With the big screen debut this weekend of the urban comedy All About the Benjamins, Anthony Michael Hall is back–believe it or not!
You remember him, don’t you? The “innocent” Rusty Griswold in National Lampoon’s Vacation, the geek Farmer Ted in Sixteen Candles, Brian the brain in Breakfast Club and horny Garry Wallace in Weird Science.
(If you missed him as Dave Davidson in Freddy Got Fingered, well, so did most people.)
Hall was the ultimate teenager of ’80s teen flicks: an essential member of the pack–the Brat Pack, actually. He, Molly Ringwald, Robert Downey, Jr., Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez (among others) were like, so hip, man, and they made movies together.
While Hall and the gang are “all grown up” now, their movies still live on as cult classics for those of us children of the ’80s.
But what about the children of today? Don’t they deserve their own Brat Pack?
In Hall‘s honor, we’ve tried to identify those groups of stars that lay as successors to his throne:
The Name: The Love Shack Pack
The Actors: Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari, Shannon Elizabeth, Chris Klein, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hannigan
The Films: American Pie, American Pie 2, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Loser, Boys and Girls
How They Got Their Name: Shacking up, of course. Since the term implies sleeping together, hooking up or just plain getting it on, this pack, overall, seems drawn to the movies that are loaded with sexual innuendo–or just plain sex.
Let’s prepare to enter the realm of American Pie, if we dare.
Granted, self-pleasure with a freshly baked pie isn’t really shacking up, but it’s close enough for the desperate. There are other oddities these high school schoolers resort to in an effort to lose their virginity before the end of high school: one guy even sleeps with a friend’s mom.
The Pie‘s Jason Biggs (of pie fame, he’s after the shack in Saving Silverman, too), Mena Suvari (who also wants to shack in American Beauty, not to mention she plays the demure intellectual who gives it up in American Pie), Shannon Elizabeth (she gets it on–or tries to–with Biggs in American Pie, and her character’s first shack is explicitly described in Tomcats) and Chris Klein (his claims to fame are the Pie movies) are all full-fledged members of the Love Shack Pack.
The Name: The Frat Pack
The Actors: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, Freddie Prinze Jr.., Matthew Lillard, Jennifer Love Hewitt
The Films: Cruel Intentions, Election, Legally Blonde, Summer Catch, She’s All That, Wing Commander, I Know What You Did Last Summer
How they earned their name: Another group of actors who can’t seem to get out of the college (or college-bound) scene–or away from their hormones, though they’re slightly less raunchy than The Love Shack pack.
Take Cruel Intentions, for instance. There’s Phillippe, whose character is attracted to his stepsister, played by Gellar. These two start their own sort of fraternal codes with their tendency to destroy the lives of innocent victims for their own pleasure.
Enter Witherspoon.
Also in Cruel Intentions, she’s the girl who wants to stay a virgin until marriage, a real contrast in this sexually heated Frat of actors. In fact, most of Witherspoon‘s characters seem right at home standing out amongst the crowd.
In Election she sets out to become student body president so her college applications will be pristine, and in Legally Blonde she sacrifices time spent at the salon for study time at the library to get into law school.
Oh yeah, let’s not forget Freddy Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard. These two could almost be in their own group as they’ve shared more than a handful of Frat Pack films.
The ultimate Frat Pack flick, though, comes in the form of I Know What You did Last Summer. When Gellar and Phillippe (together again), Prinze and Hewitt commit a crime that comes back to haunt them, a few good scares, a decent plot and a little romance makes it a perfect, categorical Frat Pack fit.
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The Name: The Smack Pack
The Actors: Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Chris Tucker, Faizon Love
The Films: Friday, Next Friday, Friday After Next, Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, All About the Benjamins
How they earned their name: These guys are usually cracking jokes at the expense of something or someone else, and have you ever realized they’re usually in precarious situations while they’re poking fun?
Thus, the “smack” or incessant talking they do–either to be funny or to get themselves out of danger–is comical and often manifests itself in sequels.
Take Ice Cube‘s Next Friday, for example.
All sorts of smack goes down when Epps gets his mouth sucked out by a vacuum cleaner in hopes the pot smell in the room will go away. And the laughs will keep comin’ when Cube and Epps star in Friday After Next, coming this November.
(It might be no coincidence that Cube and Epps have helped the celebrated Anthony Michael Hall make a comeback in All About the Benjamins.)
The King of Smack, though, has gotta be Chris Tucker.
In an effort to get himself out of a bad situation, Tucker‘s (who was also in Friday) quick-wit and smooth moves alongside Jackie Chan in Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 also get him literally smacked a few times in the face, as his running mouth causes angry henchmen to run after him.
The Name: The Pal Pack
The Actors: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlize Theron
The Films: School Ties, Chasing Amy, Good Will Hunting, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, The Third Wheel, Glory Daze, Bounce, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Shakespeare in Love
How they earned their name: Isn’t this just as plain as day? These guys grew up together, and now they act, write and produce together; it’s a natural progression for this pair of pals.
Although most of the movie-going audience didn’t recognize the core members of this pack, Damon and Affleck, until their success with Good Will Hunting (which they also co-wrote), they were in School Ties and Chasing Amy together prior to all their (deserved) Hollywood hoopla.
When these two take a break from one another, allowing others to drift in and out of their pack (Gwyneth Paltrow and Charlize Theron are honorary members, as both Damon and Affleck have worked with each of them on separate occasions), they’re always quick to reunite.
Take their most recent project: producing.
They’ve pooled their money to fund Stolen Summer, which hits theaters later this month. It’s about (here’s a hint: pals) none other than two young boys who are childhood friends. Hmm, sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
