Review of a Review

The Breakfast Club (1985)



The New York Times Review 

In this movie review, written by Janet Maslin for the New York Times, there is a suddle hint of dislike for The Breakfast Club. Although this movie one features on "Time's best 1000 movies ever made Janet states "Mr. Hughes, having thought up the characters and simply flung them together, should have left well enough alone." I for one completely disagree with Ms. Maslin. I think The Breakfast Club is one of the greatest movies of its time.  It creates an outstanding portrayal of high school stereotypes and shows the viewer the harsh reality of life in high school.  The movie follows 5 high school students (the jock, the criminal, the princess, the freak and the nerd) though a day in detention.  Throughout the day they learn how to break the boundaries set by their stereotypes.  they learn more about each other and the problems in each of their lives.  This movie is a movie all teenagers should because it shows that people may seem one way but you never know how smart, strange, wonderful, talented or rebellious a person is until you experience them for who they are, not their steryotype. 

The director i chose was Ang Lee.  He an esteemed director with 35 different award for his movies including the most well know Life of Pi, Brokeback Mountain, and Hulk. Its interesting because movies like Hulk and Life of Pi require a to of imagination and CGI magic which increases the degree of difficulty when directing. 

Claudio Miranda has worked on multiple films as director of photography and has won multiple awards for cinematography. He is most well known for his work on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Life of Pi. 

The producers I chose were the three producers from the most recent winner of the academy award for best picture. Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, and George Clooney produced the movie Agro that won this award in 2012. Ben Affleck was the executable producer for this movie. He is an extremely experienced producer. Besides Argo he has produced 4 other movies and 1 tv show.

The movie Django Unchained won for best screen play during the oscars. The screenplay writer and director was Quentin Tarantino. He has won multiple oscars for his writing and is extremely talented. This movie won 5 different awards for the his screenwriting.  Django Unchained won best original screenplay at the BAFTA awards, The Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards. He has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine in 2005. Filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called him "the single most influential director of his generation"

1.  After the first two days, what are some things you have learned?

I've learned a lot about how to dissect a movie and take different aspects away from it such as the different angles to a short and different filming techniques. I've learned theres much more to making a movies then the actors and the plot.

2.  What are some ideas you (individually) have brought to your group work?

In my group I'm the cinematographer and because of that I've shown my group different settings and locations we could use in our remake of 21 Jump Street. Ive suggested many different angles and camera placement.  I've also contributed some ideas  for scenes.

3.  What are some things you are still looking forward to taking away from the class?

I'm looking forward to experiencing different filmmaking techniques and leaning more about what goes into making a quality movie . I'm excited to watch more remakes of films and comparing the differences because the original and the remade movie.  I find it interesting to see the differences that are made and the creative decisions that are used to explain the plot the best way possible when remaking a film.