2.5 out of 5 stars (Decent)
Note: This was part of my “Making of a Movie Geek” project from when I was 15 years old. Please click the link to read up on this project. Thoughts: The Breakfast Club has grown on me over time. While I hadn’t yet experienced high school when I first saw it and thus had no real-life reference for these characters, as a 25-year-old I appreciate the mostly grounded tone and realistic dialogue as well as the message about not judging others based on their appearances or place in the social pecking order. Today I’d give it 3.5 out of 5 stars (above average). Enjoy my review below.
High School 1984: Five kids with nothing in common with one another except getting a Saturday detention. That’s the set-up for the late John Hughes dramedy The Breakfast Club, which in my opinion it’s more dramatic than funny.
Names are self-explanatory. We have The Brain (Anthony Michael Hall), a smart guy (duh), The Princess (Molly Ringwald) (her father thinks it’s okay to skip class and go shopping at Macy’s instead), The Jock (Emilio Estevez) (who has the lowest amount of self-confidence I’ve ever seen), The Criminal (Judd Nelson) (again, self-explanatory), and The Basket Case (Ally Sheedy) (the weird one). I know that we have these types of people in my school because I know some of them. But the odds of them getting detention together are about 75 bazillion to one. These kids don’t know each other at all. Therefore, things start out pretty rough. Rules are broken, bad vice principals are ticked off, and some tough scenes of yelling and moments of comedy are all wrapped up in the film’s hour and thirty eight minute run time. I found these characters to be self-centered, unlikable people who stereo-typed each other based on appearance. If there is one good thing to say, it’s that the actor who played The Criminal did a very good job at it
This movie actually made me angry. The fact that the Princess and the Criminal were snogging (kissing) each other at the end was unbelievable. I highly doubt these people acknowledged each other on Monday because of their self-centered and egotistical personalities. The way the characters communicated with one another was boring because half the time, they were just telling each other to shut up and calling the Princess the “B” word. I believe flashbacks would have helped the movie enormously, like in Stand by Me or Freedom Writers.
Skip The Breakfast Club and see a Braves game instead.
Rated R for Hard for me to Relate