St. Elmo's Fire

In spite of good playing from talented players like Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy and Ally Sheedy, the film looks more like an up-market version of Porky's than anything more coherent.

These aren't characters -- they're character hooks.

All speed and stylishness without a bit of emotional resonance beneath.

There is an abundance of astute and knowledgeably drawn scenes with this contextually structured story. There are some biting observations of college life, with law school in particular taking some verbal jabs on the chin.

St. Elmo's Fire is all about a group of recent college graduates in Washington who were always the best of friends but now are drifting apart as real life approaches, discovering various reasons why they are so individually obnoxious.

Estevez and Nelson are as unappealing here as in The Breakfast Club, though in fairness they're hampered by a script that seems to despise its characters.

Many reviewers at the time of its release slammed the movie for being fussy, unfocused, and self-important, completely missing the point that these are the very same qualities often attributed to college-age kids.

...St Elmo's Fire is self-absorbed and dull, just like the characters that it depicts. But it's also something of a hoot to see 80's idiocy laid bare like this...

...familiar territory that is, for the most part, employed to underwhelming effect...

Savaged when it was released, is it time for a reconsidering St. Elmo's Fire, a retrograde look at '80s single life? No. No, it's not.