Author: mfordfeeney

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

Look, it’s absolutely nuts. I’ve seen the picture a bunch of times and I’m still not even sure if I like it. But I am sure that I love it…

Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension:

Oddly enough, I never caught this movie until last year, when it turned 30 years old. I don’t know how I missed it all these years. Actually, sure I do. We seldom had movie channels on cable growing up (something I’m largely grateful for) and this sure as hell wasn’t going to play on network tv. Cult movies like this need a champion – someone who will stick up for them and insist you watch them even after you’ve seen five minutes when flipping and immediately written it off. I have my own Hong Kong Cavaliers who have successfully sat me down for Big Trouble in Little China, Highlander, and Better Off Dead; less so for Eraserhead. I’m proud to say I’ve been that champion for I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, Tapeheads, House Party and The Frighteners. (We all stumbled upon Bad Taste together back in the 80’s, but I’m not sure any of us tried to win over anyone else with that one.)

The main thing about The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is that it’s cool. If you disagree with that statement, you probably shouldn’t bother watching. It is crucial that you find the whole premise kind of interesting and think the guy is awesome. Because it is a painfully flawed movie, so without the overriding enjoyment of the thing, you’re not going to get anything out of it.

Even if you are all in on the concept, it’s still a seriously bumpy ride. It sounded so crazy to me when I first heard it: action/adventure star who is a neurosurgeon, samurai, physicist, test pilot and musician with a special team of sidekicks. It’s so absurd but at least it’s original. Then I find out about 1930’s pulp fiction character Doc Savage, a physician, surgeon, adventurer, explorer and musician with a special team of sidekicks. Oh, he also studies martial arts. I have absolutely no idea how Banzai even made it to film – the whole premise sounds like a rights nightmare.

But even if the character has a clear ancestor, Dr. Banzai remains a unique character. Batman, after all, owes a great deal to Sherlock Holmes, but is no less original because of it. Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers are their own creation and their adventures across the 8th dimension make for a fresh tale. It makes very little sense, though.

The first half of the movie is far more interesting than the latter part; ridiculously so. The story simply can’t keep up with the characters.

The jet car is amazing and the premise of passing through solid matter is good sci-fi. Of course there will be interesting results and that’s fine too. But the outcome is patently absurd. Even 30 years ago this character design must have looked truly silly.

“But it’s supposed to be silly” I hear you protest, “it’s a comedy”. Is it, though? No one told the filmmakers. I know it contains a lot of humor and things clearly aren’t meant to be taken too seriously, but I reject the idea that this is supposed to be a comedy. And I think that’s a lot of, if not most of, the problem with The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. The tone is wildly erratic, a sure sign that not everyone was on the same page.

It’s no secret that the film was DOA at the box office, that the studio had absolutely no idea what they had been given or what to do with it. In reading about the development of the film, it seems that writer Earl Mac Rauch himself didn’t know what to do with his creation. According to director & co-producer W.D. Richter, the scripts started out promising and then languished with no endings, as Mac Rauch would start over with entirely new ideas. The film itself makes a lot more sense when you know its provenance; it’s a fantastic idea that not only has no third act, it barely has a second. The whole film feels undercooked as a result. For something that had such a long gestation, it seems to have arrived half-finished.

The opening crawl (another vestige of the old serials and a clear sign of the character’s forbearers) attempts to quickly acquaint you with the titular renaissance man and the setup, but you’re really just being thrown into the deep end of the pool. I don’t have a problem with this, by the way; I appreciate ambitious scripts that expect the audience to keep up. My only issue is that while it explains where the story is opening (with Banzai’s jet car ready to break the dimensional barrier) it adds the following strange coda: “…while high above Earth, an alien spacecraft keeps a nervous watch on Team Banzai’s every move…”. Aliens? Really? You’re leading with aliens? Not only does this supernatural element risk (and succeed) in torpedoing a promising narrative, it doesn’t even make sense within the world of the story. The whole conceit of the rest of the film deals with interdimensional beings – aliens on our own planet but in a different dimension. So why are there other aliens from other planets? Note: you find out eventually – if you can follow the exposition – that they’re all aliens from Planet 10; some of them had a civil war and got trapped in the…ahh, who cares…

