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In the early eighties, a 22-year old reporter for “Rolling Stone” named Cameron Crowe did a very odd thing. Curious about what life was really like in a contemporary American high school, he decided to go undercover and pretend to be a teenager. He spent an entire year infiltrating a Southern California high school, making friends with a large group of kids and writing down everything he could. When the year was up, he identified himself and his purpose to his newfound friends, and they allowed him to conduct further interviews to flesh out the details. The result was a slim, but entertainingly informative book called “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

The book was optioned for a film before it even hit the bookshelves, and a year later, first-time director Amy Heckerling had the movie in theaters. Unfortunately, while the book is poignant, painful, and sometimes funny in its unrepentant honesty, the movie is not. Few things have been changed in the transition from paper to screen (Crowe penned the screenplay himself), but the movie suffers because it doesn’t emphasize the fact that these are real people and real events. Therefore, the film slips several notches and almost got lost among all the brainless teen comedies of the eighties.

The saving grace of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” turns out to be the wonderful performances by a cast of then unknowns. Although his role is really nothing more than a glamorized cameo, Sean Penn made himself into a bonafide movie star with his uproarious turn as the imminetly likable surfer Jeff Spicoli, who is famous for being stoned since the third grade. Penn has a huge presence in the film, and every whacked line he utters resonates with the sheer hilarity that he fully believes in what he says. While on the phone, he starts hitting his head with his shoe, proclaiming to his friend, “Listen this this — that’s my skull, dude! I’m so wasted.” And you believe him.

But the heart of the film lies in a love triangle — or actually, it’s more of a square, sort of. You know how these high school things are.

Stacie Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a naive freshman who wants desperately to be sexually experienced because everyone else is. At the behest of her older, more outgoing friend Linda Barrett (Phoebe Cates), she throws her virginity away on an older stereo salesman in a particularly uncomfortable scene that takes place in a baseball dugout. The whole time Stacie stares up at the ceiling, and you can tell that she isn’t enjoying what she’s doing, nor is she proud of it.

Meanwhile, Brian Ratner, a.k.a. The Rat (Brian Backer), a very shy and rather clumsy kid with a terribly nice disposition, has his eye on Stacie. He’s the kind of guy who’s too nice for his own good, and seriously lack in self-confidence. His more outgoing, accomplished friend is Mike Damone (Robert Romanus), one of those guys who talks much more than he should about things he doesn’t know much about. He exudes confidence and superiority, but it’s mostly just an act. However, to a guy like Ratner, he knows his stuff, therefore he’s someone to take seriously. The upshot of the whole situation is that Stacie and Ratner are meant to be together, but things get unnecessarily confused because they listen to their friends too much.

There are several other characters interspersed throughout the film, including Stacie’s older brother Brad (Judge Reinhold), who takes particular pride in his job at the local burger joint, and Charles Jefferson (Forest Whitaker), probably the only black student at Ridgemont who also happens to be the most sought after football recruit in all of California.

And then there’s Mr. Hand, the high school teacher everybody had and everybody hated. Brought to life with wonderful resilience by Ray Walston, Mr. Hand comes alive because he honestly doesn’t understand why none of the kids are interested in his history class. “What are you all on drugs?” he asks, thinking the question is rhetorical. Mr. Hand is determined to make decent citizens out of his class of slackers, and that’s what makes him so intolerable.

All the elements of a sincere exploration of adolescents are here, but Heckerling is too unwieldy in her direction. The film never manages a consistent tone, and it wavers between harsh realism and bawdy vulgarity. “Fast Times” deals with a number of controversial subjects, including masturbation, drug use, adolescent sex, and abortion, yet it goes about them through completely different approaches. The masturbation, drug use, and sex are used as embarrassing jokes, while the abortion scene is stifling and uncomfortable in its realism. It’s not that either of these approach is inherently bad, it’s just that they don’t coexist well in the same movie.

Still, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” remains a staple of Hollywood cinema, certainly one of the best of its genre. It has all the earmarks of a film made in 1982, including a soundtrack with the Go-Go’s, an intense love of shopping malls, and those unforgettable eighties hairstyles ala Pat Benatar. However, unlike most films of its type, it transcends some of its shortcomings because it sees its characters as real people because they were real people. I just wish Heckerling has been more consistent with Crowe’s screenplay, and decided exactly what she wanted to do with the material before she let the cameras start rolling.

Where can I find this flick?

