8 Best Back to School Movies

School started for many a student this week across the nation and there are a plethora of movies that embody the school spirit, feeling, or nostalgic perspective. So let’s do our list on the best movies that encompass that body of work. No CARRY, or GHOULIES GO TO COLLEGE. What movies seriously embody something.

8. Back To School- The Triple Lindy alone earns this movie a spot in movie history. I heard it mentioned on Supernatural once, Sam said he was going to “Triple Lindy…” into Satan or something like that. The movie is odd and some of the characters are annoying (particularly post Iron Man Robert Downey Jr). But the movie is classic and if you don’t get it, then maybe you should reconsider your major or get back on the meds because it’s awesome.

 

7. 10 Things I Hate About You – You love this movie despite what you tell people. It made you realize that Heath Ledger existed and Joseph Gordon Levitt still existed while at the same time gave Julia Styles her first big break. David Krumholtz who should have already had a name but maybe doesn’t to this day also rocked the scene during this movie, and even with all of its ridiculousness and simple retold story elements it is an amazing piece of cinema featuring both Robin and the Joker.

6. The Karate Kid- Daniel doesn’t spend a lot of time at school in this movie, but he does have a lot of school problems. He’s bullied, he wants the girl, and his life is a mess. The rest of course is centered around his mentor, Pat Morita, teaching him how to defend himself. Which of course he does after Mr. Miyagi puts a magic curse on his leg (I’m embellishing for people who haven’t seen it. * quizzical expression* there’s no one who hasn’t seen it. Why am I talking to myself and using double negatives?). Seriously though, it might be considered  cheating for Mr. Miyagi to have done some sort of “magic” on his leg.

 

5. Bring It On- There’s a scene in Bring It On early in where they drop a girl at the top of the pyramid. Camera follows her POV to the ground, then flash of white to red light. It was executed so perfectly the director should have won an Academy Award. Sure this High School movie “puts the whore in horrible…” but if you look passed incredibly stupid story, it is layed out and told in the most inventive way. You almost have to adapt yourself to make your way through like it’s freakin’ Clockwork Orange and you’ve got to learn what a Dotchka is or a Druge. The Cheerleaders aren’t bad either.

4. 3 O’clock High- Buddy and Jerry are going to fight at 3 O’Clock. It doesn’t get any more school than that. Also, congrats to myself for even remembering this movie and all of its brilliance ( I had to reach way down passed the nightmares to find it). Almost the entire movie takes place inside a school as Jerry roams from classroom to bookstore and wanders the halls trying to find a way out of fighting Buddy, who’s rumored to have once killed a man. Like books, I recommend you check this out.

3. Pretty In Pink- Personally I don’t like this movie a whole lot. Molly Ringwald isn’t very pretty in pink, she should have chosen Ducky who supported her to the end (and they try to pacify us by giving him Kristy Swanson in the end, when we know who his heart belongs to!) instead of Blaine who is a douche until the final scene. But far be it for me to deny the high school feeling John Hughes delivers. Girls love this movie, I don’t get it. A series of dice rolls and magic 8-ball answers decides this ranking anyways :p

2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off- I almost didn’t include you Mr. Bueller. You don’t necessarily show us aspects of school life. But you do inspire the daydream that stole so many countless hours of my youth. I was never able to sneak out of school and into a parade, and my misadventures were never as fantastical as yours, but somewhere in the recesses of my younger mind I must have been inspired by your antics. You taught a generation how to be carefree.

1. The Breakfast Club- The third John Hughes movie to make the list (he took the top three spots) and probably the most influential. This movie made people want to get along with the kids they knew they couldn’t get along with, and see the inner workings of those other groups. The Principle is a jerk and the School is a maze. The kids do bad things and it all comes across as, well not quite innocent, just not wrong (like smoking weed in the Library). It’s an idea that has never been realized in any High School across the nation, and probably never will, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea. Hanging out with the “other crowd” I mean, not smoking weed in the library.

There you go. A list of 8 movies that somehow or another capture school days. I want to honorable mention, Varsity Blues, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dazed and Confused (even though it captures a time period I didn’t exist during and don’t fully understand, it does embody hanging out with your friends like no other movie), and With Honors (I’m pretty sure none of you adopted a bum in college, but I didn’t include a lot of college movies here).

 

As always feel free to disagree with me in the comments section below or follow me on twitter @werewolforigin

 

About Eric bookout

Writer/Artist for X amount of years. Recently worked with people from IGN on a comic and studied writing under Victor Gischler of Marvel Comics at RSU in Oklahoma more X amount of years ago. Follow me @WerewolfOrigin on twitter
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One Comment

  1. Pretty in Pink is one of the few John Hughes movies I don’t like. I have tried watching it time and time again, but I can’t sit through it. I don’t know what it is? I love Molly Ringwald, and i like the rest of the cast too. I prefer the movies that parody it rather than the original film itself.

    Bring It On started a curse of bad cheerleader movies, but it is so entertaining and iconic in its own way. I don’t care who knows it, it is one of my favorite movies to watch when I want to laugh/be entertained/see Eliza Dushku be something other than a vampire slayer or imprinted person (Dollhouse).

    10 Things About You is the perfect movie. No one can convince me otherwise, not even Baby Jesus or the Buddha or Ra.

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