The aliens are just poorly designed. There’s no getting around this. The Lectoids and their humor – you’re either in or you’re out. I’m out. When they’re on the screen I’m reaching for the remote. Waste of some good actors…

The villain, Dr. Emilio Lizardo or Lord John Whorfin or whatever the hell he is, shamefully overplayed by John Lithgow, is a similar problem. Lithgow is channeling Il Duce for no apparent reason and the only mercy is that after a big setup he leaves the film for 40 minutes. That’s right – you don’t see the villain again for nearly half the movie. By the time he turns up it’s “Oh. You again?”

There are scads of characters that could have and should have been excised entirely. The Secretary of Defense, the President, some of the henchmen; it isn’t just that they’re useless, it’s that they eat up a ton of screen time and make the story even more incomprehensible…

Some notes jotted down while watching:

• The effects in the 8th dimension are very cool. Great visuals.
• The opening sequence is just so good; filmed very well. Not sure if this is the original DP’s work, but there’s some great stuff here.
• Believe it or not, the jet car is an entirely practical effect. A racing group in California built the thing from scratch. Those shots of a truck being propelled by a rocket? That’s all actually happening…
• Something gets attached to the jet car, a living organism or biological remnant. So this is the object that propels the story, huh? What’s that? You say it has nothing to do with the rest of the story? That’s really weird…

• The second Lithgow appears on screen the tone of the film instantly changes. Everything is “look, we’re being quirky – aren’t we so strange?”
• Must have been really fun to design these sets and all the props.
• I’d love to go to this club to see the Cavaliers. The band rocks and the fashion is fantastic. I know this was one of the scenes shot by original DP Jordan Cronenweth (Blade Runner), who was foolishly replaced by the producer.
• The band jumps into cover of “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats – sly reference there, as the song isn’t named in the film and they never get to the vocals – you have to know that’s what song it is. (Buckaroo’s jet car is named HB 88 and bears a license plate reading “ROKIT 88”) See, this is what I mean – there’s some great stuff that makes up for all of the weirdness…

•  Ellen Barkin as Penny Priddy. What is going on here? Maybe add her to the list of characters to remove.
• “No matter where you go, there you are.”
• Cover of the Starliners “Since I Don’t Have You” – amazing. Weller actually handled his own singing, trumpet & guitar playing, but not piano.
• I love that the Cavaliers are all packing while on stage…
• I want the stand up Buckaroo Banzai videogame cabinet
• So hard to pick a favorite Cavalier. Clancy Brown as Rawhide is cool as ice, Jeff Goldblum’s Tom Mix inspired New Jersey is pretty funny, but I’ve got a bit of a man-crush on Lewis Smith as Perfect Tommy…

• The Blue Blazer Regulars – what a cool group of on call support…
• Just realized that the tune New Jersey is playing on the piano back at the house is the end credit music.
• President is played by Ronald Lacey (Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark) channeling Orson Welles. The idea that War of the Worlds wasn’t a hoax but a cover-up is clever, but not as clever as they think it is.

• The movie is an hour in before the actual plot is revealed. Having a purpose leads to the whole action part of the film, but the film itself ironically grinds to a crawl at that point. Just about everything that happens after the hour mark is tedious. It’s crazy, but the thing just meanders while meaningless action occurs. I can’t even fathom what the plan is supposed to be…
• The set design is insane – I can’t imagine any thought went into it whatsoever. It feels more like a guerilla film, where they just wandered into an industrial area on the weekend without permission and just made use of whatever was there…
• And why the hell is this all taking place in New Jersey? Why are they here?

