The Breakfast Club (1985)

Original Theatrical Release Date: February 15, 1985
Director: John Hughes

Five high-school kids end up in detention who couldn’t be more different from one another; “The Brain” Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall), “The Athlete” Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez), “The Basket Case” Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy), “The Princess” Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald) and “The Criminal” John Bender (Judd Nelson) – they are all different stereotypes who find out that they are all the same in more ways than they imagined.

John Hughes made lots of films, but this one resonated with me more than most. It was set in high school and although I wasn’t in high school when it was released (I was only four years old at the time) I saw it later on in life when I needed to see it and it actually helped me with my own mindset during high school in different ways.

Ringwald and the rest of the cast are well-chosen for their individual roles, especially Judd Nelson as the kinetic John Bender and Ally Sheedy as the creepy girl, Allison. Paul Gleason played a great villain in the form of the teacher looking over detention, Richard Vernon. Ringwald doesn’t really do much different in this film than she did in other Hughes films – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The Breakfast Club plays out almost in a vignette fashion as the hours in the day move on and on and while at first being tongue-in-cheek and sort of silly, actually moves on to be relevant and full of heart – a love/hate letter to high school life in the 1980’s.  The performances bring life to a vehicle with not a lot of actual story content – at face value, this is a film about kids in detention….but as far as deeper meanings go, this is an allegory which teaches us that we are all human and all have something akin with one another.

JOE Review: ★★★★★

Movie Trailer For The Breakfast Club

Ultimate Spider-Man: Season 1 (2012)

Original Air Date: April 1, 2012
Stations Airing: Disney X D, Disney Channel
Number Of Episodes In Season: 26

Peter Parker (Drake Bell), was bitten by a radioactive spider which granted him spider-like powers such as the ability to crawl on walls and increased strength and agility, as well as an internal warning system he calls “Spider-Sense” which usually lets him dodge incoming attacks.

At the beginning of Season 1, Peter has been Spider-Man for one year. He’s still learning, and when S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Chi McBride) offers to give him training that will make him into the “ultimate” Spider-Man, Spidey can’t refuse. The catch is that he has to lead a fledgling group of other superheroes including Iron Fist (Greg Cipes), Power Man (Ogie Banks), Nova (Logan Miller) and White Tiger (Caitlyn Taylor Love) and show them what ropes he DOES know, and he reluctantly agrees.

The show is a good mix of silly with the serious. Spider-Man has always been about the humor, and Deadpool has sort of taken that away from him in recent years…but Spidey, in this series, acts a bit more like Deadpool than is normal, with constant breaking of the fourth wall. To me, this is a good thing at least in context of the show because the show itself is kinetic and hyper-stylized, and is definitely aimed at a younger audience.

Older fans, don’t worry. I am a long-time Spidey fan and I actually really like this series. The team-up is a strange but cool concept, and there are constant throwbacks to story threads found in the Ultimate Marvel Verse. Spider-Man also teams up with other heroes in different episodes, like Thor, Dr. Strange, Iron-Man and others.

All the staple Spidey characters are there, including Aunt May, Flash Thompson, Harry Osborne and Mary Jane Watson.

The action sequences are really well-done, and the humor is usually spot-on. One thing I didn’t really like is how sometimes-annoying Spidey’s voice is. Otherwise, all the voice acting is good.

If you want more serious Spider-Man viewing pleasure, there are definitely other choices, but at least watch this one through the first season because you’ll get a feel for how the rest of the story’s going to go.

JOE Rating: ★★★★

Trailer For Season One Of Ultimate Spider-Man