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Ultimate Party
Collection - Dazed and Confused/Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Rating:
R
Distributor:
Universal Studios Home Video
Release
Date: November 2, 2004
Review posted: November 22, 2004
Reviewed by
Greg Malmborg
SYNOPSIS
Dazed and
Confused
“That’s what I love
about these high school girls, I get older and they stay the same age”
Dazed and Confused
is a
marvelously funny look at the last day of high school in May 1976 and
all the chaos that breaks lose that day in this small Middle America
town. The plot follows various groups of kids during this last day of
school. The high school jocks who perform their annual “last day of
school rites” of waiting outside the junior high to beat the eighth
graders into submission with their wooden paddles they made in shop
class.
The group of eighth
graders scheming relentlessly to try and avoid these beatings. The
pothead, high school quarterback (London) having a crisis of
conscience over having to sign a paper from his coach saying he will
stay drug free. The senior girls who are busy with their own “rites
of passage” for the girls in the freshman class, making them suffer
endless amounts of pain and humiliation. The nerds (Goldberg) who
decide to live a little and try the “party thing” instead of sitting
around talking politics as usual. The big blow out party that
disintegrates due to the parents of the guy throwing it getting a
heads up on it (a hilarious scene that everyone can relate to). The
older guy (McConaughey), who should be no where near high school
students, hanging out with them all trying to get this party
rescheduled so he can hit on some high school girls.
And of course, a
whole lot of marijuana being smoked (as this is the 70s) and the
requisite amount of philosophizing going down with topics of
discussion being George Washington and his “hip wife”, aliens, girls,
football, and other topics about high school life in the 70s. The
film spends most of the time with the various “rites of passage”
scenes or with just the various groups of kids driving around town
causing trouble or just hanging out (smoking and talking). The film
is directed by Richard Linklater (School
of Rock,
Before Sunrise) who directs the film in a Robert Altman-like
venue of small intersecting scenes using a variety of songs from this
time period to interconnect them. The film also boasts a very young,
yet fiercely funny, Ben Affleck in a small role as the ridiculous
jerk, O’Bannion, who purposely failed his senior year so he could
wreak havoc on the incoming freshman.
Fast Times at
Ridgemont High
“Aloha, Mr. Hand”
As Dazed
brilliantly captured the adolescent lifestyle and spirit of the
mid-70s, Fast Times at Ridgemont High does the same for the
mid-80s. Directed by Amy Heckerling and written by Cameron Crowe,
Fast Times captures the daily grind for a small group of
California teenagers in the mid-80s. There is a bit more of a plot
than Dazed, the story mostly revolves around Stacy Hamilton (a
very young and innocent-looking Jennifer Jason Leigh), a virginal 15
year old girl who works at a pizza place and is very curious about sex
being constantly encouraged by her sexually active friend Linda
(Cates). Stacy meets the shy, nerdy Mark (Brian Backer) who is being
coached by a small time hustler, Damone (Robert Romanus), who thinks
he can have any chick that comes his way, when, in fact, his moves
don’t really pay off. Stacy makes some poor choices, as most high
school girls would, driven by her sexual curiosity and learns that
having a relationship with someone you like is more fulfilling then
just sex in general.
The film also
concentrates on Stacy’s older brother Brad (Reinhold), who works in an
esteemed burger joint, has a beautiful girlfriend, has a cool car that
is almost paid off, and seems to have everything going for him heading
into his senior year. After a run-in with a jerk of a customer,
everything comes crashing down for him in a hurry and yet his positive
and bright outlook on life brings him back out of his hole. Most of
the film involves these two plotlines and yet the most memorable and
hilarious (but much, much smaller) plotline involves surfer dude Jeff
Spicolli (Penn) and his struggles with his U.S. History teacher, Mr.
Hand (Ray Walston). Spicolli is the ultimate stoner, surfer dude who
only needs “some tasty waves, a cool buzz and I’m fine”. His run-ins
with Mr. Hand are the films best moments. The film also should be
noted for the film debuts of Nicolas Cage, Forest Whitaker, Eric
Stoltz, and Anthony Edwards in very small and almost unnoticeable
roles.
CRITIQUE
While Dazed
and Fast Times are packaged together, the films are very
different.
Dazed and Confused
Dazed
was filmed in the
90s and was filmed as an homage to high school in the 70s. And
because of this, Dazed comes across as a much more fulfilling
experience. Linklater gets everything right about that time period,
his use of music, clothes, props, and his script really place you back
in this time and envelopes the viewer in atmosphere, music and
dialogue.
The performances in
Dazed range from spectacular to extremely bad. Matthew
McConaughey and Ben Affleck come across the strongest in two very
funny and perfectly pitched performances, even though they probably
only average 10 to 15 minutes of screen time. Jason London as the
quarterback in crisis also delivers a strong performance and is the
anchor of the film, having the most screen time and most dialogue.