• Professor Hikita is last seen in the movie around the hour mark. He was working on a formula Buckaroo got from the Black Lectoids. We never find out what it is for. Oscillation Overthruster? No… Formula to see through the Lectoids disguise? No…
• The entire climax of the picture is full of truly bizarre actions. The bad guys spend the entire film trying to get the Overthruster. But despite the thing being in their hostages CLEAR handbag, they don’t find it, or persuade either hostage to help them fix their own Overthruster. When they get nothing that they set out to do, they try to leave anyway? The good guys are no more clever; they’re trying to get the Overthruster to prevent all out war, but when they can’t recover it, they climb aboard the ship? To what end? The denouement is essentially nobody succeeding at anything. It’s weird…

• It’s just a real pity that they chose to go with this alien story instead of a much more promising earthly tale about Hanoi Xan, who killed Buckaroo’s parents and wife.
• There was an alternate opening showing Buckaroo as a boy with his parents (mom played by Jamie Lee Curtis) making an early attempt at breaking the barrier before being killed by Xan’s sabotage. You can see it on the DVD. It’s interesting and probably should have been left in, even if it would have created as many problems as it solved. Sort of set the tone for a different film than this ended up being…
• “Watch for the next adventure of Buckaroo Banzai, Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League” Sigh…if only…

I can’t wait until someone reboots Buckaroo Banzai. This will eventually make a fantastic tv series. Can you imagine the serialized adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers every week? It would be amazing! I know there have been attempts to bring it to tv. They’ve also put out a few comics in the past few years, also by writer Earl Mac Rauch. I read one series; it was incredibly faithful. By that I mean that it was interesting but maddeningly uneven with loose ends and errors all over the place…

I know it sounds like I dislike the film based on all these criticisms and essentially proposing throwing out half the film, but it’s totally untrue. I really love The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. I just wish the script was half as interesting as the characters. Still, don’t be mean. Remember, NMWYGTYA…

 

To see how much of an inspiration Team Banzai has been, check out my next post: Ford Feeney and the New Hong Kong Cavaliers…

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Fail

The Representation Test Score: C (6 pts)

(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

[schema type=”movie” name=”The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension” description=”Adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his band of men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, take on evil alien invaders from the 8th dimension.” director=”W.D. Richter” actor_1=”Peter Weller” actor_2=”John Lithgow” actor_3=”Ellen Barkin” actor_4=”Jeff Goldblum” actor_5=”Christopher Lloyd” ]

Main Cast	Peter Weller Buckaroo Banzai, John Lithgow Lord John Whorfin/Dr. Emilio Lizardo, Ellen Barkin Penny Priddy, Jeff Goldblum New Jersey
Rating	PG
Release Date	Wed 15 Aug 1984 UTC
Director	W.D. Richter
Genres	Adventure, Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi
Plot	Adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his band of men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, take on evil alien invaders from the 8th dimension.
Poster
Runtime	103
Tagline	Beings from Another Dimension have invaded your world.
Writers	Earl Mac Rauch
Year	1984

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

Straightforward coming of age story set in the 60’s – hardly unexplored territory – but a solid picture for all that. Punches its weight…

Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Flamingo Kid:

It’s sometimes hard to predict which films will have a lasting impact and which will be relegated to the mental attic. The Flamingo Kid one of the latter, its lasting legacy being a trivia answer to the question “What film was first to receive the PG-13 rating?” Which is too bad, because it was one of my favorite coming of age films when I was coming of age…

Actually, I never totally understood why it got a PG-13 rating to begin with. It’s a perfectly straightforward teen comedy. I don’t even remember much cursing or nudity, although I haven’t seen it in years. I really don’t need to – I watched this movie more than any John Hughes movie growing up. (Mainly because we had recorded it off of tv during one of those free movie channel weekends that they ran from time to time. The only Hughes picture I was able to tape was The Breakfast Club, which I watched nearly as often.)

The film is part of a subset of films that could comprise their own genre – 1950’s & 60’s boys coming of age. (However, if there’s a single example of a similarly set coming of age story for girls I’m unaware of it.) The picture could have been written by Neil Simon for all its familiarity.

