Brat Pack Actors Ranked By Highest Rated Rotten Tomatoes Score

The 2024 Hulu documentary Brats brings the story of the iconic Brat Pack to a new generation, but who was the most successful Brat Pack member? The Brat Pack characterizes a group of young actors from the ’80s who appeared in several coming-of-age teen movies throughout that decade. There are core members, including Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy, as well as others that many believe belong in the “club” as well.

David Blum coined the name in New York Magazine as a take on the Rat Pack. While some members felt the title disparaged them and harmed their careers, many of these actors enjoyed successful careers as adults and are still active in the industry today. The Brat Pack members and those who co-starred in other projects with them are forever linked by pop culture, whether they want to be or not. Luckily for movie fans, they had a lot of good films — both fictional and documentary.

Andrew McCarthy – 92%

New Waterford Girl (1999)

New Waterford Girl is a 1999 Canadian comedy-drama and McCarthy’s top-rated film. It is a movie about a teenager living in Nova Scotia who dreams of a bigger life. However, New Waterford Girl is all but forgotten, and it didn’t even make $1 million at the box office, topping out at $774,469 (via Box Office Mojo). McCarthy plays the girl’s semi-alcoholic English teacher who suggests she attend an art school in New York City. The movie didn’t do much for his career at this point.

Of course, as a Brat Packer, McCarthy appeared in iconic movies in the ’80s, like St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink, and Less Than Zero. Today, he works as a director as well, and keen-eyed viewers might have recognized him as Charlie’s father, Mr. St. George, in 13 Reasons Why. However, what he might be best known for today is being the director of the Hulu documentary Brats, in which he reunited with his fellow Brat Pack stars to talk about their careers in the ’80s and beyond.

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Lea Thompson – 93%

Back To The Future

Lea Thompson was linked to the Brat Pack thanks to both her prolific film career and presence on the Hollywood social scene in the 1980s. Her best-known credits from the era include films like Back to the Future, Red Dawn, and Some Kind of Wonderful. Her movies are often mistaken for Brat Pack films, and quite a few, like Back To The Future, maintain stellar ratings and remain beloved among fans of the era.

Her best-known film, Back to the Future, in which she played Lorraine, made her a star and remains the wide release with the best Rotten Tomatoes score, although there is a small indie with a higher rating called Who We Are Now. Thompson has since turned her attention behind the camera in recent years. Over the past decade, Thompson has directed episodes of Resident Alien, Star Trek: Picard, Stargirl, Youn Sheldon, and The Goldbergs.

Ally Sheedy – 94%

Little Sister (2016)

Ally Sheedy acted for a few short years before she got the role of Allison in The Breakfast Club and Leslie Hunter in St. Elmo’s Fire. These roles ensured she was part of the Brat Pack, even though she never seemed comfortable with the group. Her most successful movie role came many years later, though, as Joani Lunsford in Little Sister. This is a dark comedy about a young nun who, after cutting off all contact with her family, visits her childhood home when her brother returns from Iraq.

Sheedy plays the girl’s mother in the movie. Coming in a close second is the 1983 film WarGames, in which Sheedy stars alongside Brat Pack friend, Matthew Broderick. Her role in Little Sister was praised, but it didn’t do anything to really bring her back into the spotlight, as she mostly took on small TV and movie roles once the 1990s came to a close. She did have one bigger role where she had a cameo in the superhero movie, X-Men: Apocalypse.

Anthony Michael Hall – 94%

The Dark Knight

In the sophomore installment of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, which earned the late Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar for his role as the Joker, Anthony Michael Hall had a small role as Mike Engel,the host of the news program Gotham Tonight in Gotham City. Not surprisingly, given that the film was a massive box office success, this is the highest-rated picture he has been in, even if it was just a minor role.

