heart out and then he's just like, oh, he still

wants to have sex with it too. I think.

Who knows?

That's what the movie's about. I mean, a bunch of sexual tension.

There's a lot of sex with a corpse.

Kinda.

Partially. In some ways I could say. Yeah.

In other ways, not so much. Yeah.

That's the beauty of art is you can kind of. It is.

It is. Beauty of art.

You're right. Yeah. I loved Spicoli and Mr. Hand's rivalry. That was so funny to me because it seems Spicoli is just so like not invested in this at all. It feels like Mr. Hand is really making a big deal of everything and Spicoli just never catches on to what they seem to respect each other towards the end. But it's kind of a.

You're, you're bothering, you're bothering my time, are you. You're wasting my thing. Well, technically, it's our time.

Yeah. I'm here too, so.

It's steals the pizza from. He doesn't get anyone because everyone else eats it.

I love the first interaction he has when he's, like, 30 seconds late, right?

Yes.

And Mr. Hand just tears up his thing and you know where to get another one? Like, what a dick. Right? You don't need to be such a. And Spicoli's just like, what the hell?

He even, like, says it like, you're a dick, dude. And then.

And then there's that other time he's not there, and he's like, where is he? He's like, I think I saw him by.

Yeah.

Down the hallway. He's like, machine.

Well, go get him.

Get him. Like, what?

Like, there's no last time here. Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

That's a.

There's a birthday party.

It's. It's. I love it. It seems. It doesn't seem like Spicoli, like, really. Like, it never hits home. You know what I mean? Like, it. He gets mad at him when he rips his thing up, but then he's like. Just treats him the same after that, you know? Like, he doesn't really, like, take it to heart and, like, have. He never seems mean spirited. Mr. Hand definitely does, but Spicoli always is, like, genuinely just, like, he never.

He never catches on the fact that Mr. Hand's actually, you know, pissed off at him until they sit down and have their discussion during graduation dance night, when he just randomly shows up at

his house to occupy his time. Waste his time. Yeah.

And Even then, after Mr. Hand kind of becomes to respect Spicoli a little bit.

Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Even though Spicoli's walls are plastered with naked women, it's kind of an odd

place for, like, a sort of student to be hanging out. Yes, very. People do that back then.

They just.

Teachers could just show up at a student's house and then just go to the.

Mine.

Did hang out for eight hours.

That was my dad, so. Yeah.

Your dad worked at the high school, so I'm sure teachers stop by all the time.

No, I mean, my dad was a. The house all the time. Oh, yeah.

That's.

That is run into him all the time.

Oh, geez.

So this is based off a book of his, like, experiences at some California high school. California high school seem very different from Midwestern high schools.

I mean, obviously it's a dramatization. But these are the type of movies, not necessarily this one, but of this ilk that I grew up with, that made me terrified of high school.

Yeah.

Like, I don't want to go to high school if this is how it is.

As, like, the blueprint, basically, for probably a lot of it.

Yeah. Like, I'm like, no, thank you. I. I will not go to high school and be fine.

Right? Yeah. Like, nope. Teenagers are stupid. I don't want to be part of that.

No.

They have a choice.

You know, I'm just trying to think of, like, other, like, high school. Just people are terrible to one another

and drama and, like, love triangles and.

Yeah.

Drugs.

No, thanks.

I mean, there's obviously the one nice guy and every. And he seems to get kind of screwed over a bit. Not as bad in this one as, I mean, his friend, you know, but. But, like. Like, he's not, like, he's not bullied by people and stuff. Like, usually, like, the. Like, the nice guy is in most of the other film. He's just. He has one friend who goes a little too far with something.

Yeah.

But he's not. He's not picked on by, like, everybody else. Like, that's what. There is no, like, actual bully in any of these. In any of this either. Like that. That is one interesting thing. There's no, like, overall bully type character that you get in a lot of high school movies. Yeah, there's a stereotypical one. It's not. It's not there in this.

Yeah. There's no, like, weird clicks or whatever, but, you know.

Yeah. Everyone seemed pretty much intermingled with each other.

Yeah.

Like. Like, there was no, like, hey, the guy over at the movie theater likes me. Oh, don't hang out with him. He's a dork. Like, there was none of that stuff that you. That you get like, later on, like, 90s versions of high school movies.

True.

Yeah, that is true. But this type of movie that if I saw when I was a kid, like, I have no desire to go to high school. No, thanks.

That's good. That's good. Supposed to scare you.

Scared straight.

Yep. Just sit in a room. Watched Fast Times Original High. Yeah.

Or Fastmont times. Either way.

Last month, times at Ridge High.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm not gonna say this is like, a horrible movie or anything, but I was like, ah, okay, it's there. I've seen it.

