thoma@reed.UUCP (Ann Muir Thomas) (07/13/85)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** Here is what Pat Holmes (of _This Week_ magazine, a Portland weekly,) thought of St. Elmo's Fire. (reprinted without permission) My own comments will follow. St.Elmo's Fire--A group of college friends graduate and face what the promotional material calls "their freshman year of life" in this pathetic attempt at a "Big Chill" ensemble and ambience. The ads also mention the cast as "seven of today's hottest young stars," but the stars didn't earn their stardom. They (Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Mare Winningham) are stars because of the need for a constant supply of pretty faces with which to woo the crowd. The wardrobe department does most of the acting for them, and what they do seems like it was done for a mirror-- not a camera or the audience. Winningham, who shows the most promise (she's labored for years in TV movies) is given an almost peripheral role, for which she should probably be thankful. Lowe's narcissism has become almost unbearable, and Moore gives hima run for his ego. It's like watching little kids play grown-ups, badly. Call it the Big Pill, might be hard to swallow. Rated R for language, sexual references. _____________________________________________________________________ Well, ummmm.... I can't say that I agree with this review. St Elmo's Fire was one of the most _un-gimmicky_ movies I have seen in a long time. The main problem, to me, seemed to be with the script; there were too many sub-plots, and not a lot of explanation of the group staying together, all in the same city, after college. There was a quality of "I don't quite believe this" to SEF the first time I saw it. The second time was _much_ better, because I expected the weaknesses and could see the good points of the movie better, especially the characterization. The bit in the review about Rob Lowe and Demi Moore isn't really fair. After all, do we not expect hoity-toity behavior from many older stars? Also, the charcaters Lowe and Moore were playing were written to be narcissistic-- a musician and a party girl. If they were given these characters because they are naturally self-centered, maybe it's because that's the kind of character they do best! (not to say that this is right, but it seems to be the way Hollywood does things. Again there are certainly a lot of older stars who get typecast into the kind of role that fits their personality the best-- Sylvester Stallone and Jane Fonda are two examples of this (and those of you who have more than my minimal knowledge of show business can surely think of better ones...)). I noticed also that this reviewer ignored Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy and Judd Nelson completely. I'm not a Judd Nelson fan (although he's a good actor), but Sheedy and McCarthy both seem to bring a style to all their movies. The characters which Sheedy played in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's certainly weren't similar, but she handled bith roles well, while retaining her own style. McCarthy isn't exactly what I'd call "another pretty face," either. Mare Winningham was great! (Maybe this is where I agree with the review) I don't watch TV so I'd never seen her before. I hope Hollywood doesn't get too caught up in the glamor of Demi Moore or Rob Lowe and ignore Winningham completely! (unfortunately, they seem to be doing that already-- I occasionally look through the teen magazines at the local 7-11, and have only seen Estevez, Lowe, and Moore featured. Ally Sheedy seems to appeal the most to magazines etc, that are aimed at an older group of people.) In short, as someone in the audience that St. Elmo's Fire was aimed at, I can say that it was less commercial, better acted, and, sadly, more badly produced than other movies of its type, especially The Breakfast Club (It was particularly nice not to have long sequences that could easily be turned into MTV money- makers...). Plenty more I could say about this one, but it's going to have to wait... (Disclaimer: Reed College doesn't want my opinions, so they don't have to be responsible for this one.) Ann Muir Thomas ...tektronix!reed!thoma "Welcome to the Pleasuredome...."--FGTH
connolly@steinmetz.UUCP (C. Ian Connolly) (07/22/85)
> stars didn't earn their stardom. They (Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, > Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Mare > Winningham) are stars because of the need for a constant supply of > pretty faces with which to woo the crowd. > Ann Muir Thomas > ...tektronix!reed!thoma Well, I'm not sure if this changes anything, but Emilio Estevez *did* star in "Repo Man", for whatever that's worth... -- C. Ian Connolly, WA2IFI - USENET: ...edison!steinmetz!connolly , , ARPANET: connolly@ge-crd An rud a bhionn, bionn.