Somewhere there should be a permanent list of movies that should not be remade under any circumstances. These are pictures most of us can agree upon – the kind of movie where, when some studio is stupid enough to try for a remake, the attempt to make the movie over again fails miserably. You know, films like Casablanca and Citizen Kane.
To me, The Breakfast Club is another movie deserving of being on such a list. Now, I’m not trying to say the John Hughes classic is on par with the other films I’ve listed, but there is a reason it’s a “John Hughes classic.” The bringing together of different social types due to circumstances beyond their control, thus allowing them to gain a better understanding of each other has been done before and since The Breakfast Club, but somehow Hughes does it perfectly.
That’s not stopping some people from trying to remake The Breakfast Club. Even worse, it’s a protégé of McG’s: Anna Mastro, who, like McG, has worked in music videos and who worked with the director on Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Basically, you have someone learning from a filmmaker who isn’t worthy of remaking John Hughes with plans to remake John Hughes. Perfect.
At least the movie isn’t a remake as much as it’s a similar concept. Mastro’s movie, titled Bumped is a comedy about five people in their twenties who get to know each other after they are bumped off a flight and stranded at an airport. Somehow stranded in a huge airport (Chicago’s O’Hare is the one mentioned in The Hollywood Reporter’s article) lacks the same sense of helplessness of high school detention.
I’ll try to be fair and reserve judgment, both about Bumped and Mastro. After all, the movie isn’t directly a remake of The Breakfast Club and the filmmaker isn’t actually McG. Still, that is two strikes against the picture from the start. Lets hope casting brings some sense of promise for the movie.