Really.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. At first. I was a little skeptical, but I felt like that was deeper than I expected with the, like, the. Yeah, like you were saying, Derek. The layers of, like, oh, these are all just stupid kids, you know? Like, it's not like they don't know anything and they're all just kind of making it up as they go.

Yeah.

And then there's actually some consequences, you know, like, it's kind of like. There's some. There's a little bit more darkness into the Nice. Expected with the. Yeah. Abortion and the guy, like, ditching her, not taking her there and all that stuff.

Now, I will say I kind of thought that was going to happen with the first guy and, like, that was going to come back around. But then all of a sudden you realize they're, like, jumping ahead, like, months very quickly, like from the beginning of the school year and then, you know, all the way through. Because I kind of thought that was going to happen with the first guy.

And that was a weird. That's what I was kind of nervous for. The first scene was.

Yeah.

Kind of an odd, like, setup where.

Yeah.

She's, like, hitting on this older guy.

Yeah.

And, like, I think. How old is she? 14, 13?

She's 15.

15. Tells him she's very big age.

Well, I think she's older than 15 because she's working.

No, she said she's 15 is what she says in the movie.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, it was. I was like. I was like, this is a weird situation that we're getting into.

But I felt so bad for her because her first time, her first experience with sex is she's at, what, under a bridge, staring at.

Yeah.

The word surf Nazis.

Yeah. It's like the most gross place.

I thought she was, like, in a. I thought she was, like, in a baseball dugout of some sort. At first I was like, what is. Where'd they go?

Like, Yeah.

I don't know, but it's the spot to go. He says it and he, like, acts like, she should know what that means after that.

And then she has a date with. With Ratner or whatever. Right. They go to that German restaurant and

they're just ordering as much stuff as possible until the guy shows up.

That's funny, right? With a wallet. But I think the circumstances. They're both in these giant chairs. They're at this weirdly sized table. Like, nothing is appropriate. Like, they're trying to, like, be like what they think they're supposed to be for these dates. Right. Like, even after the. And that big waitress comes and it's like anything else. He's like, ah. But then even afterwards, and they go back to her house and she's like, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. That my friend said to just have more sex or whatever.

Right.

Like, it's just for me, is like she's trying so hard to do what she thinks she's supposed to be doing.

But, yeah, everybody is in this.

Yeah, everybody. Everybody is at that age. Right fucking. No.

Nobody knows who they are. Exactly. And that's kind of. Maybe that's the theme of the film. Because even when Coley tells his teacher, I don't know, he's like, I don't know. I like that. And he writes that on the board. That's like a big theme of the film. Nobody knows what they're doing.

Nobody knows. Yeah, everybody's just trying to.

Even Mr. Hand doesn't know what's going on. He thinks everybody's high all the time.

Yes. Yes. Well, no.

And I mean, the one guy. I mean. And then the. And then you also. You got the one, you know, Mark, who. He doesn't want to do the whole thing. He's. He's like, no, I actually just want to meet somebody as well. He's not. He's. Because he keeps, like, you know, he takes off right away. And even at the end, they're like. They're having a hot row. A hot romantic relationship. Passionate romance. And they still haven't done yet because he's like, I don't really want to do this right now. I'm good. We can wait. And eventually she's like, eventually, she's like, yeah, I can wait.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know. That's the theme. They don't. They don't know. Science teachers going in and doing stuff with those bodies. No one knows.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like, you never know what happens if we die.

What happens when you die.

Oh, well, let me tell you, Mr. Vargas gets you.

It's like. It sounds like the Krampus or something like that. Mr. Berg is scary.

Yeah. Please, Mr. Vargas, I've been good all year. Don't.

Don't take me away.

Please don't molest my dead body.

I have one request before I die.

Rip my heart out all you want. Please just stop there.

Yeah. Keep it above the equator, Mr. Vargas.

Yep.

Well, did we do it, boyos? Did we get through fast times at Ridgemont High from 1982?

Indeed.

So I do believe we did.

What do we think?

Solid.

I mean, I. I'm not going to be jumping and being like, oh, let me watch this again, you know, anytime soon, but I. I mean, I enjoyed most of it.

Yeah, I thought it was actually better than I expected. I usually don't really like these kind of high school hangout movies, I guess, where it's like, there's. There's another famous one. I think it's in the 70s, so I can't remember what that one's called. I watched it. It was a big fan. But this one, I thought, there's a little stronger of a problem. I'm not a big Daisy confused guy.

That was like. That's one of those where you watch it. You're like, I don't want to go to high school.

Yes.

They hate freshmen. No, thanks. Don't need to go.

Horrible.

Ben Affleck's there. No way.

Yeah. Matthew McConaughey isn't supposed to be there anymore. And he's still there.

