The Ultimate Teen Film

Rating: 10/10 (31 May 2008)

I have so much love for this film that it can barely be contained. It really is just such a clever and inclusive way at looking at adolescence and high school cliques. The movie is easy to follow and the change in each character is gradually and believably seen.
Judd Nelson is mesmerizingly charismatic as the witty and defensively flippant, John Bender. And really, he makes this movie. Not wanting to take anything away from the other actors, but he has about 40% of the dialog. If Nelson's performance had lacked even slightly, the whole movie could have fallen over. But he is fantastic.
One of the most interesting things about this movie, is how much you care about the characters and how much you just wanted them to succeed at everything in the future. A sequel here, would not have gone astray. But obviously now, it is much too late. And the idea of a remake makes me nauseous. I would hate anyone else playing these characters. They were all that good.
The most asked question, upon finishing the film is, no doubt, "What's going to happen on Monday?" And I, as much as anyone, would love to know the answer to that question. But ultimately, it doesn't matter. If they all ignored each other for the rest of their high school careers, it wouldn't matter. Because they still had something that day in detention. They still learned something about themselves from each other. And for a day, at least, they could say they were completely themselves, and they were still liked.
I don't care if Judd Nelson was an a-hole to Molly Ringwald during filming, I don't care that they played horrible 80's music throughout (like seriously, they had Duran Duran, the Go's Go's, Cold Chisel, etc, they couldn't have taken one of those paths?), I don't care that there's no way that Emilio Estevez could have broken that glass simply by yelling (he's hardly Pavarotti). This movie is brilliant and a MUST watch for anyone over the age of thirteen.
It'll change your life.