Many reviewers at the time of its release slammed the movie for being fussy, unfocused, and self-important, completely missing the point that these are the very same qualities often attributed to college-age kids.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 5, 2025

In spite of good playing from talented players like Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy and Ally Sheedy, the film looks more like an up-market version of Porky's than anything more coherent.

| Apr 4, 2022

...St Elmo's Fire is self-absorbed and dull, just like the characters that it depicts. But it's also something of a hoot to see 80's idiocy laid bare like this...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 8, 2021

...familiar territory that is, for the most part, employed to underwhelming effect...

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 20, 2021

Savaged when it was released, is it time for a reconsidering St. Elmo's Fire, a retrograde look at '80s single life? No. No, it's not.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 28, 2020

I disliked all the characters and whatever magic John Hughes had, where he could make me root for characters I disliked doing things I detested, this movie hasn't got.

| Mar 26, 2020

It's not until the strains begin to show and rivalries emerge that St. Elmo's Fire becomes truly interesting -- and convincing.

| Feb 28, 2020

These aren't characters -- they're character hooks.

| Jan 3, 2018

From the music to the iffy fashions, director Joel Schumacher and his cast capture the 80s in one supercool microcosm.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 13, 2017

A fascinating record of what that generation was watching, wearing and listening to.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 13, 2017

This glib, insubstantial soap opera is emblematic of Hollywood in the mid-1980s.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 13, 2017

All speed and stylishness without a bit of emotional resonance beneath.

| Jul 13, 2017

There is an abundance of astute and knowledgeably drawn scenes with this contextually structured story. There are some biting observations of college life, with law school in particular taking some verbal jabs on the chin.

| Jun 28, 2017

Soapy 20-something friends saga isn't for kids.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2011

there's a perceptive, brilliant essay buried somewhere in St. Elmo's Fire on the dangers of deeply, tragically stupid people trying to write the great American novel.

| Original Score: 0/4 | Oct 13, 2009

Even teens might have a hard time identifying with the level of melodrama we get here.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Aug 22, 2009

Everyone struggles. Everyone triumphs. The music swells. No one cares.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 29, 2009

St. Elmo's Fire is all about a group of recent college graduates in Washington who were always the best of friends but now are drifting apart as real life approaches, discovering various reasons why they are so individually obnoxious.

| Oct 18, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 11, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 20, 2006