Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Following on the heels of his screen debut in The Best of Times, Nicolas Cage's (still billing as Nicolas Coppola) next credited role was in the 1982 comedy classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Now, to be completely accurate and open about this, this is a mixed bag. True, he's made the leap from the small to the big screen, but he's also ended up with about 7 seconds of combined screen time, and exactly one line that gets more or less buried in background noise.

For the sake of thoroughness, his one line comes as his friend Brad (played by Judge Reinhold - Cage's character is, according to the credits, "Brad's bud") pulls up to school in his "beautiful, blue, four-door, luxury sedan" (a nice classic Buick), and reads as follows:

"Oh! Big cruising missile!"

And that's it. Well, not it, but that's it for spoken lines. He does pull off a sweet behind-the-back high-five with Judge Reinhold (how many people can add that to their resume?)...

...and he looks on haplessly from behind a grill as Brad gets himself fired from All American Burger:

And that is it.

Anyway, the movie itself is actually pretty solid. I've never seen it before, which is a shame based on its standing as a comedy classic, but unlike a lot of other classics, this one actually stands up fairly well to the hype. Yeah, it's dated in a lot of ways, and maybe it's simply my age that lets me appreciate it, and it's not what you'd call laugh-out-loud hilarious, but as coming-of-age teenage comedies goes, it's not half bad.

Next up, 1983's Valley Girl.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High - barcoded!