The Breakfast Club

Clearly this was made on either a really low budget or no money at all. Everyone raves about how brilliant it is and how "of the time" it is. The film is awful. Nothing happens. In hardly any locations. The film must have cost about $10 to make? The budget most likely went on the soundtrack artists. There is little to no plot. It's a basic idea of bringing together people from all walks of life to see how they differ and eventually find common ground. Judd Nelson looks like he's about 30 in this, all the rest look just about old enough to be at High School/College. Ally Sheedy is totally miscast as the loner and crazy chick. All the roles she's had since were all good girl roles. Molly Ringwald seems to have always been cast as a whiner in John Huges films. Nothing happens in this film. Sitting in the library, running in a few corridors and a ton of really dull dialogue to get to an obvious conclusion - they find some common ground. No shock there then. It might have been an interesting movie when it was made but its a pile of garbage now. Only the music gives any relief from the awful and DULL script. Best avoided now.

I remember I watched this a long time ago before I was a teacher. For some reason this movie was insanely popular at the time. I don't know why. Basic plot 5 kids serve a Saturday detention (where in the US does this happen?), from every high school stereotype. First they hate each other, and in the end they love each other. The writing is horrible, the actors are not likable, and the movie is not realistic. Here is a realistic movie script. 5 high school kids serve Saturday detention from different social groups. Teacher stays in the room and tells the kids to be quiet, or they will serve the detention again. Kids read or more likely sleep for 5 hours and then leave. On Monday they resume their lives in their separate cliques in their schools. Oh but my script doesn't make any money because most morons aka the public don't like reality. Don't waste 2 hours of your life on this turd, you'll never get it back.

The Breakfast Club has to be one of the dumbest and most boring movies ever made. Who can buy Jughead Nelson as a bully? He looks like a girl. Alley Seedy, Molly Ringworm, Anthony Michael (wasn't he in Van Halen), and Emilio Sheen Estevez (Thanks to his Dad, Martin Sheen, for this role). What a cast of boring rich kids. Ally Sheedy, she was what? An alcoholic? Judd Nelson was a victim of his Dad? Talk about unimaginative stereotypes. The Breakfast Club was one big stereotype, down to the dork who played the Principal. These characters are two-dimensional and dated. Would five people who hated each other spend all day whining to each other? What kind of school ever had Detention for more than one hour? Reform School? Of course, by the end of the movie, the corny canned "Let's Be Friends" ending is trotted out for the five millionth time. Hollywood thinks movie audiences are made up of morons, and the fact that so many people think that The Breakfast Club is a classic just goes to show that Hollywood is right about the dumb masses. Breakfast Club is the ultimate Low-Budget teen rip-off movie. Give them fake angst, whining, and blame the parents; and teens lacking self-esteem will run to the theaters to pay.

John Hughes is in my opinions the "king of teens." Each of his teen films is great, from "Sixteen Candles", "Pretty in Pink" (which he co-wrote and produced), and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." They all have funny and serious moments and are classics. By the same token, "The Breakfast Club" is no exception. However, it stands out as doing the best job of the above films at portraying 80s teen life (and perhaps even teen life today) as it really was (is). Hence the familiar plot: Five high school students from different crowds in school (a nerd, a jock, a prom queen, a delinquent, and a loner) are thrown together for a Saturday detention in their school library for various reasons. Detention is supervised by the gruff and demeaning principal Richard Vernon, believably portrayed by Paul Gleason. As the day progresses, each member tells the story of why they are in detention, and by day's end they realize they have more in common than they ever imagined. What makes the film unique is that each character tells his or her own story with credibility and persistence. Jock Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez) is under pressure from his father to perform up to high standards, which Mr. Clark believes will add to his (dad's) lost youth. Nerd Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) excels academically, but is failing shop class. Neither he nor his family can accept an F. Delinquent John Bender (Judd Nelson), while tough on the exterior, masks a difficult home life. Prom queen Claire(Molly Ringwald) has pressure to conform from her friends, as well as issues with her parental unit. Loner Allison (Ally Sheedy) has few if any friends, wears all black, and has similar problems at home. Can the emotional bonding they share in detention hold true beyond the library, and can stereotypes be broken? "The Breakfast Club" presents no-doubt stereotypical characters, and every member represents countless real-life examples. But what makes it so enjoyable is that applies a variety of themes to its context: prejudice/discrimination, acceptance/tolerance, diversity, class/status differences, family matters, group dynamics, etc. It also encourages us to look at others and ourselves beyond surface-level appearances. Finally, "The Breakfast Club" has great 1980s pop culture and societal integrations, from the soundtrack with Simple Minds "Don't You (Forget about Me), to wealthy, surburban American life (haves and have nots), and superficial values of the "me" decade. It reminds us that there truly is diversity in all of us. We are different, but we are all "the same" in one way or another.

This movie is one of the best, if not THE best, 80's film there is. The fact is, every teen character in this movie can be related to someone we knew in high-school. As a child of the 80's, I can honestly say that this is a representative cross-section of every high school in North America. The geek, the jock, the outcast, the rich pretty-girl snob, and the future criminal. They all exist, to some degree or another, in the classrooms of every high school on the continent. What makes this film rise above the rest is the character development. Every character in this film is three-dimensional. They all change, in one way or another, by the end of the film. Whether or not things remain the way they are long after this film ends is unknown, and that adds to the rama. The most important scene in this film is when the characters, as a group, all open up to one-another and describe the hell that their daily school routines are in a personal fashion. Nobody likes the role they must inevitably portray in the high-school scene, but the fact is, it is often inescapable. This film gives the viewer some insight into how the other people around them might have felt during that particular time in their lives. Each of the main characters in this film shines, but Judd Nelson (John Bender) and Emilio Estevez (Andrew Clark) rise above the rest. Simply put, these two actors each put their heart and soul into their respective characters, and it shows. At the end of the film, the viewer is left to make their own conclusions as to how things will carry forth. And I'm sure that most people will do that. This is one movie that left me feeling both happy and sad for each of the characters, and it isn't easy to make me care about a film in that way. Even if you aren't a fan of the 80's genre, this isn't one you would want to miss. My Rating: 10/10