Rented this because I hadn't seen. Happy I never saw this when it was released, displeased at having ever seen it at all.

St. Elmo's Fire is all about a group of recent college graduates who begin drifting apart as real life approaches. One can argue there's a perceptive buried somewhere in the plot on the dangers of misguided drama trying to write a profound revelations about living. However, it’s better defined as a sloppy soap opera and a messy microcosm of what that generations fashions.

One to leave on the shelf unless you want a novel kick of some actors looking young and playing stupid.

Seven friends, fresh out of college, three women and four men, all still unable to tear themselves away from St Elmo's Bar where they used to hang out during their undergrad days. Soon, the reality of adult life - work, love, family - drops on all of them. For young people in those circumstance, it is like going through a second puberty. It is a dreamy, ghostly period of one's life between a carefree, riotous past and a tense, uncertain future. But then, it may probably be the most memorable, and nostalgic time of one's life.

The characters were played to perfection, and everyone will have his or her own favourite character. Mine was Wendy, and Leslie, played by Mare Winningham and Ally Sheedy respectively. In the last scene when Billy the Bad Boy leaves on a bus to find serious work as a musician, the rest heads to St Elmo's, and realised that they had outgrown that bar.

I'm a fan of 1980s "coming-of-age" movies. For the music, the fashion, the "cheese factor." Yet despite an all-star "Brat Pack" cast and featuring a #1 hit single by popular 80s rocker John Parr, St. Elmo's Fire falls flat.

Everything about the movie is bad, from the acting, to directing, to set design, to the flow of the scenes making any type of logical sense. And not in a "so-bad-it's-good" sense, but in a boring, cringe-worthy, "just bad" sense.

If you want to watch a good 80s teen/"Brat Pack" movie, try The Breakfast Club, or basically any other movie. This one is hard to sit through, unless you just want to be able to say you have seen it.

This was considered smart viewing. It was coming of age, it was up against 'Porky's' and "Revenge of the Nerds" so this was thought of as contemplative and romantic, and informative.
It's a big big bite of 'white people's problems' that's for sure. It really only dealt with the emotional immaturity of 20-somethings entering the real world.
Break it down along any number of lines, but these are all considered first rate actors today. They're people who had their own personal tragedies that paralleled the movie and the 80's era.
Haven't seen Jud in a decade, or Mare for that matter. Rob Lowe's been out there and yet Andrew and Andie and Demi and Emilio all had careers we thought would never end or even lose their shine.
I kid you not, these people and this movie was a template for what it was supposed to be like, and it was in many ways.
Real life always does get in the way.

I didn't watch this film in the eighties, when it would have made sense. Instead, I cued it up this evening with reservations but a willingness to see how it would strike me now, a Gen Xer with a couple of decades on the characters.

I loved it. Loved the setting, the camaraderie. Emilio was pretty cringe-inducing as the creeper but I enjoyed watching the story bounce around between the other characters. Demi was a tragic, spectral beauty. Mare truly came of age. I've never drooled over Rob like other girls from my generation--hell, even my daughter's generation--but he was pretty damn gorgeous in this. Judd was Bender in a preppy suit. Ally and Andrew did some serious frolicking (over a coffin, no less). What else can you ask of a random Tuesday night in arguably the most bizarre year most of us have ever lived through? Not much more, I think. Glad I saved this one until now.

My young adult children have been on an 80's movies kick. We've been watching some really good movies. This is not one of them. I remembered that is was bad and I told them but they wanted to watch it anyway. I sat with them. It was even worse than I remembered! Not a likable character among them! My kids agreed--it was bad. The theme song is really good though.

Growing up as a teen in the 80’s this movie always appealed to my wild party, swap boyfriends, smoke ALL the cigarettes, swap more boyfriends, yell out random mantras, swap a few more boyfriends and then realizing I was growing up and needed to go to classier bars and find better friends kind of life!
I couldn’t wait to share it with my teenage daughter!
Parent of the year award!
It’s still a freakin great movie though.

This is one of the movies that I never had a chance to see in the theater's or HBO,VHS ..even DVD..? Go figure... that's so 80's.. ?! The cast were young and hungry actor's.. I was never into the college thing but this movie kinda makes me wish I was a part of a "social click"..and not so much.. ? If you watch Demi Moore and Emilio E.. character's that gives you an idea .. of the "Materialistic decade" it was about. BMW's,Rolex watches,Cocaine use.. keeping up with the "Jones".. The music from that era ..was "Rockin"..! The 1980's was a time to get ..lost.. I was a kid so I didn't experience what the over 21 years old did? Rob Lowe ..what a dream boat... The ladies and young girl's adored him..! The story line and the cast were all over the place.. This person sleeping with this one and another.. It was pretty decent... Then again...I'm glad I watched it...