One of my all time favorites.

good back-story, and good acting

Absolutely Fantastic

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Mark Jennings (Emilio Estevez) and Bryon Douglas (Craig Sheffer) are best friends and juvenile delinquents. Bryon falls for the new girl in school who turns out to be an old acquaintance, Cathy Carlson (Kim Delaney). His ex Angela Shepard is jealous. He starts to be more responsible which concerns Mark. Mark and Bryon hustle at pool, and get their bar owner friend Charlie Woods (Morgan Freeman) killed. Mark cuts off drunken Angela's hair. Her thuggish brothers come looking for revenge on Bryon's face. Cathy's little brother M&M is hospitalized on drugs from Mark. The friendship cracks under the pressure.I used to read S.E. Hinton religiously once upon a time. It has a melodramatic teen coming-of-age mentality. They work on the page. They have the 50's 'Rebel Without a Cause' sensibility. The modern world can clash with that sensibility. It can seem overwrought and out of place. This one fails that test from time to time. It probably should have stayed in the earlier time period rather than trying to bring it into the modern world. Estevez is a solid delinquent. This is a valiant but flawed effort.

Yikes. This movie was not very good. The book was okay, not great. I still managed to slightly enjoy both. But really, the movie was pretty bad. The acting was pretty bad, except for Emilio Estivez who actually was enduring and cute. And of course, Morgan Freeman was awesome as he always is but his part wasn't major in this movie. The main character, Bryon, was sometimes enjoyable to watch and sometimes hard to watch. He's cute so that helps, but his acting wasn't great and it ruined some of the scenes. Cathy was cute too but her acting was pretty bad. Particularly, when she was driving the car when M&M was hallucinating. It was horrible. She had no emotion just like when she was in the hospital waiting room with her dad. She's not a good actress. And even Angela wasn't a great actress. The book was okay - somewhat enjoyable and besides the ending, the movie was true to the book. But there was so much more going on in the book, so much more detail (as is usually the case). The movie did a horrible job replicating that. I feel sorry for SE Hinton that her story was so poorly portrayed. Yikes.

In English class, we read S.E. Hinton's saga of teenage angst. The students were enthralled with the story. While the setting was from years past, the ethical questions raised and the teenage situations were quite apropos. The story generated a great deal of quality discussion in class...education at it's finest.The movie, however, was a bit of a disappointment for us. Taken by itself, it was a fine example of 80's brat-packish fluff. It was formulamatic, but entertaining. One could hardly say that the movie was based on the book, though. Bryon's personal growth journey and coming of age, so well illustrated in the novel, was sacrificed to car chases and Hollywood's penchant for tidy endings, in the movie.While I would recommend both, I would caution that they are two separate stories, sharing the same character names. Perhaps there is the lesson: You cannot watch the movie to get out of reading the book! .

....should have stayed as one of those things that are always on the back burner! You know, that one kooky dream that just never materializes? If that was the case, I could see giving good 'ole Emilio a pat on the head and saying "That's it kid...keep reaching for the stars! Someday...just someday...you'll make it"!However, the sad fact is that Emilio made this movie. Hinton sold the rights, and that's OK. Emilio took the project and added his unique "brat-pack" qualities to it. So, the time frame is different. From 70's lifestyles to 80's. Crashpads to break dancing. Blue jeans to neon spandex. Harsh language is added. Mark and Bryon now swear like sailors.I can't say anymore about this film because my head is starting to hurt and I'm afraid my brain will explode. The class I work with will be posting their replies soon, so I now give you their unjaded opinions.