They just let him be there. Yeah, that's fine.

Yeah, he's. He's writing a book, probably.

All right.

All right. Yeah, he probably is writing a book, but, yeah, I think this is actually really good. I like the. There's. There's more tension than I expected. It's not just, like, them wandering aimlessly. Like, it's not like this is our last day of our senior year kind of thing. It's like there's. It's like a kind of a story over. Over time of them learning who they are and like. Yeah. Faking it till you make it kind of thing.

Yeah, I agree. It's a little slice of life high school comedy. I thought it was very funny. Still today, I laughed quite a bit at it. It's not like it. It's Naked Gun or anything, but it made me laugh quite a bit.

Definitely.

It's not a generational comedy.

No, it. It actually. Depending on who you talk to, it probably is. Yeah. No, this. This is a good flick. This is a good choice. I don't know if I'd ever want to read the book, but the movie was good. Can't read the book because it's just unavailable.

Good.

Look, I got better chances of getting a the Clown in Babylon than I do for getting.

Yeah.

Richmond High.

What world you live in that you can EAS more easily get a Crown of Babylon than fast. Times are rich behind the book.

Yeah. What a world.

That's just a statement about society.

Yeah. Didn't enjoy it. However, does do that one thing that kind of skes me out where we have high school kids. This girl's supposed to be 15, right?

Y.

And she's way naked.

Yeah.

Granted, she's played by an adult, but you're just like. But she's supposed to be 15. It's a very weirdly conflicting sort of thing. Like. Well, that's not. I Shouldn't be seeing then.

And I don't. I don't know how old Phoebe Cates character is supposed to be. I think she's older.

Who? Her friend that's also in high school, I think.

Yeah. Because she's grab. The Linda character is actually graduating that year.

Okay, well, yeah, but she's still at high school.

Yes,

I get what you're saying.

Yeah. It's just one of those things I do that.

But she's not supposed to be playing a 15 year old. She's like an 18 year old.

Yeah. Okay. Still a high school kid. Yes. As an adult grown man. Looking back on it now, it's weird. Like if I was a high school kid, I'd be like, yes, this is.

Oh, yeah. There's several scenes here that they, they. There's one other like of the, the fun fact things that were on there was like, like back in the day, like Blockbuster Video stuff like that you would like. There's like a thing where like people would get. When you watch it, there was like, it would like freeze up a bit on a certain scene because people always paused at a certain scene in the movie and it would eventually like, mess with the tapes.

Oh, gross.

You'd always find out someone's favorite scene that way.

Yeah, probably that scene where he's wearing that pirate hat, driving the car.

Oh, I love that scene.

Yeah, I thought it was very funny, actually. Very funny.

In fact, the guy makes him put the guy find like the guy makes him put the suit back on to go.

Yeah, it's like, man, I don't want to go out and just like put it on. All right, well, we know what we thought. That's not enough. What the Internet have to say. Well, on September 15th of 2017, guy who x. Oh, ex.

Hold on, A.C. act or act.

I can't. It's one of those like combination letters that I'll never say it properly. Guy who Act. Don't want to miss this one exclamation point. This is a fun movie. Brings me back to the early 1980s. Sean Penn, what a performance. I see a lot of negative reviews. I think those people don't understand. This movie isn't trying to be anything other than it is. It's just meant to be a time capsule of high school in the 1980s. Does it have a great plot? Not really. Does it even have a plot? Not really. But that's not the point. The film is an adventure and takes you on a ride with the characters. It also captures a piece of the 1980s I haven't seen emulated since. Also, Nick Cage gives a wonderfully understated performance.

Really?

One found that helpful. One not so much.

But going down like that too. Make that too found it helpful just for that last line.

That's the beauty of Nick Cage is that he can apply to many different film genres even early on his career.

I don't care how. How hard the two of you tried to make that a thing. It will not be a thing. I control whether it's a thing or not and it will not be.

He's gatekeeping it. He knows it's gold and he's holding it back from the audience.

No, Derek. How are me and Terry supposed to sell merch if you're.

You can sell whatever you want. I'm telling you. It's just that. That. That thing is not a thing.

I don't know. I think we're on to something.

No, I think we're on this open.

Go ahead.

Go ahead. I hope he shuts it down.

Good price to us. Yeah. He needs the money. Yeah.

Not to be done. Ray Romano. I can't believe I'm reading this. This is the one I picked. Oh, his name is Ray P. Daily.

No.

1A2.

Yeah.

