X
- 1985
- R
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 37 m
- 1985
- R
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 37 m
Summary We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong. What we did WAS wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us...in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You ...
Directed By: John Hughes
Written By: John Hughes
- 1985
- R
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 37 m
- 1985
- R
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 37 m
The Breakfast Club
66
8.5
Where to Watch
Summary We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong. What we did WAS wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us...in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You ...
Directed By: John Hughes
Written By: John Hughes
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
66
68% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
20% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
12% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
66
68% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
20% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
12% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
The performances by the young cast, culminating in an exuberant pot-smoking session, followed by a genuinely touching denouement, is classic stuff. And such lines as: "The chick can't hold her smoke!" and "You wouldn't know her, she lives in Canada," are still spouted today.
[Filmmaker John] Hughes must refer to this as his ‘”Bergman film”: lots of deep talk and ripping off of psychic scabs. But this film maker is, spookily, inside kids. He knows how the ordinary teenagers, the ones who don’t get movies made about them, think and feel: why the nerd would carry a fake ID (”So I can vote”), and why the deb would finally be nice to the strange girl (” ‘Cause you’re letting me”). He has learned their dialect and decoded it for sympathetic adults. With a minimum of genre pandering—only one Footloose dance imitation—and with the help of his gifted young ensemble, Hughes shows there is a life form after teenpix. It is called goodpix.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 380 User Ratings
8.5
90% Positive
341 Ratings
341 Ratings
7% Mixed
28 Ratings
28 Ratings
3% Negative
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 380 User Ratings
8.5
90% Positive
341 Ratings
341 Ratings
7% Mixed
28 Ratings
28 Ratings
3% Negative
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
While I slightly prefer Planes, Trains and Automobiles, this along with Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of John Hughes' better films. It isn't a perfect film I agree as admittedly the characters are clichéd and there are minor logic lapses, but here's the thing- the more I see The Breakfast Club the more I like it. It still has its freshness, and while I never had a detention when I was in school even from what I've heard from people who have this actually makes detentions cool. And it is still relevant not only to the teenagers back then but now too, it does ring true a vast majority of the time what with its justified grievances, self-pitying whinges and hard-hitting home truths. The cinematography is nice and fluid, typical Hughes really, and the soundtrack adds to the film's coolness. Hughes directs wonderfully, and the script and story are well written and I think memorable. While their characters are clichéd, that I agree, the cast do a great job with what they have. Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall and especially Molly Ringwald give very appealing performances and interact well together. In conclusion, I love this film, while not perfect I like it more every time I see it. 10/10 Bethany Cox
Report
'The Breakfast Club' is a 1985 teen dramedy. John Hughes is not only a director of this movie but also a scriptwriter. John Hughes later started to be even more popular because of such of his pictures as: "Home Alone" (1990), "Curly Sue" (1991), "Beethoven" (1992) and other movies that became cult hits. Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy played six main roles. This movie earned $51.5 million, whereas its budget was $1 million.
When five high school students once stayed at school on Saturday morning as a school punishment, they didn't realize that they would get closer to each other by speaking about their lives.
This is an emotional movie about teenagers' lives with addictive plot twists. The life stories of the main characters open up to moviegoers gradually, provoking strong feelings. The movie raises and discloses many social topics. Teenagers deal with these topics and many others that have an impact on their lives and they cope with problems in their own ways. Even though the movie was released in 1985, the topics that were revealed in the movie are actual for the contemporary society and for current generations too.
Written by Anastasiia Shystovska
Report
Before lapsing into the land of the insipid,... John Hughes actually made a few movies that shined some light on the trials of modern adolescence. The Breakfast Club is one of them.
Eminently watchable and consistently entertaining...It has a candor that is unexpected and refreshing in a sea of too-often generic teen-themed films.
Comes to the comforting conclusion that they're just as alienated, idealistic, and vulnerable as the baby boomers of the 1960s.
It's the kind of undigested vision that might have come from the kids themselves. [15 Feb 1985, p.B1]
Does director John Hughes really believe, as he writes here, that 'when you grow up, your heart dies.' It may. But not unless the brain has already started to rot with films like this.
