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Rating:  - Cindy Mancini, where have you gone?!
One of the biggest dorks in school, Ronald Miller's (Dempsey) life is consumed by telescopes, astronomy, and his similarly socially awkward friends. After countless yards mowed, sacrificing even the remotest possibility of popularity, he's finally accumulated enough money to buy the telescope of his dreams.
Meanwhile, Cindy Mancini (the gorgeous Amanda Peterson) is the hottest, coolest girl in school, the captain of the cheerleading squad, and pretty much the envy of everyone. Men want her, and women want to be her. At a "back to school" party she wears her mother's suede outfit. Insert the dumb, clumsy jock with wine glass, and the outfit is ruined. Later, when both Ron and Cindy end up at the mall - Cindy to replace the outfit and Ron to buy his telescope - the opportunity presents itself and Ron buy's his popularity.
Predictably, some shades and a little hair mousse transport Ronald into the popularity stratosphere. As one of Cindy's gorgeous but promiscuous friends says, "He went from totally geek, to totally chic." Once part of the clique, he becomes arrogant, dips his pen in the cheerleader ink, and distances himself from his real friends, going so far as throwing feces on his best friend's house. Tired of Ron's big head, Cindy breaks the bombshell at a crowded party, and drops Ronald from big man on campus to social leper. Ron learns the valuable lessons that he should never sell out his friends or principles, and that notoriety isn't always the best thing in the world.
I love this movie. It's classic 80s, and wildly entertaining. The only problem I have is that this should have propelled Amanda Peterson into superstardom, yet she was barely heard from afterwards. There is no justice in a world that shuns Peterson and allows fugly shrews like Sarah Jessica Parker stardom.
Rating:  - a coming-of-age classic
I showed this to my high school classes, and they loved it. We had a good discussion about taking action in your life even though there are risks, being yourself, navigating the cliques of high school and forming perceptions. Patrick Dempsey was masterful even as a kid; his fans will love this movie.
Rating: - One of my favorites
I fell in love with this movie from the first time my brother rented it for me when I was in junior high. It's still one of my favorites!
Rating: - An 80's Classic!
This has always been one of my fave 80's movies, but I feel it has less to do with true "love", than it does high school culture. It shows the cliques and the bulling and all the real high school garbage in a glossy way. I love the scene he makes in the cafeteria, it always touches me. This is a great show, but it's more about the politics of high school.
Rating:  - The epicenter of pre-Columbine 1980s trash.
Acid washed jeans, stiletto ankle boots, crimped hair; shallow teenage girls acting and dressing like h**kers -- that's the heart of this film. It is a Reagan-era monstrosity about a "nerd" (the extremely handsome and charismatic Patrick Dempsey...) abandoning his intellectual pursuits to chase some popular-girl tail. Actually, to buy off a girl who is a mental prostitute.
Oh -- but how convenient that in this totally inane fantasy world she actually turns out to be the one shallow girl with a heart of gold! And his plan just happens to work to turn him into the most popular kid in school! What is supposed to be at best a witty satire is more disgusting than what it purports to expose. John Hughes had already made a string of films that dispelled this kind of thinking, only to have it built up again.
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