Susannah Gora

I deducted a star for one embarrassing sentence in which the author revealed that she has no idea what "id" and "ego" actually mean.

Also for being dismissive of "Weird Science" and "Uncle Buck," especially the former, since it was during the key period. I think the author must be the only person in the world to like "The Great Outdoors" more than the latter, however.

Plus she's so enamored of Andrew McCarthy that she actually had something good to say about "Weekend at Bernie's." I'll give her a pass for liking "Mannequin," even if she does it for the wrong reasons (The right ones are Kim Catrall's hawtness and James Spader/G.W. Bailey's team up).

And it seems as if "Lucas" should've been mentioned at some point in this book. And "Timecop" should've been mentioned when talking about Mia Sara.

And there should've been less endless repetition and long-form transcribing of IMDB entries.… (mehr)

Yeah, it's pure fluff, but it's pretty fun fluff to read.

A very interesting look at the movies made or written by (or merely influenced by) John Hughes and the so-called "Brat Pack" actors. The specific films that are heavily profiled are: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, and Say Anything. It also talks about the article where the "Brat Pack" label came from and the music in the films.

I actually don't remember seeing many of these movies in theaters, although I think I've seen most of them on video. But there's no denying their outsize influence. The book is perhaps a bit longer than it needed to be (and is occasionally repetitive), but it goes into a lot of depth philosophically as well as historically. And while Gora seems to be in love with her subject, it's still well-written and avoids being gushy. Basically, a really fun read that makes me want to re-watch all those movies again.… (mehr)

This book looks at ‘80s teen movies, including many John Hughes’ movies. The book takes the reader behind the scenes in the movies and we learn about the actors, as well as John Hughes and the other directors. There are chapters on “Sixteen Candles”, “The Breakfast Club”, “St. Elmo’s Fire”, “Pretty in Pink”, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, “Some Kind of Wonderful”, and “Say Anything”.

What a fun book for someone who was a teenager in the 80s (me)! I’ve seen all but two of the movies (and now feel like I should see those two!). Many of the actors were part of what became labelled the “Brat Pack”, based on an article written that was originally meant to be about Emilio Estevez, but became about a group of them who were out together one night. To be honest, I’d not even realized the phrase was meant (at the time) to be derogatory; I never read the article, nor had I realized that’s even where the term originated. So, I did learn plenty about the actors and the movies. I also want to go back and re-watch some of the movies I’ve already seen. My favourites were “Pretty in Pink” (I love Duckie!) and “Some Kind of Wonderful”.… (mehr)