Interestingly, Hall’s second-highest-ranked film was from the ’80s, but it wasn’t a Brat Pack movie: it was National Lampoon’s Vacation, in which he played Rusty Griswold, one of many actors who would play that same character over the years. As a Brat Packer, he was also in movies like Weird Science as Gary Wallace, Sixteen Candles as Ted Farmer, and The Breakfast Club as Brian R. Johnson. He also had a bigger role in 2021’s Halloween Kills, taking on the role of legacy character Tommy Doyle.

Molly Ringwald – 95%

Judy Blume Forever (2023)

Molly Ringwald was the “It girl” when it came to playing the girl-next-door type in teen rom-coms of the ’80s, like Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles. However, her highest-rated role is actually from a 2023 American documentary movie called Judy Blume Forever. Ringwald is one of several people interviewed about author Judy Blume (Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret). Ringwald admits everything she learned about dating as a kid was from Blume’s stories.

Technically, Ringwald was just interviewed in the Judy Blume documentary. Her top acting role score is 89% for 1985’s Brat Pack movie, The Breakfast Club, where she played Claire Standish. Her other big Brat Pack movies rank a little lower, with Sixteen Candles at 81% and Pretty in Pink at 75%. Ringwald did have a more recent movie called All These Small Moments from 2018, with a respectable 88% rating.

Robert Downey Jr. – 95%

Short Cuts (1993)

Of all the films that Robert Downey Jr. has starred in, it’s strange that this comedy-drama from 1993 ranks highest. Inspired by nine short stories and a poem by Raymond Carver, it follows the lives of 22 characters who are somehow connected to one another. Naturally, it has an ensemble cast that includes several big-name actors, including Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Frances McDormand, Andie MacDowell, and Lily Tomlin, just to name a few.

Short Cuts helped show his talent, but Downey almost ended his career a short time later when drug addiction saw him spend time in prison. Luckily, when he got out, he turned his life around and picked up some smaller roles before finally becoming Iron Man of the MCU. His most acclaimed role came in 2023 with Oppenheimer, for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, but that movie has a 93% rating and sits behind Short Cuts on Downey Jr’s list of his best movies.

Tom Cruise – 97%

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Tom Cruise might not have been a mainstay in the Brat Pack, but he was associated with young Hollywood in the 1980s thanks to his role as Steve Randle in The Outsiders, based on the iconic S.E. Hinton coming-of-age novel. He was also a huge star in the ’80s thanks to his role as Maverick in the movie Top Gun, as well as his teen comedy movie Risky Business, in which the scene of him dancing in his underwear has been parodied to this day.

Thanks to the franchise’s longevity, it’s no surprise that a Mission: Impossible movie earns Cruise his highest Rotten Tomatoes rating, as his role as Ethan Hunt is the most notable of his career. The actor has become less known for his work in coming-of-age films than for his blockbuster action movies. He’s one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood, and it’s rare for him to have a box office flop. His sequel to his ’80s hit Top Gun: Maverick almost eclipsed Fallout at the box office, but it fell just two percent short with a nice 96% score.

Emilio Estevez – 98%

Repo Man (1984)

Emilio Estevez stars in Repo Man, a sci-fi black comedy about a young man who’s into punk rock and is recruited by a car repossession agency. However, when his assignment is to locate a Chevrolet Malibu, he discovers a mysterious connection to potential aliens. The film was meant to be satirical, poking fun at the Reagan administration, consumerism, and the Atomic Age. It has since become a cult classic and is one of Estevez’s most beloved movies.

Beyond that 1984 film, which garnered an almost perfect Rotten score, Estevez’s next best flick is the Brat Pack classic The Breakfast Club from 1985, with an 89% rating. One of his most popular movie roles, though, was Billy the Kid in another ’80s movie, Young Guns. While the movie still has a lot of fans and is fondly remembered, it only has a 43% Rotten Tomatoes score. Mostly, Estevez has spent his years recently as a director, with his movie, The Way, sitting at 83%.

