Seven friends, recent college graduates, are searching for a place in the real world, as they face issues of career and commitment. Leslie and Alec try to save a crumbling romance. Wendy, a shy virgin, hides a love for Billy, a reluctant father/husband still searching for goals. Kevin is a cynical writer who scorns love until he realises he's in love with his best friend's girl. Kirbo, a law student, obsessively pursues an older woman. The beautiful, neurotic Jules paints a poignant picture of life in the fast lane. Against the backdrop of St. Elmo's, their local hang-out, they save, betray and love one another as only the closest of friends can...

ST. Elmo's Fire (1985) is a coming of age movie that starred some of Hollywood's most up and coming young talent. These included Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy (who had all appeared in The Breakfast Club (1985)); Andrew McCarthy (who had just appeared in Catholic Boys - aka Heaven Help Us (1985)); Demi Moore (who had recently starred with Michael Caine in Blame It on Rio (1984)); Mare Winningham (who'd appeared in a lot of TV roles) and Rob Lowe in his first major movie role. There's also a an appearance by a young Andi Mcdowell.

For me, like The Breakfast Club, this movie is full of nostalgia and takes me back to being a teenager. Whether a younger audience, who didn't live through the '80s, will find this as enjoyable is questionable. However, the characters and situations will still ring true even if the fashions of the time don't.

The story follows a group of university friends who all graduated together. Now that they've left university they still meet up, but are slowly starting to drift apart. Over the course of this movie all of their problems and character flaws rise to the surface for their other friends to deal with.

Extras include an audio commentary with director Joel Schumacher; Joel Schumacher Remembers St Elmo's Fire (14 min, 21 sec which repeats most of what he says in the audio commentary); Original Making of Featurette (8 min, 43 sec '80s featurette); Music Video: John Parr: "Man in Motion" (4 min, 21 sec which is not as cool as I remember it being in the '80s - the music is still great though); Deleted Scenes (15 min, 41 sec) and BD Live (which didn't have any content on at the time of the review).

This was the movie that saw the term "Brat Pack" being born. An interesting look into this is included on both the audio commentary and the Joel Schumacher Remembers St Elmo's Fire featurette. Other highlights of the audio commentary include Schumacher explaining how originally he didn't want Lowe in the movie as he didn't think he was right for the part, and the fact he had to fight the studio to hire a number of the other actors. He also points out that the movie didn't get one single positive review by American critics on its theatrical release.

To be honest I'm not sure how much of the content here is new. The audio commentary was recorded for the original DVD release some years ago, but the other content doesn't appear to have been issued on DVD before.

While the extra content is enjoyable, it all comes down to whether you want to spend £20 for the better picture quality. For some the DVD, which can be picked up now for around £5, may be a better option. But if money is no problem, and you're building up your Blu-ray collection, then this is certainly one to put on the list.

8

Darren Rea