This movie is just amazing. Acting is astonishing. Character development is staggering. Love it. Rewatched 2 times.
Report
I had pretty low expectations for this movie, as I don't really like teen movies. However, I must admit that the film is good and well-made. It's not perfect or exceptional, but it works and entertains without our time being wasted. I can understand why so many people consider this movie a classic, but I don't agree. It's not such a good movie to have that designation, and it has maintained a certain aura to this day, this is due to a certain cult status it has acquired over the years. The film takes place in a school on a Saturday, in which five students who do not know each other will be grounded, each for their own reasons. The teacher, however, is an idiot, and they will end up enjoying the day, listening to music, talking and discovering that they are not so different from each other.
The film has weaknesses, starting with the thin script it presents. In fact, there is no story or action here. If the movie didn't have so many humorous scenes or where the characters escape and walk around the school, we would have an hour and a half of dialogue. Another problem is the use of all the most common stereotypes in high school movies: we have an idiotic teacher with no authority, a rebellious student with problems at home, a good student under pressure to have good grades, a beautiful and smug student from a wealthy family, an athletic student with anger issues, and a lonely, weird student. The only thing that saves them is, deep down, the way they gain depth and personality as the dialogues flow. And could I still speak of the illogicality of this punishment, in which five troubled students are left alone in a deserted school?
Regardless of the script's weaknesses and other issues, the film has a young cast that does a very committed and interesting job. Of them all, the one who impressed me the most was Judd Nelson, who managed to impart a genuine rebelliousness and irreverence to his character. I also really liked Ally Sheedy. She starts the film almost silently, letting her pose, and bizarre costume dominate our attention, but then she presents us with an intense, intelligent and pleasantly unpleasant and sarcastic character. Anthony Hall has a more palatable and emotional character, which he plays satisfactorily, as do Molly Ringwald and Emilio Estevez, and they also worked well in their respective characters. A word, more, for Paul Gleason, and the impeccable way in which he played a mediocre teacher.
Technically, it's a low-key film. It has good cinematography and was very well shot, with sharpness and good colors. It doesn't feature great visual or special effects, but what it brings us is well done and works pleasantly. The library set was well-built, and the school is credible. But what amazes us is, clearly, the soundtrack, and particularly the theme song "Don't You (Forget About Me)", which is heard in the credits and which became one of the biggest hits of that decade, in that many were young or (like me) born.
Report
File this one under the already scant list of movies that I'm shocked I didn't love. Now, don't get me wrong; I don't dislike it. It's just that there's something a little slapdash and thrown-together about the structure here. Something almost piecemeal about the central line of action (or lack thereof, rather) that really made me buy the fact that Hughes wrote this in such a short period of time. The matrix of character relationships, however, is what makes this movie really sail by, and the respective performances from Nelson, Ringwald, Hall, Estevez, and Sheedy all really do help in the end. Again, not a movie that I didn't like, just one that I feel hype may have ultimately undercut for me overall.
Report
The Breakfast Club can't pack itself a story due to the stale comedy/drama. It left me confused with a sign saying, "I don't get it." Decent movie anyways.
Report
the breakfast club is a film for melodramatic teenagers and impudent a-hole critics with absolutely no idea of what's it like to be a teenager. because clearly it all comes to down generations and generations pass from one era to the next era. in the end, this film has a very abused message with foul mouthed stereotypical teenagers who have few similarities to reality and a director he lives under a rock. the breakfast club is possibly the worst teenage film ever, john Hughes worst film of all time, and one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my young life. in other words it is a mutant abomination bred by poor directing and crude humour and a true disgrace to the cinema itself.
Report
Production Company
Universal Pictures,
A&M Films,
Channel Productions
Release Date Feb 15, 1985
Duration 1 h 37 m
Rating R
Tagline They only met once, but it changed their lives forever.
Awards
Online Film & Television Association
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
National Film Preservation Board, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
MTV Movie + TV Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
