Waste of Money.

Boring, long, and too preachy.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The first must-see film of the year.

No movie has captured the dark side if the 80s like Less Than Zero. The overindulgence era at its finest. The cast is is fantastic, a truly underrated performance by Robert Downey Jr. And James Spader. Jamie Gertz gets an A+ for her part of Blair. The soundtrack is an amazing undervalued masterpiece.

Clay Easton (Andrew McCarthy), Blair (Jami Gertz) and Julian Wells (Robert Downey Jr.) are best friends graduating from high school. Julian uses his daddy's money to start a record company. Blair abandons her plans for college with Clay and sleeps with Julian. Six months later, Julian returns home from college for Christmas. Blair convinces Clay to help Julian who is in trouble. Julian lost all of the money and had to borrow from drug dealing school acquaintance Rip (James Spader).This captures a certain superficial 80s L.A. decadence. Robert Downey Jr. delivers a big-time performance as a druggie mess. It is probably a bit of real life imitating art. James Spader has the perfect creepy sleaziness. McCarthy is still in the full bloom of his boyish charm. His problem is that he's a bit inferior for the part. He's not quite the leading man this role calls for. Jami Gertz does functional girlfriend acting. Downey is the key and he's great.

"A college student goes home for Christmas and finds that his girlfriend and best friend have become cocaine addicts." Aw yes the decadent 80's. If you grew up during this time then you will have a special appreciation for this movie. It definitely captures an era with relevant music, clothing and several brat pack stars doing some decent acting (especially Robert Downey). The story itself is intriguing, gritty and sad with a strong anti-drug message.Andrew McCarthy is Clay who returns from college to spend Christmas with his wealthy family in Beverly Hills. His former girlfriend (Jami Gertz) is now involved with his best friend Julian (Downey) and both of them are in trouble. Julian's drug use has spiraled out of control and he owes huge debts to a dealer. James Spader plays a real slim bucket here, I had forgotten how good looking he was back in the day. 07.13

I rated this film 8/10, and here's why: Whilst this film has it's fair share of bad, it has a bundle of good to go with it. It's like a game of 50/50. Half the cast are good, half bad. Half the scenes are good, half bad etc. The real clincher in this film has to be Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of drug addict, Julian. Never have I been so moved, to the point of tears (and I never cry). The film is about 3 friends: Clay (Andrew McCarthy), Blair (Jami Gertz), and Julian (Robert Downey Jr). They have just left High School and are all off to enter the real world. Clay goes to University, Julian tries to fund a record project, and Blair gets into modelling. After a year apart, things have changed. Clay comes home at Blairs request due to her concerns about Julian after his record project falls apart, he gets into debt, and heavily involved in drugs. The remainder of the film explores the struggles between the three friends being reunited and seeing how each one has changed. Whilst Andrew McCarthy and Jami Gertz give very poor acting, very little emotion, it is Robert Downey Jr and James Spader (Who plays Rip) who steal the show and make the film worth while. The film has a very rustic 80's feel to it along with a fantastic soundtrack in-fitting with the films story. The film is supposed to based on the book Less Than Zero by Brett Easton, but is only very loosely based. If you are a fan of the book i'd watch it with caution. Other than that, i'd recommend you all watch it just to see RDJ's captivating performance. Go on, give it a try!