Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The Breakfast Club Blu-ray Movie Review

Still unforgettable?

Sometimes misfit outcasts do get a second chance.

That may have been one of the salient messages in one of John Hughes’ best remembered films, 1985’s The Breakfast Club, but it turns out to be just as true for the Blu-ray consumer as well. A lot of fans were thrilled that The Breakfast Club made it to the format for a 25th Anniversary Edition in 2010, even if many of them were, like me, less than optimally pleased with some of the technical merits of the release. Now perhaps at least a little unexpectedly, Universal has reportedly gone back to the original elements to source this new 30th Anniversary Edition. Universal’s handling of its catalog product has been the cause of much controversy and concern through the years, so some fans were probably waiting with bated breath to hear if this “new, improved” version lived up to those descriptors. A general sigh of relief may be in order, for this new version does sport a noticeably better image, though curmudgeons may still find a thing or two to complain about.

The Breakfast Club Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: I've tried to more or less replicate many of the screenshots included in our 25th Anniversary The Breakfast Club Blu-ray review. I highly recommend toggling between windows to compare.

This new 30th Anniversary version of The Breakfast Club is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The 25th Anniversary edition featured the VC-1 codec, though streaming rates were quite healthy, rarely if ever falling below the 30 Mbps threshold and quite often rising into the mid-30s and beyond. While there are some expected fluctuations here and there, this new release generally at least matches streaming rates and at times slightly outpaces them. The chapter stops have been authored more or less identically on the two releases and a cursory if obviously nonscientific comparison of the first few show that the new version only very rarely offers less fulsome streaming than the older version. That and newer, more facile encoding sourced from a reportedly all new 4K scan probably help this version's overall better sharpness and clarity, as well as its noticeable uptick in fine detail. Some other issues in the original presentation have also been ameliorated, including the opening credits (and beyond) wobble as well as occasional instances of dirt or other debris. The grain field is a bit finer in this new version but does not have any telltale signs of over aggressive denoising, though my hunch is some high frequency filtering has been applied here (note for example the relative lack of grain structure in the blue behind Molly Ringwald's head in screenshot 1 in this new version compared to the earlier version). The most striking difference here is the noticeably more saturated if also slightly warmer color space (a quick toggling of screenshots 1 in both reviews provides a very quick benchmark). Reactions to color are perhaps even more subjective than other visual elements can be, so I'll leave it to individuals to decide which version looks "more" correct. I found the more vivid palette of this version completely natural and organic looking.

The Breakfast Club Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I noticed no appreciable difference between the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix included on this release and the one covered in our The Breakfast Club Blu-ray review, so I refer you to that review for further comments. Foreign language aficionados should take a look at the specs of both releases, though, for this new one certainly ups the ante in terms of audio options and (especially) subtitles.

The Breakfast Club Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All of the supplements from the 25th Anniversary release have been ported over to this new release, along with a new trivia track:

• Accepting the Facts: The Breakfast Club Trivia Track


• Sincerely Yours (480i; 51:25)


• The Most Convenient Definitions: The Origins of the Brat Pack (480i; 5:30)


• Theatrical Trailer (480i; 1:25)


• Feature Commentary with Judd Nelson and Anthony Michael Hall

The Breakfast Club Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Breakfast Club touched a lot of impressionable minds back in the day, and its cult has only grown over time. In an unexpected but welcome development, Universal has rereleased the film on Blu-ray with a generally upgraded picture. Inherent issues in the film's lo-fi ambience probably prevent a huge datafield of improved detail from ever being extracted in an image harvest, but there's noticeable improvement here in most of the aspects we tend to cover in our reviews. Fans of the film will want to spend a bit of time comparing screenshots between the two versions to help decide whether or not to upgrade, but for those who haven't yet picked up the film on Blu-ray, this is the version to get. Recommended.