A Little Cheesy, But Gets You Thinking

Rating: 10/10 (11 March 2017)

To be completely honest, I usually hate movies like this. It's like Don McLean's song "American Pie", where basically he just mashes up a whole bunch of different themes and lets people interpret them to death. It kind of takes the fun out of the experience. Fortunately, director John Hughes (Mr. 80s himself!) doesn't allow his weighty material to get in the way of the film's true message.
Basically, the plot of this film centers on a group of five high-schoolers dragging into the school on a Saturday to serve their detention "sentence". They come from all walks of life: The Rebel (Judd Nelson), The Jock (Emilio Estevez), The Princess (Molly Ringwald), The Troubled (Ally Sheedy) and The Nerd (Anthony Michael Hall). While being lorded over by Principal Richard Vernon (played brilliantly by Paul Gleason; he almost steals the show!), the self-dubbed "Breakfast Club" start to get to know each other a little bit.
From there, the rest of the film is essentially two things: a series of hilarious sight/action gags to foil Mr. Vernon, and (more importantly) a treatise on the cliquish life of high school students. Led by the colorful commentary of Nelson's hard-edged character, each stereotype is carefully picked apart and laid bare for the world to see. Is "Ringwald" truly a good girl, or just fooling herself? Is "Hall" a dedicated student, or just playing the role to keep the few friendships he has? Plus, the instigator ("Nelson") turns out to be perhaps the most interesting character-study of them all!
What keeps the movie from seeming too high-handy and sappy, though, is the wonderful directing of Hughes. Unlike, say, James Cameron's "Avatar", where the issues are preached to you in black-and-white terms with no room for disagreement, Hughes leaves it up to the viewer to decide who "The Breakfast Club" members really are. You can view them as Mr. Vernon does, or have the opportunity to delve in deeper if you so choose.
Thus, I have no problems recommending this film to any and all fans of movies that will really make you think. The ending may be too cheesy (but probably needed to satisfy the teen audience), but along the way it packs quite an intellectual and emotional punch, with a hefty dose of comedy thrown in as well.