Adam Goldberg as the nerdy guy trying to break out of his mold is very
funny and has some very memorable scenes. Parker Posey and Joey
Lauren Adams as two of the bitchy senior girls are memorable but
grating, Posey goes too far with her character (as she tends to do in
most roles, she is a very overrated actress) and Adams has yet to
figure out how to use that unique voice of hers to her advantage (as
she did in Chasing Amy). But the big glaring problem with the
film is the performance of Wiley Wiggins as the main 8th
grade character Mitch Kramer. Wiggins has a large amount of screen
time and his character is a pivotal and important one, but Wiggins is
just a supremely awful actor and the fact that Linklater chose him
just astounds me (he usually has such a great eye for talent). His
constant fidgeting and “nose touching” is just so distracting and
strange, and he is just incapable of delivering a line in any kind of
successful way. It is the one huge drawback of the film.
The script is
terrific, the dialogue is dead on and hilarious, and the
interconnecting scenes of high school partying play out beautifully.
I didn’t go to high school in the 70s but I could relate to so many of
the situations and motivations of the characters, the themes are
universal. Linklater has a brilliant gift of making masterful,
complete film experiences out of very little more than a group of
characters hanging out and talking. He keeps everything moving along
and interconnecting superbly without resorting to anything outside
what these characters motivations truly are and what they would
realistically rationalize and do. Dazed is a great homage to
the 70s (and adolescence in general), with pitch perfect dialogue,
hilarious performances, and masterful direction but with one big
downside (Wiggins).
Rating: 7 out of 10
Fast Times at
Ridgemont High
Fast Times
was a film about high school students in the 80s and it was filmed in
the 80s. Because of this, Fast Times doesn’t quite capture the
feel and life of a 80s high school student it just happens to tell a
story during this time. In fact, it could easily be reworked to be in
a more recent decade. Fast Times comes across as more of
straight arrow story (and a somewhat uninteresting one) with moments
of hilarity due to the strong dialogue and the performance of a young
and brilliant Sean Penn. If you were to take away Penn’s character
(who only has maybe 15 minutes of screen time), this would be a below
average teen movie.
The performances in
Fast Times are average, at best. Jennifer Jason Leigh goes
through the entirety of the film with a fazed out look on her face,
never investing in the character. It works at first because she is
this virginal, innocent young girl without any life experience, but as
the film progresses and her character progresses, Leigh’s performance
never changes. And Reinhold just has this goofy smile on all the time
and does his normal shtick, which I’ve always found grating. I’ve
never found this guy talented and the only film his trademark style
worked was Vice Versa. The rest of the smaller supporting
roles are also fairly unmemorable and lifeless. Even Phoebe Cates
with her iconic topless scene comes across unimpressive and inert.
The huge exception to these lifeless and dull performances is that of
Sean Penn as Jeff Spicolli and Ray Walston as Mr. Hand. Penn is just
an absolute riot; just about every scene he is in is gut-bustlingly
funny. It is absolutely no wonder he became such a tremendous actor.
His comedic chops are pitch perfect. And Ray Walston as his nemesis
Mr. Hand delivers a great performance. I think we all had a teacher
just like him.
Amy Heckerling does
a fair job juggling around the different storylines and giving Penn
just enough screen time. The ironic thing is all of her extremely
small supporting roles were full of future stars like Nicolas Cage,
Anthony Edwards, Eric Stoltz and Sean Penn and yet the film gives
almost all the screen time to young star actors that never made it
(save for Leigh). Cameron Crowe’s screenplay, while not all that
impressive in plot and theme (very overrated script in those terms),
has some tremendous dialogue, which Crowe has always been a master of
and keeps getting better. Crowe actually went undercover to a high
school to research teenagers for this script (which he was originally
going to write as a book).
Rating: 4 out of 10
THE VIDEO
The transfer for
this special edition on both films is excellent, although the versions
that I screened were full screen editions; which is always a bit of a
let down. But both transfers are crisp and lucid with no visible
video troubles. The Dazed transfer is exceptionally good.
THE AUDIO
The Ultimate
Party Collection is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
but is a bit of a let down. The Fast Times DVD audio
presentation was very poor, the dialogue was not very clear and the
background noise was far too prominent and distracting. The balances
and tones seemed to be off. The Dazed DVD also had some
blending issues, but was a far better sounding disc, which is strange
as they are both offered in the same audio presentation.
THE EXTRAS
This is where I
have the biggest bone to pick with Universal. The extras on the
Fast Times DVD are great; there is a very fun documentary
on reliving the film with interviews from Sean Penn, Eric Stoltz, Amy
Heckerling and more (a great extra!), there is a commentary track
with Cameron Crowe and Amy Heckerling which is informative and
funny, a 80s musical montage, and a map of the Ridgemont
High hangouts.
And on the Dazed
DVD? You would hope for a documentary on the making of the film,
interviews with the cast and crew reflecting now on the experience, a
commentary track with Linklater, etc. But instead, you get some
deleted scenes of Parker Posey and Ben Affleck, some old public
service announcements from the 70s, and a VANS commercial.
You basically get nothing extra on the Dazed DVD, just an awful
decision and because of this I would not recommend anyone purchasing
this set. Just wait for a Dazed Special Edition in the future.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Dazed
and Confused is a complete film, a brilliant homage to the
sights, sounds, and life of high school in Middle America in 1976,
where Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a straight (somewhat
unimpressive) teen comedy with one brilliantly funny performance and
some sharp dialogue from the great Cameron Crowe.
VERDICT:
NOT A GREAT COLLECTION. RENT IT.
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