It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I am only giving this movie five points because it contains a fair amount of footage of L.A. circa 1983. It also features some of the most awkward dialogue ever penned for the screen, especially the exchanges involving adults. I mean, Frederic Forrest must have been so annoyed with his agent once he started shooting his dreadful scenes. It also would have been nice for at least one of the Valley girls to talk like a real Valley girl--I can understand not being able to find an established young actress who could do a spot-on Valley girl accent, but if you're going to cast a bunch of nobodies with limited acting ability, why not just drive over the Valley and take your pick? That's plain old lazy. And--here comes the spoiler--the Julie Richman character's sudden change of heart about Randy makes no sense, given how hot and heavy they were, and the climactic prom scene is just too silly for words.

the movie is precious, and cage is a babe. but will anyone agree with me in saying that the punk representation in this movie is ATROCIOUS?!?! where's the clash? the ramones?? misfits? social distortion? the cramps?? sex pistols?! ANYONE?!?!?!?! the music is this movie is incredibly disappointing! at LEAST they play the cure.plus, randy's feathered hair and pleated khakis...this definitely looks like a movie about "punks" the way that a bunch of movie industry squares see punks.although it's a 90's movie, SLC punk paints a much more accurate picture of the punk rock scene in the early 1980's. just sayin'.

Two Los Angeles-area teens from the opposite side of the tracks fall in love, much to the concern, jealousy, and resentment of their friends. Low-budget but rambunctious comedy with a serious undercurrent (which is pretty much decimated by the sloppy final act). Aside from their clothes and haircuts, there doesn't seem to be that much difference between the would-be yuppies of the San Fernando Valley and the street punks from Hollywood, yet they look at each other as if they're from another planet (a freeway interchange separates them!). Wouldn't the clean-cut mallrats be intrigued by what goes on in dark Sunset Boulevard hot spots? Instead of trading stories, the punks are treated like dirt. It would seem as if the screenwriter was from another planet. The casting makes up for the lapses in taste and judgment, with Nicolas Cage almost puppyish in his adolescent longing for huggable Deborah Foreman, whose gummy smile and rolling eyes are infectious. The adults are fun too, although Lee Purcell as a possible predatory suburban stepmom has a subplot which sadly dead-ends. Much of the material here is stale, with tiresome teen conflicts, though the soundtrack is full of energetic New Wave gems, and Josie Cotton is the headliner at the school dance! Fer shure! **1/2 from ****

OK, so it piggy-backed on Frank/Moon Zappa's hit song. Doesn't change the fact that it is very well done and very funny. Teen angst has seldom been done so well.Nicholas Cage -- in one of his first roles -- is outstanding. Deborah Foreman is scintillating... don't really know why her career didn't go anywhere after this.The plot is formulaic -- kid from the "wrong side of the tracks" meets stuck up person and sparks fly... boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. And yet it's how any moviemaker works that formula that is important. Here it works brilliantly.For you 80s music fans, the live scenes of the Plimsouls and Josie Cotton are priceless. "A millllllllion miles....away".