The fact that The Flamingo Kid resides in well-traveled territory isn’t a deal-breaker – there’s a reason they make so many of these pictures, after all.

Set in 1963, The Flamingo Kid finds young Brooklynite Jeffrey Willis (Matt Dillon) taking a chance trip out to an exclusive Long Island beach club where he finds a job, a mentor and love.

The performances help keep this tale fresh. Dillon is charismatic enough for three actors and is tailor made for these young man roles. Janet Jones, known probably more for being Wayne Gretzky’s wife than her acting career, plays the part of Jeffrey’s love interest Carla Samson quite well, plausibly conveying her character’s assertion that she really doesn’t care about the class difference between them.

Richard Crenna plays Phil Brody “The King”, who rules the gin rummy table and takes Jeffrey under his wing. It’s a good role and Crenna fills it well.

The breakout talent of the film, though, is Hector Elizondo as Jeffrey’s father, Arthur. The character is enough of a middle-class, no nonsense father to fill the seemingly de rigeur archetype, but Elizondo makes more of the role. His performance brings forth a gentle humor that seems to hint at the source of his son’s charm, and the script allows for some truly loving exchanges that indicate that his protestations to his son’s behavior and chosen life path are out of concern and caring and not merely the disapproval of a cartoon parental unit.

Filling out the cast are some performances by young talents Fisher Stevens, Steven Weber and Bronson Pinchot, as well as a bit part for Marisa Tomei in her second screen appearance. (First? The Toxic Avenger…)

The Flamingo Kid is both exactly what it looks like and something slightly more. It’s a worthwhile endevour and a lot of fun. It has a great Motown soundtrack and is a great summer movie (despite being released in December for some reason). Reportedly Disney is planning to remake it with Brett Ratner producing. My usual knee jerk reaction to such plans notwithstanding, it’s probably not a bad idea; the picture is perfectly fine as is, but while it did ok at the box office, it never really found a legacy or shelf life and could possibly find a new audience with an update.

Oh, and by the way, the rest of that trivia answer is that although The Flamingo Kid was first to receive the PG-13 rating, it was actually the fifth to be released, after Red Dawn, The Woman in Red, Dreamscape and Dune…

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Fail

The Representation Test Score: B (7 pts)

(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

[schema type=”movie” name=”The Flamingo Kid” description=”Jeffrey Willis has just finished high school and isn’t quite sure what the future holds. His parents expect him to go to college but he is starting to find his close-knit family stifling. He gets a summer job at the Flamingo club where he meets Phil Brody, a successful car dealer who fills Jeffrey’s head with ideas about how to make his fortune. Phil is everything Jeffrey would like to be – popular, rich and the best gin rummy player the club has ever seen. Jeffrey’s coming of age includes a romance with the very pretty Carla Samson, but the shine on Phil Brody’s philosophy of life wears off when he uncovers a significant flaw in his character.” director=”Garry Marshall” actor_1=”Matt Dillon” ]

Main Cast	Matt Dillon Jeffrey Willis, Hector Elizondo Arthur Willis, Molly McCarthy Ruth Willis, Martha Gehman Nikki Willis
Rating	PG-13
Release Date	Fri 21 Dec 1984 UTC
Director	Garry Marshall
Genres	Comedy, Drama, Romance
Plot	Jeffrey Willis has just finished high school and isn’t quite sure what the future holds. His parents…
Poster
Runtime	100
Tagline	A legend in his own neighborhood.
Writers	Neal Marshall (story) and, Garry Marshall
Year	1984

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

I won’t be using the nickname for all these actors, as it’s demeaning & limiting, even to this collection of wholly unlikable characters…

Spoiler-free Movie Review of St. Elmo’s Fire:

I’d never seen St. Elmo’s Fire before, but I’m not sure I’d say I missed it…

This is the movie where everyone who just played high schoolers a few months ago now plays college graduates, right?

Actually, I am aware that this is the appropriate age for these actors to play. It was in The Breakfast Club that they were way too old…

St. Elmo’s Fire will always be lumped in with the movies of this era, the ones with many of these cast members (I won’t be using the nickname for all these actors, as I find it demeaning and limiting). And by those standards, it fails terribly.

