BY MIKEY MIGO
I’ve always held The Breakfast Club in very high regard. The same can be said for movies like Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Outsiders, and Pretty In Pink on various levels. Never the less, I’ve always been a fan of “The Brat Pack”. Sadly, I will admit to of not seeing St. Elmo’s Fire. I’m sure I saw it in passing, but I don’t think I ever sat down with it and watched it from credits to credits. Like I said, I consider myself a fan, but for some reason I never watched this one. I guess better late than never. I’ve always heard good things. So this past week, I popped in the DVD and watched it. It’s definitely an 80’s movie. It’s a movie about privileged 20-somethings trying to find their place in the world. We have Judd Nelson as a yuppie sell out who womanizes and cheats on his love Ally Sheedy. Andrew McCarthy is into her and is having his own problems. Then we have Mare Winningham as the innocent nice girl from the nice family who’s problems are that they wants to be her own person but no one is letting her. Demi Moore plays their party girl friends who is taking things too far. Emilo Estevez plays a waiter working for his career as a lawyer. For some reason he falls in love with Andie MacDowell and stalks her. Then we have Rob Lowe playing the mullet having, saxophone playing, frat boy-bad boy who keeps screwing up but no matter what maintains love and admiration from his friends. The whole group is really just trying to find themselves. They all have their own little stories that pretty much cover all aspects of “growing up”. It plays out like a 90210-ish love fest with overly dramatic scenes that one in the middle class, even over 25 years later, can’t really relate too. Sure we can relate to the idea of trying to get one’s life together. But this is all fantasy. Joel Schumacher did a great job with the direction and writing of the movie, but it’s pretty dated. Unlike Breakfast Club, I had a hard time really liking any of the characters. The closest one to not being really screwed up was Emilio Estevez’s character. But even he was stalking a chick and being REALLY creepy for no reason. Then at the end, he kisses her and leaves laughing, smiling, and freaking out like he just won a gold medal. It was silly and tried to be a “moment”, but fell short. That’s a good way to describe the movie. I tried to be a classic and have tons of “moments”, but in the end it fell short. I can now understand why this movie isn’t replayed on basic cable like the other Brat Pack movies. C+
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