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St. Elmo's Fire Customer Reviews (25 - 27 of 37 Reviews)

Adult Entertainment... almost at it's Best!
Saw this on dvd the other night and couldn't really believe it. Here are ten (10) - Count 'em - ten quick and easy obeservations:

1. It's easy to watch "Saint Elmo's Fire" from beginning to end, but that's not because it's a great or even a very good story. It's not. It's a watchable film due to some other elements that were probably unintentionally included.

2. For those of us who remember the early years of Reaganomics and the recession of the early eighties (Which could easily have gone into a depression), this film brings back memories of how bad things really were at the time.

Whether it purports to be or not, "Saint Elmo's Fire" is, in large part, about life under the Reagan administration. It's too bad that Oliver North didn't put in a cameo, but I guess he was probably busy getting weapons to the Contras at that time.

3. I'm not going to summarize something you can see for yourself, but I will say that this film is about a group of seven self-absorbed, terminally cute, whiny preppies following their graduation from Georgetown University. Although Rob Lowe deserves every accolade he got for his portrayal of a walking pile of human waste, Demi Moore's character is especially despicable and hateful.

4. At the middle of the film, I kept wishing for something dramatic to happen... Like the group goes out in a car and they drive head on into a brick wall at ninety miles an hour.

After about an hour of viewing, it's hard to care what happens to any of the characters, because the plot is so contrived. None of the characters portrayed in the film remotely resemble human beings, at least in the way they react to given situations. Each seems about as two dimensional as the life-size cardboard silouhettes of movie stars you'll see in the lobbies of theatres from time to time. The way the characters react to the world around them doesn't seem real or even remotely possible.

To his credit, Emilio Estevez actually does crank out a good performance, but his pursuit of the Andie McDowell character is not just embarassing, it's also borderline behavior.

All of the above aside, here's why you should get a copy of "Saint Elmo's Fire" and watch it from beginning to end:

5. First of all, ignore the characters, ignore the story, and just cue in on the visuals.

It's hard to believe that the eighties really produced such excesses in bad taste, but it's all here on film. Just check out the Lofts and some of the clothing and hairstyles, to say nothing about the attitudes.

6. All that this movie is not is much greater than what it actually is.

"Saint Elmo's Fire" is a film that precluded "Seinfeld" by just a few years. Check it out! Like Seinfeld, it has self-absorbed characters you really wouldn't want to know personally, and it's a show about nothing.

7. If you watch "Saint Elmo's Fire" with friends, you can actually turn the sound off and make up your own dialogue for the characters as you go along.

One of the most confusing aspects of "Saint Elmo's Fire" is that there is no clever dialogue, and no jokes, visual or otherwise. Not one real shed of humor in this film.

The upside is that since there isn't any real storyline anyway, with a little imagination, you can have the characters saying things to each other that even R. Lee Ermy would feel weird about!

8. The David Foster Love Theme instrumental is repeated over and over, dozens of times. Just when you think it's going to stop, it starts up again. Isn't that wonderful?

9. Two words, Baby: Chick Flick!

10. Would I recommend this film to my friends? Sure! Anything's better than watching "The English Patient".

Bonus Comment: I predict that by the year 2025, this film will be a tremendously popular camp favorite with people who are yet to be born, or are in their early infancy.

By 2025, Ally, Judd, Demi, Emilio and the gang will be enroute to the old actor's home. By then, kids will look at "Saint Elmo's Fire" in much the same way that most kids of today watch movies like "The Trip", or "Hell's Angel's `69" and think that their parents used to be Martians.



Talk about your loads of crap!
Like most others who grew up on the Brat Pack flicks, I couldn't wait for the next one. I loved the earlier flicks that had not only great writing and warm stories to tell, but characters you cared about and situations that we could ALL relate to, at least to some point. Pick your flick - 16 Candles, Breakfast Club - they had at least SOMETHING everyone could relate to. Not "St. Elmos's Fire." Talk about taking a red hot cast of actors and doing absolutely nothing with them. This movie wasted so much talent and threw unlikeable, pretentious morons at us with some of the corniest dialogue I have ever seen. There is not ONE likeable character in this movie. Rob Lowe's character is a moron - not in the directionless sense the movie tries to protray him sympathetically, but in everything he does throughout the film, particularly his acting. I actually laughed at the night club scene when Lowe and his band perform. His "sizzlin" sax performance with his band is one of the most contrived, directionless displays of music in movie history - ranks right up there with the final play scene in Travolta's pathetic sequal to "Saturday Night Fever" ("Staying Alive"). Even the extras in that bar scene are terrible actors who not only have no clue how to dance or even react to that "song" (I guess it was a song), but the scene's climax where Lowe and his wife embrace passionately to the adoring masses is contrived, soap opera worthy material. DeMI Moore... don't get me started on her character. And Ally Sheedy (a fave of mine up till this flick), Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy and all the rest of these stooges' over act so much they make Carrot Top seem like Orson Welles or Marlon Brando. Even the bit role players are hammy and cliched - the artistic gay neighbor of Moore's, the wealthy Japanese business man who for some reason trusts just out of college puds with his expensive pad. And the final scene when the gang all seems to come to grips with the reality of their situations while sending Lowe off is as corny as one of the epilogues from the "Charlies Angels" TV show in the 70s. It's sad when recent movies about the 80s seem more authentic than one like this that was made IN the 80s. The only thing I credit this movie with is instilling in me an insatiable appetite for Andie Mc Dowell, who I absolutely love to this day and give most of her movies at least a peak (though a lot of those come up short as well). I suppose I should a acknowledge the hypnotic theme song from the Soundtrack, which I'll admit is appealing, if only for the real life memories of the 80s it brings back. This movie was a lame attempt at using the Brat Pack we grew up with and trying to parallel their lives with where their legions of the fans who grew up loving them were now with their own lives. And in that it fails miserably. This movie is self indulgent and over the top, full of obtrusive characters. One thing I will admit - this is one of those movies that is so bad, you can't help but watch in when it comes on. Again, I thinks it's the way the theme song hooks you. Frankly, this movie sucks.

Boring Brat Pack Feature
1985's St. Elmo's Fire is the film that created the Brat Pack. The film is about yuppie angst instead of the usual teen angst depicted in like kind films of the era. The seven stars, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Mare Winningham and Judd Nelson are all appealing, but the film suffers from an overall malaise. All seven are friends from Georgetown University and they trying to cope with the problems facing them in the real world. There is a lot of unrequited love between several of the friends, drug use and emotional baggage. Mr. Lowe's character is supposed to the one character that, instead of getting to the wrong marriage or job, just follows his dreams. His speech to Ms. Moore, who is on the verge of a serious mental breakdown or worse, in which he lights hair spray on fire is truly cringe worthy. Overall, St. Elmo's Fire is more of a cultural document, showing what yuppie life was like in the mid-80's and the state of the young and upcoming stars of Hollywood at the time. It also features the famed number one theme song by one-hit wonder John Parr.

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