AmateurMovieReviews.com

Any movie fan who was watching the silver screen in the 1980s ought to remember the Brat Pack. This was the nickname given to a group of talented young actors and actresses who appeared in most of the movies aimed at teens and young adults during that decade. If you were a fan of the Brat Pack back then, then St. Elmo's Fire was practically required viewing because it brought together so many of those actors and actresses in the same film. We're talking about very young versions of Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Mare Winningham, Andrew McCarthy, and Emilio Estevez here.

St. Elmo's Fire is a film that follows several different storylines as it focuses on a group of close friends who all recently graduated from Georgetown University. Now that their school days are over, they're facing the challenges of "real life" for the first time, and they all have their own overwhelming problems.

First, there's Billy Hicks (Lowe). Billy is one of those guys who seems to never grow up. Even though he has a wife and child at home, he can't bring himself to hold onto a steady job and would much rather play saxophone, drink, and chase women every single night. In one telling scene, Billy ventures back to the Georgetown campus and is immediately recognized by the current crop of frat boys, which brings Billy right back to his own element. He can't deal with responsibility and would love nothing more than to live the carefree life of a student.

Then there's Alec (Nelson) and Leslie (Sheedy). They're the power couple of the group, as Alec is intent on establishing a political career and marrying Leslie. However, it soon emerges that Alec cheats on Leslie, which of course means there will be fallout from that.

Next, we have Jules (Moore) who has a coke habit and sleeps with all the wrong men, including her boss. She spends far more than she earns, counts down the days until her stepmother dies so that she can come into some money, and practically drowns herself in debt in the meantime.

We also have Kirby (Estevez), who is working as a bartender at the group's favorite hangout while he puts himself through law school. Kirby inexplicably falls completely and totally in love with a doctor named Dale Biberman (Andie McDowell) and obsessively pesters her until she takes notice of him. I thought this storyline was the most ridiculous one of all, and I wasn't interested in it at all.

Let's not forget about Wendy (Winningham). She's the slightly overweight, plain-looking rich girl with self-esteem issues. Wendy's had a crush on Billy for ages, and yearns for him despite the fact that he is married and has a kid.

Last but not least, there's Kevin (McCarthy). Kevin writes for a newspaper and is the stereotypical cynic of the group. All he does is put things down as he nurses his secret love for Leslie and grows to despise Alec for the way he's treating her.

Whew! That sounds like a lot to keep track of, and it is. But director Joel Schumacher does a very good job of juggling the storylines, giving each of the characters enough screen time, and making the overall film remarkably coherent and easy to follow. I sometimes have difficulty with ensemble movies because I can't keep all the actors and their relationships straight. But St. Elmo's Fire features such highly recognizable faces that it wasn't a problem here.

That being said, I didn't think the movie had very much substance to it. There wasn't a single storyline that I became personally invested in, so I didn't really care much about what would happen to the characters. Even though I liked the actors themselves, the characters were simply too selfish and utterly self-centered for me to care whether they got what they wanted or not. Then again, this movie was produced in the middle of the '80s, a decade known for indulgence, so maybe this played differently for audiences back then.

I remember liking St. Elmo's Fire back when I was in junior high, but I could barely sit through the whole thing as an adult. The movie doesn't hold up well, and should be viewed as a relic of the '80s rather than a good film on its own merit.