Market7

Oscar Night Brattiness

Being the resident video producer here at Market7, you might think that I would be crazy about the Academy Awards but I am not. I have them on as background noise, occasionally glancing up to see who won for sound editing (I still struggle with why there is both a “sound mixing” and “sound editing” category)   There was one segment, however, that had me riveted to the screen: the reunion of the Brat Pack. In a tribute to the late John Hughes, all but one of the infamous Breakfast Club Brat Packers was in attendance. (Emilio was apparently too busy picking up trash with his half-bro & coaching little kid hockey to be bothered with such tomfoolery).

The Breakfast Club was my absolute favorite John Hughes film, why? Because it was the movie that said “it’s ok to be different. It’s ok to feel awkward. We may all be “brain, athlete, basket case, princess, criminal” and are all not that different” (as long as you were Caucasian that is…a sign of the times back then I suppose).  It followed the antics of the brats during one Saturday morning high school detention.

So what happened to our favorite brats since they famously walked in step along the library wall of their high school in Shermer, Illinois? Most of them had fairly pedestrian careers consisting primarily of made-for-tv-movies and Hallmark specials.  Emilio has had the most successful career but has switched to working behind the camera.   As an actor the geek, Anthony Michael Hall, seems to have had the next most successful career.

My personal favorite is Judd Nelson. He played John Bender, the “criminal” who famously told the principal to F-off, smoked pot, and scored the princess (albeit just a kiss as far as we know) as TBC’s bad boy.

[Look how terrified Molly Ringwald is to stand next to Crazy Judd]

Oh Judd, how far hath thee fallen…He showed up Sunday night looking like he’s skirting the bottom (which is possible since his best job recently was on “Infected” a straight to DVD release that I can’t even find a link to).  It wasn’t just his look, which in his defense looked like a barely bcleaned-up crazy person.  When he opened his mouth, it sounded like he had run the jack and coke dispenser in the green room dry prior to the show.  Really Judd?  Travolta made a comeback, so can you.  It’s not too late you self-proclaimed bad boy.  It’s crazy to think you were one time as popular as Johnny Depp when he was on 21 Jump Street. That’s like looking back when Toyota and GM used to trade at the same stock price.

Despite my Judd bashing, I felt a great sense of nostalgia well up in me when I saw the brats again.  Way back when everything was still in front of me and I had nothing but time to kill on a Saturday morning.