Released just a few short months after similarly casted The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire is woefully lacking in any of the earlier films credibility. It tries for the same approach, showcasing the trials and tribulations of young life and love, but its clumsy attempts at emotional depth and insight just emphasize how gifted John Hughes was as a writer. It’s no insult whatsoever to suggest that co-writers Joel Schumacher and Carl Kurlander can’t meet the standards set by John Hughes – few can. But this really is an unlikable group of characters. Maybe I would have identified with them more if I were at a similar age at the time of release.

Random thoughts while watching:

• Joel Schumacher directed this? I don’t remember any explosions – are you sure? Although it does have his patented total lack of subtlety. This may actually be a step down from his previous feature, D.C. Cab – y’know, the one with Mr. T…
• Oh man, I remembered that the theme song was a big hit, but I couldn’t remember how it went. I kept getting Huey Lewis’ Jacob’s Ladder in my head every time I tried to remember. Now I wish I didn’t get reminded. Oh wait, there’s 2 theme songs – a love song and another soft-rock one. What’s embarrassing is I’m fairly sure we had the soundtrack for this…

• I actually hated these characters before the opening credits were finished. And now I remember why I’ve never seen this before…
• I’m genuinely disappointed that this film has nothing to do with the nautical electrical phenomenon. Just a bunch of yuppie jerks…

• Wow, I didn’t even recognize Demi Moore for the first 20 minutes…
• I’m not prepared to watch 90 minutes of “cool” Rob Lowe…
• So many skinny ties…
• For the Halloween party at the club, Lowe, with his ripped tank top, bandana, dangly earring and sweaty hair, playing a mean sax, exhorts the crowd, “let’s rock” and initiates a clap in perfect time to the dreadful soft-rock his band is hammering out. How is this not a meme?

• Love the massive Billy Idol mural…
• Mare Winningham pairing off with Lowe is maybe the worst turn in a movie full to the brim with them.
• In what way is Emilio Estevez’s character not a stalker?
• The soundtrack to hell has a lot of saxophones…
• Seeing my beloved Ally Sheedy getting mauled by both Judd Nelson and Andrew McCarthy is unbearable…

St. Elmo’s Fire is more like an 80’s time capsule than anything I’ve seen. It’s not just the fashion or the music or anything, it has far more to do with the mindset and attitudes. It’s the ugly side of the 80’s – the “me first” entitlement, the casual coke use and meaningless sex…

The characters are horrible people, the dialogue is clunky, the story is preposterous. Avoid…

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Pass

The Representation Test Score: C (4 pts)

(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

[schema type=”movie” name=”St. Elmo’s Fire” description=”A group of friends, just out of college, struggle with adulthood.” director=”Joel Schumacher” actor_1=”Ally Sheedy” ]

Main Cast	Demi Moore Jules, Rob Lowe Billy Hicks, Andrew McCarthy Kevin Dolenz, Emilio Estevez Kirby Keger
Rating	R
Release Date	Fri 28 Jun 1985 UTC
Director	Joel Schumacher
Genres	Drama, Romance
Plot	A group of friends, just out of college, struggle with adulthood.
Poster
Runtime	110
Tagline	The passion burns deep.
Writers	Joel Schumacher (written by) &, Carl Kurlander (written by)
Year	1985

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

The solitary onion ring in your basket of fries, the picture’s nothing like any of Hughes’ other films. Mostly fun anyway, but in over head.

Spoiler-free Movie Review of Weird Science:

Always great to be back in Shermer…

Never knew this was an adaptation of sorts. I mean, sure, it’s clearly based on Frankenstein, but I didn’t realize there was a more direct link – an old comic book series from the early 1950’s of the same name published by Bill Gaines (publisher of Tales from the Crypt and MAD Magazine), specifically the story “Made of the Future” by Al Feldstein.

