St. Elmo's Fire

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My sister and I thought it would be fun to do a feature where we celebrate a different star's birthday every week by reviewing one of his or her movies.  This week Emilio Estevez turns 50, so we thought we would start with him.  Darla is really into 80's movies, so had a little trouble deciding on one.   We ultimately decided on St. Elmo's Fire, one that she has seen several times, but I had never watched until we watched it together.  It originally came out in 1985, and is rated R.

St. Elmo's Fire follows a group of 7 best friends shortly after they graduate college.  They are all going through their own personal struggles, trying to make it out in the real world.  

Emilio Estevez plays Kirby, a law school student working as a waiter. He runs into a girl he had a massive crush on as a freshman, and decides she is his one true love.  She's nice to him, but never seems nearly as into him.  Before long the crush has become almost obsessive.

Rob Lowe plays Billy, a playboy jumping from job to job.  He married his wife when she was pregnant, but he seems unable to give up his playboy ways.  He misses college, and reminisces about the easy days there.  He hits on a lot of girls, including 2 of his best friends, one of whom he takes advantage of in different ways, over and over again.

Demi Moore plays Jules.  She lands a decent job at a bank right out of college, but her friends are pretty sure she doesn't make enough money to pay for all the extravagant things she has.  She has a drug problem that helps her escape reality.

Marie Winningham plays Wendy.  She's in love with Billy, even though he's married.  She lives at home, with her parents, who insist she needs to get married and run a family business.  They buy her things in the hopes of having her marry someone they think suits her.

Judd Nelson plays Alec.  He's working for a Senator and seems to be very successful.  His girlfriend has just moved in with him, and he wants to marry her.  As it turns out, he's unwilling to give up other girls for her, though.

Ally Sheedy plays Leslie, Alec's girlfriend.  She seems happy enough living with Alec, but doesn't really want to marry him. She wants to have a career before settling down.

Andrew McCarthy plays Kevin.  He doesn't have many girlfriends, which leads to some speculation about his sexual orientation.   He insists love isn't real, though, until he gets a chance to tell the person he's been in love with from afar, just how much he cares.  Things don't work out exactly as he would like, though.

Over all, this isn't exactly my kind of movie, but it wasn't bad.  It's not a movie that I think that I could personally watch over and over again, but I can see the appeal for some people.  I don't really relate to any of the characters.  I chose a different path in life, though.

I don't think I would pay to see this movie again, even as a rental. My sister disagrees, though, and owns it on DVD.