I have found myself with a lot of spare time during quarantine, and I have been using it to watch a lot of movies. After watching too many cheesy Netflix original movies, I knew I needed to switch things up a bit. I decided to go back to the basics — way back. I watched five of director John Hughes’ most popular 80s movies and ranked them in order from best to worst.

1. “Sixteen Candles” 8.5/10

“Sixteen Candles” is about an almost 16-year-old girl whose birthday is forgotten and she’s upset that her crush doesn’t know how she feels about him. I have loved this movie for a long time, as it’s an iconic coming of age movie. I think Molly Ringwald did a great job in this, and I could not begin to imagine anyone else playing her part.

1. “Weird Science” 8/10

In this film two awkward 15-year-old boys create their ideal woman on a computer, after putting extra power to the computer it brings her to life.This movie was the most entertaining for me. It is not a realistic movie by any means, but it certainly kept my attention the entire time. The humor in this movie was my favorite; it is almost as though they took the thoughts of a middle-school boy and put it into a script.

1. “Pretty in Pink” 7/10

When a high school outkast gets asked out by a popular and wealthy guy she struggles to connect to his “world”. At first, I wasn’t really into this movie because I was trying to predict the ending. I knew how I wanted it to end, and I figured things would not go my way. But after the movie was over, I was pleasantly surprised with the unpredictable ending. I loved Duckie; he was such a bright and enthusiastic character who made the movie entertaining. 

1. “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” 6.5/10

After calling in sick to school Ferris Bueller takes off an adventure through Chicago with his friends, all while the school principal is trying to catch him faking his illness. I really enjoyed the plot of this movie, however, I was not a fan of the pace. There were many great moments in the film that didn’t get very much time to be shown. I loved the ending to this movie, and I always liked it when Ferris spoke to just the audience, because you don’t see that very often.

1. “The Breakfast Club” 6/10

Five very different high school students spend their day in Saturday detention, they each share their story and get to know each other. I was a bit disappointed by this movie; considering how well known it is, I figured it would be much better. There was not much going on during it. There was a bit of action every once in a while, but they mostly just had a lot of conversations. A few scenes dragged on too long, but most of the shorter ones I really loved. I enjoyed hearing lots of iconic lines that I have heard people quote throughout the years.

Watching these films was a great activity for me during quarantine. It was interesting to see how teens were portrayed in the 80s vs. in movies nowadays. I thought it was shockingly similar. I’m glad to have caught up on all the information needed to finally understand the jokes my mom makes when she references one of these movies. Sincerely, the quarantine club (consisting of only me).