Maybe one reason it never occurred to me that Weird Science could be an adaptation is because it’s so obvious of a story it hardly seems like anyone would have needed to write it – stories like these just float in the ether, nearly completely developed, waiting for someone to actually commit them to film.

The premise is so simple it could have been written in crayon. If Weird Science seems like a tv show, that may be because it’s essentially I Dream of Jeannie. It did also spawn a mid-1990’s tv show on USA (and later Sci-Fi) that ran for 5 seasons and 88 episodes! I’m almost tempted to track it down to see how on earth they kept this yarn going for over 30 hours of content. Almost…

John Hughes both wrote & directed this one, and if it isn’t exactly one of his more important films, it’s every bit as fun.

The movie clocks in at just over an hour and a half and there’s no time wasted in this one. We meet the protagonists, they’re humiliated, credits run and then Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) is inspired to create a woman with the computer skills of Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith). Boom – not even seven minutes in and we know everything we need to know.

If this movie wasn’t so good it would be terrible. Actually, the film itself sort of is excellent and terrible in equal measure. For example, I love the cultural awareness like scanning a picture of David Lee Roth as part of creating this virtual girl simulation, but in the same scene the depiction of computer hacking is inexcusably poor, even for the time.

Similarly, I love the scene in the Kandy Bar where Gary is talking about his “trials and tribulations” with the girl “on the telephone”, but it doesn’t totally play as well as it did then. It’s sort of mildly offensive and just not really funny. It’s a bit of nostalgic fun watching Hall play for the back row and everything but it was hysterical when I was 12 or 13. So it doesn’t really age well. Or I don’t…

Weird Science would probably work a lot better if you didn’t know it was a John Hughes joint and subject it to comparison, because it just doesn’t stack up. And that’s really the only thing wrong with it – it came out six months after The Breakfast Club. The bar had been forever raised and this just has to be viewed differently than if it had come out earlier. I guess the first high school trilogy was meant to start with Breakfast Club but Sixteen Candles was an easier sell. From a historical framework I’d probably judge Weird Science less critically if it was the first of the three, not the third…

Nevertheless, the casting and performances are excellent. Anthony Michael Hall gets to do all the fun stuff, but Ilan Mitchell-Smith does a good job. Bill Paxton is just so good as Chet…

As Ian and Max, the semi-bullies, Robert Rusler & RDJ are funny as total dickweeds. I always thought these guys were curious. How are they the popular ones when they dress like Ducky? I may or may have not learned their weird handshake when I was in middle school…

Kelly LeBrock is just so perfect in this film. Lisa is such an interesting character and not at all what you’d expect. The zaniness and penchant for trouble, yes. But the big sister support and protectiveness, no. Her love of the boys is so clear and gentle. Dare I say motherly?

The film is really just a typical screwball 80’s comedy, hardly different in the telling than so many others. Except…there’s all these wonderful moments and great lines. Even when Hughes isn’t really stretching himself his excellence shines through…

“I really don’t think so…Sue…”

“If you want to be a party animal you have to learn to live in the jungle.”

“My dad’s a plumber and he’s into plumbing and I, well I guess you plumb, right, Dad?”

“Don’t threaten me Al! You’re out of shape, I’ll kick your arse.”

“You know, there’s going to be sex, drugs, rock-n-roll… chips, dips, chains, whips… You know, your basic high school orgy type of thing. I mean, uh, I’m not talking candlewax on the nipples, or witchcraft or anything like that, no, no, no. Just a couple of hundred kids running around in their underwear, acting like complete animals.”

“I think Gary and Wyatt are going to force everyone to redefine their terms.”

“When are you gonna learn that people will like you for who you are, not for what you can give them?”

Other thoughts:

• Great music (I think). Heard the Del Fuegos in there as well as Ratt’s Wanted Man; love it…
• Man the fashion is weird…There are so many bandanas in the party scene it almost defies belief…

• Gary’s mom shows his dad a picture of their son – it’s a photo of Hall as “Farmer Ted” from Sixteen Candles…
• Title track by Oingo Boingo is a classic…
• I find it interesting that they just brought over a fully featured character from The Road Warrior; I mean he’s even dressed the same – did he steal the costume?