Pretty rubbish. There's the reason I didn't even see the name. I just saw the number of thumbs ups and thumbs down. I'm like, this must be pretty good. But this Ray Daly from 182. Pretty rubbish. This is a film that American 30 something seemed to rave about. It might have been a good movie when it was released, but it has no plot, far too much dialogue and almost nothing happens. Basically, the film follows the lives of students at Richmond High as they try to live and learn and survive. School. Judge Reinhold stars and looks far too old to be going to school. Appearances by Phoebe Cates, who briefly appears. Nude. Jennifer Jason Leigh, who I still have no idea who she is, also has two nude scenes. Forest Whitaker as a jock. Sean Penn is a stoner. Eric Stoltz as one of his friends. The cast have all gone on to bigger and better things and films like this have been spoofed many times since. The film can't be sold on its plot. There's virtually none at all. It can't be sold on the then pretty unknown cast. The music isn't very good for an 80s film and the nudity. Nudity isn't enough to carry a generally poor film which hasn't stood up well to the passage of time. 15 found that helpful. 20, not so much. 1 out of 10. When.

When was this review?

2007. It's almost 20 years ago.

Wow. He's probably.

Because I was trying to think. So he said like 30 somethings then. Then at the end he said something about 40 somethings, like, make up your mind, buddy. Which it is. I think the only thing he really says that's true in there is that, yes, Judge Reinhold looks way too old in this movie.

Yeah. Yeah. What are you gonna do? I mean, it's such a ride and hold.

Yeah, he probably looked 40 out of the womb.

He's honorable, so. But also, this guy didn't dive deep enough. He didn't mention Anthony Edwards. He didn't mention Vincent Chivali. He didn't mention the clown Babylon.

No clown talk at all.

What a jackass.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The name is terrible. And I. If I read the name before I started, I wouldn't have read that review. But I already got on to it because it was 15 thumbs up, 20 thumbs down. Like, this must be hotly contested.

And it is.

Yes.

Also, the music in this movie is good. I don't know what he said.

I thought the movie was. I thought the music was fantastic.

Unless he saw it just on like the VHS thing where they took a lot of the music out. The music version. Yeah.

Yeah. Who knows? Either way, dude sucks.

Yeah.

All right, well, we did it. DTF Y2M 7W2. That means we're on to dub three. And that's a Terry dub.

Terry has the opportunity to do the most hilarious and amazing thing in the history of this podcast.

I have faith in Terry that he's not going to do that.

You think maybe I'm gonna pick up your alley? Oop, you left me, Keith.

Yeah, I.

You know what? I don't think you will, because I. Again, I. I kind of agree with Derek. You're better than that. But also, there is a chance for some brilliance going on here.

Okay, well, we'll see how brilliant it is, because we are not leaving the year of 1982. Oh, this is sheerly coincidence, but we're gonna go into little fantasy realm.

Okay.

With Conan the barbarian. Oh. From 1982. Starring Arnold.

I'd never seen it.

Recently bought the 4k of it just for this. This review. So I'm excited.

For real.

I'm ready. I've been reading Conan. I got this big old omnibus of Conan comics I'm trying to get prepped for this episode.

They're about to make a new animated series based on.

Oh, really?

The guy does Primal. It's gonna do.

Oh, what's that guy's name?

Tartakovsky.

Yeah.

Nice.

No.

There you go. It's timely. All right.

Well, we did it. We got through week two. We're on to Conan the Barbarian now. It's Conan the Barbarian based on a novel, or we just talk of the comic books.

It's based off Robert E. Howard's shorts that he wrote. He wrote a bunch of shorts for, like, magazines and stuff back in the 20s and 30s.

Going in the barbarian books. Yeah. All right.

I've got a whole collection of them. It's like, I think I've got, like, Conan Volume 1, and it's got a bunch of shorts. I think there's three volumes in the collection I have.

Oh, very cool. I will check that out.

Yep, yep. See if I can get a classic fantasy literature.

See if I can get him read before the movie. That's my plan.

Good luck.

Yeah, good luck indeed. All right, well, we did that. We're on the Conan. And then I guess that's gonna leave us really with nothing to do but to end this the way we end everything.

Yeah, I think that's right.

Garnish me up.

See potato would make sense to do it like, straight also, because you just.

Really good.

Thanks for listening to fumbling through film. New episodes drop every Thursday. Got feedback or questions? Email [email protected] you can see our films to Fumble before you tumble into the grave and other musings on Letterboxd at Fumble Through Film. The through is T. HRU. You can also follow Keith on Instagram at kg3030lives. And on Letterboxd3030, Terry is on Letterboxd @terry2099. Derek is on Letterboxd Derek the number nine and then the word nine. All original music is done by the Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry. So hit him up for them bangers. Our new podcast logo is done by the delightful and talented Sanjay Vicky Nayak. You can find her on Instagram at Einstein. That's Einstein with a K in there. We'll see you next week as we keep on fumbling.