Director: John Hughes
Year Released: 1985
Rating: 2.0
Stage-y movie, in which several high school students - each one, conveniently, from a different "social circle" (a jock, a bully, an outcast, a nerd, etc.) - who find themselves in detention on Saturday (Saturday? Whoa - that wouldn't fly today now would it?). Naturally, they have their own histories, and most do not get along for various high-school-related reasons, but grow to understand each other by blaming their parents during an obnoxious cry-out-loud conversation (all of them have issues with their families - but hasn't anyone ever considered that there are people who get along with their families who are equally screwed up), discussing virginity, smoking pot (Pot! How illegal!) and, of course, making a fool of "the man," the school principal, whose only goal in life is to hate teens (the janitor, Will Hunting with a receding hairline, plays Plato and reveals the principal's ignorance). By the finale, they've all fallen in love with each other! Granted, it has some moments of brutal honesty and hits some high points (Judd Hirsch's turn as an abused rebel is clichéd but he delivers his lines very well), but they aren't nearly enough.
