The Breakfast Club

John Hughes always managed to write very good characters, but here he truly went all out. At first glance, the protagonists may seem like caricatures, but they are deep, which is actually the essence of the whole movie, and John Hughes captured that perfectly. We are what we are, and this film shows it beautifully. Nothing will transform us unless we want it to. We just have to remember that. (12/30/2015)

I get what John Hughes was trying to say, and especially given the punchline, I won't fault the film for the fact that the main characters represent well-known (not only) American high school stereotypes... But if I hadn't been so bored watching their dialogue and monologues, I would have been at least one star happier. (04/14/2020)

An original premise – one Saturday, the movie fills a single classroom with five completely different people who are characterized by exactly what they are; so a nerd, a jock, a wannabe gothic, a princess and a crook. They all hate each other and they all become friends in the end. A classic that interestingly hints at its era, young people and their opinions, which do not differ from what our generation went through years ago in many respects. (01/25/2016)

In The Breakfast Club, there is a visible effort to make it a generational film and supposedly it is a cult phenomenon in the United States. I don't know, it doesn't seem to me that it significantly portrays the young generation of the 80s, rather it is some sort of pretentious manifesto of teenagers. Everyone had to go through puberty and those who are currently going through it can naturally identify with the film's characters. Nothing more can be deduced from their dialogues and actions than annoyance toward parents and authority figures. They are far from being real characters, rather they represent classic school types - so typical that it reeks of script convenience. It's not funny and considering the aforementioned, the psychological aspect doesn't work for me either, and I can't emotionally identify with those guys, especially the jock and troublemaker portrayed by Judd Nelson, who I think needs a few slaps rather than understanding. His idea of independence and life ends where the French film The Class takes place. For the system to function, not everyone can just talk about their rights, they must also contribute. The film's characters don't behave realistically and their pairing at the end is also just a result forced by the script. Overall impression: 40%. (04/20/2011)

Those archetypical characters have their justification in the film. Because nowhere else do you come close to the psychology of these figures. The Breakfast Club doesn't go extremely deep on this one, and even leaves a lot to the viewer's imagination (which in this case is a cop-out), but it surprisingly doesn't go to any extreme lengths to enrich the film with some pretty fresh humorous elements. Otherwise, I'd gladly pay two paychecks for the model they smoked there -) (12/05/2010)