The Breakfast Club

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.