• The party and especially the aftermath take up as much time as everything that came before…
• Chet’s transformation – nasty. Even worse than I remember.
• The gratuitous nudity of a random partygoer is both gratuitous and random. As much as we think of the Hughes oeuvre as being particularly enlightened with regards to female representation, there are several real stereotypical blemishes on his pictures that remind you simultaneously that the 80’s were quite a while ago and that Hughes got his start at National Lampoon…
• (That being said, I’m not sure that the story that surfaced in Kirk Honeycutt’s new book, “John Hughes: A Life in Film” about the female stars of The Breakfast Club squashing a gratuitous nude scene in their film is entirely true. It’s a great story if it’s true, but the actress in question, Karen Leigh Hopkins, who shot a few scenes as a P.E. teacher, insists that there was nothing in the script she was given requiring her to disrobe, and she certainly didn’t film any such scene. On the other hand, I’d believe just about anything that Molly Ringwald says…)

• There’s also something seriously hypocritical in painting Ian & Max as jerks with no respect for their girlfriends, considering the implicitly approved of behavior of Jake in Sixteen Candles. And he’s supposed to be the good guy!

Weird Science is sort of the odd Tinkertoy in Hughes’ box of Legos. It just doesn’t really fit in with any of his other pictures thematically or stylistically. In the end, I did end up enjoying this re-watch of a movie that I once loved, even if I didn’t, couldn’t, take the same pleasure in it as I did as a teen. That being said, why are they remaking this?

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Pass

The Representation Test Score: D (3 pts)

(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

[schema type=”movie” name=”Weird Science” description=”Two high school nerds attempt to create the perfect woman, but she turns out to be more than that.” director=”John Hughes” actor_1=”Anthony Michael Hall” ]

Main Cast	Anthony Michael Hall Gary Wallace, Ilan Mitchell-Smith Wyatt Donnelly, Kelly LeBrock Lisa, Bill Paxton Chet Donnelly
Rating	PG-13
Release Date	Fri 02 Aug 1985 UTC
Director	John Hughes
Genres	Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Plot	Two high school nerds attempt to create the perfect woman, but she turns out to be more than that.
Poster
Runtime	94
Tagline	This Bud’s for YOU!
Writers	John Hughes (written by)
Year	1985

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

Hughes’ greatest is arguably the most important film about teenage life. There were better, there were earlier, but none better earlier…

Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Breakfast Club:

The early John Hughes pictures, the ones that really created the classification “John Hughes movie” are widely considered to make up an arc of six films or two high school trilogies made in an astoundingly short four years from 1984 to 1987:

• The first trilogy were the first three movies he directed in addition to writing; Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science
• The second trilogy is made up of the next three pictures he wrote, of which he directed only the middle one; Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Some Kind of Wonderful

Personally, I prefer the breakdown created by Art3mis in Ready Player One:

“Her newest blog post was titled “The John Hughes Blues,” and it was an in-depth treatise on her six favorite John Hughes teen movies, which she divided into two separated trilogies: The “Dorky Girl Fantasies” trilogy (Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and Some Kind of Wonderful) and the “Dorky Boy Fantasies” trilogy (The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off).”

But however you choose to look at them, these six films really do make up a fairly complete statement on Hughes’ power to give voice to the (white, middle class) teenager. Hughes as both a writer and director was so much more than his teen movies, but there is unquestionably a solid body of work during those years in which his pictures maintained a strong theme. It was an impressive run, and if his name has become shorthand for a type of film, it’s a compliment and in no way meant to diminish his other considerable features.

I caught almost all of these films after the fact. The only one of his pictures that I ever saw in the theater was Ferris Bueller. I was just a bit young for some of them. I still remember being on a hike with the Scouts when the other boys were excited to see The Breakfast Club and astonished at my indifference. I was still into baseball and baseball cards and baseball and Star Wars figures and baseball. Life changes so quickly in those tween/teen years, which is of course what Hughes understood so well.

