The Breakfast Club

Rating: 8/10 (12 June 2007)

This kind of teenage comedy drama involving rebellion reminds me of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, being very good, but not completely as entertaining as gross teen comedies, e.g. American Pie. On the other hand, it is much more memorable than Ferris Bueller. Anyway, basically a bunch of teenagers, all strangers to each other, and all different stereotypes, meet in detention, and are told to stay in the room Principal Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason) has placed them for eight hours, and in that time, write no more than a thousand words to describe themselves. As the time passes, Andrew 'Andy' Clark - the jock (Emilio Estevez), Brian Ralph Johnson - the geeky brain (Anthony Michael Hall), John Bender - the troublemaker (Judd Nelson), Claire Standish - the princess (Molly Ringwald, looks very similar to Bette Midler) and Allison Reynolds - the weird (and hardly talking) one (Ally Sheedy) get to know each other, even through their arguments and misunderstandings, and find troublesome and unusual ways to entertain themselves and each other. But also, as they open up to each other, they find they have more in common than they thought, the bit when their all sat in a circle talking was improvised. Also starring John Kapelos as Carl the Janitor. Anyone who watches this film can certainly relate to at least one of the characters, all fantastic, and the dialogue and comedy elements are perfect, very impressive. It was number 27 on Film 4's 50 Films To See Before You Die. Very good!