So I would assume that given the first Sex and the City movie grossed over $146,000,000 so far that it would not come as a surprise to many of you that HBO is talking sequel.  But did you know that they are already working on it as we speak.  Yes Warner Bros. has confirmed with the media that they have linked up with New Line Cinema to work on number 2!  I would say that I am excited but I havent even gotten a chance to see the first one yet. What we need to be doing is getting on the horn to HBO because there are rumors of a Sopranos movie also. I dont know if they would be able to get all of the characters back on, but I was obsessed with that show a long time ago. They should also make “The Wire” movie also. I watched every episode from start to finish. Right now I am almost done with the X-Files show. Thats a good one and they are making amovie for it too which is pretty much the most amazing thing ever. Anyways so I have added my first poll and I hope you like it…please answer as honestly as possible.  I will start adding polls whenever I get a chance.  Gosh I hope they make this new movie.  I loved that show even though most of my friends would call me gay for loving it.

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So I write all these posts about movies and what not but I have never really given you a way to watch it.  Well most computers come with Windows Media player or whatever the Mac style computers are coming with these days.  I am here to tell you about the greatest program out there.  VLC Media Player is great because its simple, gets to the point.  If you ever download a movie off of the internet or any media for that matter, 9 times out of 10 this program will play it.  What lead me to this program was the fact that I had downloaded a movie and was not getting any sound out of Windows Media Player.  It was playing the video but I couldn’t hear anything.  Well after searching 3 hours for different codecs that might help this situation out, I saw on the forum that someone had heard of this new program called VLC Media Player.  This was a few years ago of course, but I think I have finally used it enough to let you know that I have not used Windows Media Player for almost 3 years now.  I went back and forth for a while, but ended up choosing VLC due to its full length of features without the whole user interface package.  Windows Media Player adds all of this crap in that I don’t want nor need in a player.  All I want my program to do is play a movie and maybe play some music also.  This does both very well.  It even has an MPEG encoder.  They have a Firefox Plugin for it and also the ActiveX plugin which a lot of computers don’t have.  I have not tested this program to the full extent of its abilities only because I need it for very little.  This program is by far the better choice when choosing a new media player.  The best part about this program is that its 100% free.  I dont think I could put it better any other way.  This player is great, its free, and its yours if you just go to their website.  I have this weird obsession with penguins and cones.  I think the penguin portion of my obsession has come from Linux and my girlfriend.  The cone obsession can only be described and unknown.  I would like, however, to say that this program is essential in the process of getting movies off of the internet. Wow, just looked this up but there are an average of 1.8 downloads per second of this program.  Thats pretty crazy if you ask me.  Check it out if you dont believe me.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Think of it as a long trailer, a beautiful piece of work taken from probably a camera phone/handheld camcorder.  Its good enough for me though.  The first 5 minutes of this movie make me want to go see this movie very bad.  I am excited to bring you this as it may help you decide whether or not you want to see it in theaters.  I know that I was pondering whether or not I was going to see this right away, but after watching this part of the movie, you will be sure to probably see me at the theater sittin right next to you after you watch this.

Right Here

The film is set in 2065 – several decades after “they” took over, or so a narration tells us. “They” are a group of indestructible alien phantoms that gobble the energy out of the human form like meat off a chicken wing bone.Fantasy’s heroine, scientist/physician Aki Ross (voiced by Ming-Na, ER), has been infected by the aliens and is in search of an environmental treatment that will both cure her and save the planet from total domination.Together with Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland, Space Cowboys), she has determined that collecting eight “spirits” will do the trick. Aki has six now, and heads to Old New York City to find the other two.
It is here she meets Captain Gray Edwards and the Deep Eyes squadron (which sounds like a kitschy garage band), who protect the few remaining citizens living under the giant protective dome that covers a big chunk of Manhattan. Gray (Cats and Dogs’ Alec Baldwin, providing his second “voice” job in the last two weeks) and his crew (Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin and Ving Rhames) help Aki and Dr. Sid in their quest to find the missing spirits, which must be done before the evil General Hein (James Woods, Scary Movie 2) unleashes the giant, space-based Zeus Cannon on the alien meteor, which landed in the Caspian Mountains. See? It’s good vs. evil, with a whole environmental message thrown in for good measure. As silly and downright confusing as it is, the story (penned by director and game developer Hironobu Sakaguchi and Apollo 11 scribe Al Reinert) is largely inconsequential. How powerful is the ability of computer animation? It can make Buscemi into an attractive man, for Pete’s sake. But seriously, folks, the characters are so frighteningly lifelike (especially Dr. Sid) that it becomes distracting, which I guess actually helps the story in a way. If you look hard enough, you can find plenty of flaws (especially in the mouth movement when the characters talk), but don’t bother – this still looks pretty goddamn incredible.

Where can I find this flick?

