I have grown up watching this movie. I have always loved good music but this movie really showed me what it would be like growing up around all that fantastic music! My dad always told me that out of all the movies he's watched depicting this era this one did the best. VERY good movie, I always recommend it to everyone!

Good human drama. Looks at the lives of several American teenagers on one night in 1962, as their lives are about to change forever. Fills you with nostalgia for your own teenage years, when things were simpler and everything was ahead of you.Good plot, though has some random detours that go nowhere. Great performances from a then-unknown cast. Many of these unknown actors are now very well known: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford.Superb soundtrack. The 50s music adds a lot to the nostalgia and general feel of the movie.Solid direction from George Lucas. Yeah, who knew that he used to make dramas? Unfortunately, his next movie was Star Wars, and the good dramas ended, as he stuck to making sci fi-for-the-masses.

I just read the other reviews and one thing jumps right out at me. All the reviewers -- whether they liked the movie or not -- seem to accept without question that in the late 50s and early 60s (the movie is supposedly one night in 1962), teen boys got in their hot rods and big souped-up muscle cars and "cruised" around and around and around and around. Now, I never lived in Modesto, or anywhere else in California, so maybe that actually happened there. But everybody in the world didn't grow up in Modesto, California. I myself grew up in twenty-something mostly small towns in seven different states in the American south and Midwest, in the time period represented in this movie. In all those states, in all those towns, I never, repeat, never, ever, saw a "hot rod." When I was old enough to drive, I did not get in a car and spend the evening and night "cruising" the town's streets, looking for girls to pick up. Most guys had to borrow their parents' cars. I knew one guy with his own car, and it was a really cheap old Ford that had trouble getting up steep hills. We didn't cruise around looking for girls, we called a girl and made a date, picked her up at her parents' house, and took her to a hamburger place or a movie theater or possibly to a school dance. Any girl who allowed herself to be picked up and driven around would've gained a terrible reputation and been avoided by everyone else. So I don't get it, I don't get the time and setting and atmosphere and characters, they are alien to me and not from the 50s and 60s I experienced. Maybe the title of this movie should have been "California Graffiti."

I decided to watch this film because people I know have seen this film and absolutely thought it was outstanding. Mine will be a different story! I honestly didn't like it because I thought the storyline was a lot out of place and there was really too many characters to be concentrating on regarding their problems. Very confusing for a very popular 80's movie to be honest!The only thing I liked about it was the cars were just so fashionable, it's just too bad that this movie sucked for me! Luckily I only watched 44 minutes of it and not the whole movie! I would consider this the worst film ever!