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The Breakfast Club Customer Reviews (40 - 42 of 78 Reviews)

Simply the best
There were several classic Teen Comedies that came out in the 80's, many including the infamous "Brat Pack" but The Breakfast Club tops them all. Five high schoolers find themselves stuck in Saturday Detention with nothing to do but talk to each other. Although it is hard to relate to one character in particular, (One was a jock, one a prom queen, one a basketcase, one a nerd and one a criminal), by the end it was easy to realte to all the characters as a whole. Although my taste in movies ranges from heavy dramas to pointless comedies, I feel this movie is a happy median. People of all ages can enjoy The Breakfast Club, and its humor is bound to make everybody laugh at least a couple of times while watching.
If you have already seen this movie, I reccomend St.Elmo's Fire which has 3 of the five TBC stars in it, Sixteen Candles which stars the other two, and Pretty in Pink.

2 thumbs down
I found John Hughes' 1985 movie The Breakfast Club to be an extremely generalized, heavy handed, piece of trite filmmaking that may or may not have been relevant to teenagers fifteen years ago, but is certainly nowhere near on target now.
Obviously it was by design that his five main characters were one-dimensional character sketches of so-called 'traditional' high school stereotypes. You have Andy the jock (Emilio Estevez), Claire the princess (Molly Ringwald, a John Hughes staple), Bender the criminal (Judd Nelson), Brian the nerd (Anthony Michael Hall), and Allison the basket case (Ally Sheedy). In my opinion, for Hughes to insinuate that these five people come from completely different backgrounds and had absolutely no contact with each other or anyone else from their particular 'type' during school is just plain silly. For example, it is quite likely that Claire and Andy, being popular people, would know each other, or at least that princesses and jocks would interact on a regular basis. Same thing goes for Bender and Allison as social outcasts. Only Brian, being the brain, would logically be shunned by all other classes.
For another thing, these categories have little relevance today because in today's modern society, and indeed this has always been true, teens simply cannot be categorized and labeled, even by their peers, in this manner. I myself saw elements of my personality in every one of the characters, and neither I nor anyone I know would fit neatly into these stereotypes.
The last thing I'm going to gripe about in this review is, logically enough, the ending. For a film that tried so hard to be edgy, the denouement was awfully hackneyed and predictable. Four out of the five characters hook up at the end? Gosh, I never saw that coming! Also, the treatment of Allison was laughable. This girl has serious psychological issues that have been with her all her life, but all she needs is a little makeup, a nice dress, and a clean-cut boyfriend to set her to rights? I don't think so, pal. Willful suspension of disbelief is all fine and good, but to trivialize Allison's pain and emotional trauma in this manner is irresponsible and does a disservice to those young people who do identify with her character. I think that's enough bashing for this film; while it had its moments, it certainly is by no means the 'classic' that it is reputed to be.

A Pivotal Drama of Teenage Struggle
This is quite possibly one of the finest movies ever made. I felt every second of angst, every laugh, every tear of these characters. John Hughes is not only known for writing gag movies like "Weird Science" and "National Lampoon's Vacation," but he's famous for his journeys into the teenage psyche. He knows how teenagers talk (or at least how they talked in 1985) and the kinds of pressures they deal with.
John Bender (a brilliant Judd Nelson) is the badass. His abusive past gives him a rough exterior but a fragile interior. Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) is the geek, dying to belong with the popular crowd but committed to being smart. Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald), the prom queen every girl hated in high school, becomes aware of her own snobbery and learns how much she hurts others by being spoiled. Emilio Estevez plays jock Andrew Clark who tries to please his old man by always being a winner. Finally, Ally Sheedy does a wonderful job playing Allison Reynolds, a crazy outsider who just wants someone to pay attention to her.
The language is raw, the emotions are real, and the camaraderie between the characters is one of those bonds that is never forgotten. They learn that they have some things in common, most obviously a hatred for the principal and the school system. If you are an adult, watch this film to remember what being young was like. If you are a teenager, you can relate to the demons each character has inside. If you're a kid, you're not supposed to be watching this movie. You'll only understand it when you rediscover it at age 15. That's what happened to me. I've seen this movie so many times and it still hits me every viewing.

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