I don’t know if The Breakfast Club is the best picture in the group, but I’d argue that it’s certainly the most “important” or culturally significant.

Initially the film was supposed to be Hughes’ directorial debut. After the massive twin 1983 successes that he wrote, Mr. Mom & National Lampoon’s Vacation, he had enough juice to get his shot at directing a film, but not an hour and a half one room play of five teenagers talking, which The Breakfast Club certainly is.

It’s almost certainly a good thing that he made Sixteen Candles first. Aside from the practical considerations of learning how to make a picture, he developed relationships with two of his most storied leads, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall that allowed for the trust necessary to deal with the much heavier topics of the 1985 film. The success of Sixteen Candles also allowed the director some small degree of pull and enhanced the audience for The Breakfast Club.

While the picture retains many of the director’s trademarks, the film is significant in the development of the filmmaker in that it strips away a lot of those elements that would define his work. Shot entirely in sequence on more or less one set, the picture eschews the jump cuts and breaking of the fourth wall that would feature so prominently in his other works. The screenplay was workshopped like a play through multiple rehearsals before filming, yet was still full of ad libs, including the soul-baring scene in which each character explains why they are in all-day detention.

Music was always an enormous part of his films, but other than the legendary theme song, the soundtrack is forgettable and doesn’t factor hugely into the action – which makes sense considering the detention hall setting.

 

Is The Breakfast Club the best film made about teenage life? I don’t know. Depends on the definition. There are better all around films that portray teens realistically and with insight, but as a film that is exclusively about teenagers, you’d have to say yes. No film better depicted more accurately and refreshingly what it was like to be a teenager. At the time, anyway. You could get into a whole discussion about how poor the representation is outside of white, middle class, middle Americans. Hughes did this deliberately, by the way; he wanted all of the characters to be physically similar while he established the stereotypes so the character of the individuals would project beyond those labels as the script trashed them.

So there is certainly a legitimate argument to be made that while this film speaks deeply to some of us, it’s only to some of us. I’d like to think that’s not the case. The themes of familial discord, struggling with expectations, peer pressure, self-identification – these are universal, even if the circumstances present themselves differently.

The reason the film passes the sniff test to me is that if you pose the question, “would this film be just as meaningful if you remade it with today’s teens, or with an all Indian cast, or set in Compton or Paris or with hearing impaired teens?”, the answer is a resounding yes.

The film moves along surprisingly swiftly, as I’m sure everyone was concerned it would be too talky and slow. Still, I would love to see a director’s cut of the picture some day. Even though Hughes was taken far too early, there’s a lot of documentation of some of the cut scenes that would be very interesting to watch.

I just realized that I haven’t even mentioned the performances, which are all wonderful. I have a certain fondness for Hall & Ringwald in particular, knowing that they were the only ones actually high school aged at time of filming. Their journey is the most believable accordingly. But Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson all turn in career highlight performances, and character actors Paul Gleason & frequent Hughes collaborator John Kapelos really do give some humanity to what would otherwise be featureless adults.

Finally, a newly restored The Breakfast Club was just released on Blu-Ray and is getting a two-night event screening tonight, March 26 and again on March 31, 2015. Details at http://www.breakfastclub30.com/

30 years later, The Breakfast Club remains in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions: a masterpiece.

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Pass

The Representation Test Score: C (5 pts)

(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

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Main Cast	Emilio Estevez Andrew Clark, Judd Nelson John Bender, Molly Ringwald Claire Standish, Ally Sheedy Allison Reynolds
Rating	TV-14
Release Date	Fri 15 Feb 1985 UTC
Director	John Hughes
Genres	Comedy, Drama
Plot	Five high school students, all different stereotypes, meet in detention, where they pour their hearts out to each other, and discover how they have a lot more in common than they thought.
Poster
Runtime	97
Tagline	They only met once, but it changed their lives forever.
Writers	John Hughes (written by)
Year	1985