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The Breakfast Club (1984)

Average user rating

7 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

An iconic movie of the '80s, with all the unappealing baggage that suggests. Five mutually antipathetic teens are called in for Saturday detention at a suburban American high school. Initial bouts of verbal jousting fade, making way for a bonding session fugged in pot smoke, the development of friendship everlasting (or until bell rings for class on Monday morning, whichever is the sooner) and That Simple Minds Song. Which would be fine, were the characters not a punchable quintet of overdrawn saps, the acting (Ringwald and Hall excepted) overplayed and unsympathetic, and the script the wrong side of the line that separates smart from smart-arse. Its continuing cult popularity is mystifying; as teen movies go, this is a long way off, say, Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Pretty in Pink. Hughes: stay behind for detention afterwards. And write me four sides on why this, uh, sucks.

Author: WFJ

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

I LIKE BREAKFAST CLUB said...

Posted on Dec 14 2011 10:17 GOOD FILM YES

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Nate said...

Posted on Mar 14 2011 08:15 Thank God for someone who recognizes saccharine garbage when he sees it. I like my share of shitty movies, but this one just tries too hard in all the wrong ways. Too many viewers' minds are lost in a haze of nostalgia.

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blighty said...

Posted on Mar 08 2010 16:27 it amazes me that anyone would ever, under any circumstances, enjoy this movie. Trite, bland, shittily written, extremely poorly acted. basically a bad tv movie that inexplicably is popular.

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David said...

Posted on Feb 26 2010 17:11 This reviewer is a tired old windbag uttering what amounts to "Man was not meant to fly." Unlike today's teenage garbage like AMERICAN PIE, this film appeals to a broader audience, touching, as it does, on wider themes of classism, exclusion, and human frailty.
And yes, that Simple Minds song is tremendous!

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Fern Estevez said...

Posted on Jul 09 2009 11:50 I love this film it is so cooooooooooool. I LOVE EMILIO ESTEVEZ.

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Johnny Boy said...

Posted on Sep 28 2008 14:07 I totally concur with 'breakfast club fan'. I read WFJ's review with WTF on my lips. What a tired old dog's life it must be to have lost your youthful joie de vie only to wake one morning and find a cynical black hairy tarantula where it used to lie. These Children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultation; they're quite aware what they're going through.

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breakfast club fan said...

Posted on Sep 24 2008 09:58 the only thing that sucks here is this shitty review, breakfast club is a great film, and one of the only "teen movies" to actually be appealing to a wider audience. Since then these types of movies have all been the same old crap, this film actually had meaning, showing that there is maybe hope for the younger generation still, unlike the crap you get today which can only show how stupid or sex crazed the teenagers of today are.

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