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Judd Nelson – 100%

Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam (1987)

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam is actually a 1987 documentary featuring letters from real American soldiers as well as archived footage to create a personal experience of the Vietnam War. Nelson provided his vocal talents to narrate some of the story, along with others like Robert De Niro, Willem Dafoe, Robert Downey Jr., Martin Sheen, and Michael J. Fox. At 87 minutes in length, it received rave reviews and aired on HBO. It won two Primetime Emmy Awards.

Like Estevez, Nelson’s next highest-ranking movie on the list is 1985’s The Breakfast Club. It’s also his most memorable one, with the final image of him as “criminal” John Bender jumping with his fist in the air and his long trench coat blowing in the wind becoming an iconic one from the film. Nelson has very few movies sitting high on Rotten Tomatoes, with New Jack City as his only other film over 70%.

James Spader – 100%

The Music of Chance (1993)

James Spader is barely recognizable in The Music of Chance, a 1993 film where he plays Jack Pozzi, a professional gambler that happens upon a man who has coincidentally just inherited a large amount of money and is looking for a way to spend it. Based on the absurdist novel of the same name by Paul Auster, it remains Spader’s highest-ranked role, even after nearly two decades. However, of all the movies he starred in, this is also one of his most obscure and unknown roles for many film fans.

His next highest-ranked film is Bob Roberts, where he plays a news anchor, and his best movie from the Brat Pack flick era is 1989’s Sex, Lies and Videotape, which earned a 96% rating. His Brat Pack films include Pretty in Pink, Mannequin, and Less Than Zero, among others. He remains best known today for his role as Raymond “Red” Reddington on The Blacklist on television, as well as a short stint as Robert California on The Office.

Rob Lowe – 100%

I Am Patrick Swayze (2019)

This 2019 documentary about the life and career of the late actor Patrick Swayze, as told by some of his closest friends and co-workers, received high praise and was universally beloved by critics. And because of its perfect score, it remains Lowe’s highest-rated film. Several other Brat Pack era actors who were not members of that group took part, including Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing), C. Thomas Howell (The Outsiders), and Kelly Lynch (Top Gun).

When it comes to actual acting projects, however, Lowe’s highest-rated film is Behind the Candelabra from 2013, which has a 95% rating, followed by 2006’s Thank You For Smoking (86%) and 1992’s Wayne’s World (84%). His Brat Pack movies include everything from The Outsiders to About Last Night and St. Elmo’s Fire. Today, Lowe remains best known for his TV roles, and most specifically as Owen Strand, the fire chief in the hit series 9-1-1: Lone Star.

Demi Moore – 100%

I Am Patrick Swayze (2019)

Like Rob Lowe, Demi Moore was part of the Patrick Swayze documentary, which is not surprising given the fact that she starred with the late actor in the widely popular ’90s romantic film Ghost. For her acting talents, Moore’s top film is 2011’s Margin Call, about the financial crash of the late ’00s, which earned an 87% rating.

Interestingly, Ghost ranks lower, at 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, despite it arguably being her most famous project. As a core member of the Brat Pack, she was in many popular ’80s movies, including About Last Night, One Crazy Summer, No Small Affair, and St. Elmo’s Fire, just to name a few. She also has some higher-rated movies after that, including roles in A Few Good Men (84%) with Brat Pack member Tom Cruise and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (87%) with Nicolas Cage.

Brats (2024)

Brats offers an in-depth look at the lives of military children, capturing the complexities of growing up on the move. Through heartfelt interviews and vivid storytelling, the documentary highlights the resilience and adaptability required to navigate frequent relocations.

Director

Andrew McCarthy

Release Date

June 13, 2024

Writers

Andrew McCarthy

Cast

Lea Thompson , Molly Ringwald , Andrew McCarthy , Demi Moore , Ally Sheedy , Rob Lowe , Emilio Estevez , Jon Cryer

Runtime

92 Minutes