John Hughes Movie: The Breakfast Club (1985)

When it came out in 1985, The Breakfast Club was extremely popular and relevant and watching it now, thirty years later, that relevancy is still there. It deals with themes of broken homes, stereotyping and teenage rebellion with such grace and subtlety that leaves you with a truly satisfying feeling after the film has ended.

This is more a character movie than a plot movie. Five students get given a detention on a Saturday and have to endure it together. They each come from a different stereotype that teenagers generally fall into; a nerd, a jock, a criminal, a princess and a basket case (who is just an introverted kid). 

Over the course of the day these kids eventually learn that they each have something in common, despite their socially appointed roles that they think are so important. This is still something that pervades teenage culture today. The kids in the movie discover that these stereotype boundaries don't actually exist, although at the end of the movie they come to the grim reality that despite the time they spent getting to know each other, come Monday they will neglect to recognise that they are just the same as each other.

The other major theme is the idea of rebellion against authority figures. Early on this comes John Bender (Judd Nelson) "the criminal" against principal John Vernon (Paul Gleason). At one point in the film Vernon speaks about his difficulty relating and dealing with the teenagers. The kids also have trouble with their parents. It is hinted that Allison (Ally Sheedy) "the basket case" has an abusive home life. Both Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) and Andrew (Emilio Estevez) have undue pressure from their parents. Bender and Claire's (Molly Ringwald), "the princess", home lives can be summed up in this clip.

If there's one thing that is consistent throughout Hughes' movies, it's the soundtracks. And this is a great one. Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is a fantastic lead track in a list of songs that includes a lot of other 80's pop classics and themes from TV shows and other movies.

Verdict: Undeniably the best teen movie of all time that hasn't aged one bit.

80's Action Movie: Die Hard (1988)

I think the secret to good Bruce Willis acting must have been in his hair. Also the simplicity of having one man fighting off twelve terrorists rather than an army of goons like a video game is much more believable.

Apart from Pulp Fiction, this is the only role Willis has done that I like (admittedly I haven't seen that many). His portrayal of tough New York cop John McClane isn't as contrived as I thought it would be. His reactions to the situations he finds himself in seem genuine enough. The wisecracks he spouts are just about on par with the ones said by James Bond, so that also scores points in my book.

The other performance that has ensnared me is Alan Rickman (Professor Snape in the Harry Potter series) in his debut performance in a film as terrorist leader (or is he?) Hans Gruber. Rickman's performance is bafflingly good for someone in his first movie role. It feels like a performance from a veteran actor and yet he does a better job on his first go than many distinguished Hollywood actors have given in other films.

Another thing I love about this film is the overall vibe of the film. It hasn't dated like many other action films from the 80's, nor does it have that cheesy feeling that was so prevalent in any film from the decade. Instead it has a sort classy style, the fashion is not too horrendous and the decor is not too garish to distract this modern viewer from the story. (Although I did grow up thinking a stretch limousine like the one in the movie was the coolest thing possible. It has a TV in it!)

And I like this story. It's simple yet when you look at it closely there are some deep layers. A group of so-called terrorists break into a Los Angeles corporation building to steal $640 million in bearer bonds. (See, they were kind of bank robbers after all). But of all people to be trapped in the building with them is the aforementioned New York cop, who really doesn't take kindly to being taken hostage and begins his one man war on the bad guys (but this one man war is much more believable and realistic than in Commando, trust me).

See, this one man war does have guns and it does have explosions, but apart from one massive explosion, all the fighting is relatively small and contained (and I use relatively lightly, there's a lot of property damage done). The setting of an office building really helps this along.

Verdict: Actually a very decent action movie that isn't too over the top.