The Ultimate Mixed Review!

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 2002)

If there was ever a genre AND generation defining flick, this is the one! It was actually on cable TV 15 years after its release, that I finally saw this film. In many ways it has grown more powerful and gut-wrenching over the years, with the feuding between Judd Nelson's metalhead outsider and Emilio Estevez' all-American jock eerily precedes Columbine by over a decade. The movie's realistic handling of teen angst and clliquishness is as fresh today as it was in the '80s. And it takes on an almost claustrophobic feel over time, with most of the movie being filmed in one room. But the film has many glaring flaws. The Bowie quote at the intro defines pretentiousness and a seemingly tacked-on dance scene looks absurd. Ally Sheedy's character never really develops and feels more like a punchline, and Molly Ringwald - wonderful in her portrayal of awkward brainy outsiders - is miscast as a princess here. The school's guidance counselor's scheming as he digs through the files looking for dirt on his students also reaks of TV cop show villanry. Most movies that spawned sequels in the '80s were barely worth the trouble to begin with. Here was a case of a movie that left you hanging on the edge of your seat as it closed, and dreaming of a sequel that was never to be.