This handsomely crafted docu-drama chronicles the three months in Mark David Chapman’s life before he shot John Lennon dead outside the Dakota Building in New York. Jonas Ball is disturbingly compelling as the loner with a JD Salinger obsession who gunned the ex-Beatle down “after being told to do so by God”. The dialogue is taken from Chapman’s journals and real locations used, lending this a realistic edge. John Lennon managed to raise the hackles of many when - as a multi-millionaire with an extensive property portfolio - he asked “imagine no possessions?”  He certainly upset Mark Chapman. In fact, he annoyed him so much the Honolulu security guard blasted him with five hollow-pointed bullets from a Smith & Wesson outside his New York home.  That fatal moment - just before 11pm on December 8 1980 - has since become one of those “can-you-remember-what-you-were-doing-when” style posers.  Director Andrew Piddington has taken the pivotal event and traced the actions of Chapman back three months before the attack.  Using the celebrated killer’s own journals, we get to meet a deeply disturbed 25-year-old, damaged by his emotionally distant dad (Chapman recalls him pushing his head into spaghetti) and toyboy-favouring floozie of a mom.  “Normal kids don’t get to shoot an ex-Beatle,” Chapman reasonably concluded when asked to ponder his claim to infamy. Drawn to the orderliness of a public library, he chanced upon a JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and identified with the book’s hero Holden Caulfield. Next up he spotted photos of Lennon posing atop the roof of The Dakota and flew into one of his frequent rages after identifying the hypocrisy in the lyrics to Imagine.  This fury stayed with him and within weeks, he’s booked a flight to New York and joined Lennon’s fans on the pavement outside the Dakota.  On the fateful night, Chapman got the singer to sign a copy of Double Fantasy and then, on his return, blasted him at point-blank range.  Three years in the making, this enthralling drama has at its core a tremendous performance from Jonas Ball as Chapman. He captures the killer’s oddness (the night before the killing he hires a hooker, specifying she must be foreign and not talk too much), his sudden flashes of rage and occasional gentle courtesy.  Unlike shabby exploitation docu-dramas such as Bundy, this is an honest meditation on the warped assassin and his motives and assumes the tension of a thriller as the appointed time approaches.  So much for giving peace a chance.  I want to give a special thanks to TIm Evans of Sky Movies.

Where can I find this flick?

This is definitely one of the movies I recommend you get because its Quentin Tarantino who is pretty much one of the greatest writers/directors of our time. Its about a couple of serial killers; Mickey Knox who is a delivery boy and one of his customers, Mallory Wilson.  Basically he proves his love by killer her overly abusive father (overly because some abuse is good abuse lol) and her crazy stupid mother who allows it.  They journey down Route 666 killing everyone in site (except for one person to live to tell the story to others).  Thats their M.O. is killing everyone they can just to leave someone there to leak the story to the press.  They end up being glorified by the public media and eventually become legendary folk heroes.  Their story is told by one person each time they do a set of kills.  Its really interesting to see how people react to all of these killings.  Right before their trial the same reporter who made them famous causes pandamonium in the court room and in the public.  Its a pretty chilling story that I recommend you see…whether youre stoned or not.  Its weird how our views on violence can change so often.  I think its great because it has some really high quality actors in it as Tarantino seems to always bring to all of his movies.  Tom Sizemore plays a great crazy ass detective.

Woody Harrelson……..Mickey Knox
Juliette Lewis………Mallory Knox
Tom Sizemore………..Det. Jack Scagnetti
Rodney Dangerfield……..Ed Wilson, Mallory’s Dad
Everett Quinton………Deputy Warden Wurlitzer
Jared Harris………….London Boy

Where can I find this flick?

Why are we here?  You ponder questions like these because you are interested in the mysterious, the unexplainable, and everything unknown.  Now, Tim Burton is bringing you for the first time to the full story of what happened that fateful day.  You are going to be given all of the evidence, based only on the secret testimony of those interviewed, of the miserable souls, who survived that terrifying ordeal.  The secret is out and its for you to decide.  A biopic of the life and work of the legendary “worst director of all time,” Edward D. Wood Jr., concentrating on the best known period of his life in the 1950s, when he made ‘Glen or Glenda’, ‘Bride of the Monster’ and ‘Plan 9 From Outer Space’, and focusing on both his transvestism and his touching friendship with the once great but now ageing and unemployed horror star Bela Lugosi.

Johnny Depp ……….Ed Wood
Martin Landau……………Bela Lugosi
Sarah Jessica Parker………………Dolores Fuller
Patricia Arquette………………..Kathy O’Hara
Jeffrey Jones……………….Criswell
G.D. Spradlin…………………Reverend Lemon
Vincent D’Onofrio………………….Orson Welles

Where can I find this flick?