745. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Running Time: 102 minutes
Directed By: John Hughes
Written By: John Hughes
Main Cast: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones, Jennifer Grey
Click here to view the trailer

"BUELLER...BUELLER...BUELLER?"

Before taking my time off from the blog, I had one film left to watch, one film left before I could make my sixth TOP 20 list and how fitting that the film be the taking off of someone else - Ferris Bueller. That sounded kind of stupid, but I'm gonna' go with it.

Ferris Bueller (Broderick) is sick! Actually, he's not, but his parents think he is and that's what he wants them to think as he plays a good old fashioned case of hooky. In Ferris' case, hooky is more of an art form, as he sets up tape players, programs his piano to make vomit noises and places a lifesize, wooden dummy in his bed to throw off his parents, just in case they come snooping. You see, Ferris is a senior in high school and before he, his friend Cameron (Ruck) and his girlfriend Sloane (Sara) part ways, he wants to have one last hurrah with them - a day they can all remember for as long as they live. So, Ferris convinces his friend Cameron to sneak out his father's Ferrari and the two pick up Sloane from school, making Dean of Students Ed Rooney (Jones) believe that her grandmother has died. The trio spend a day doing all sorts of things, including visiting a museum, conning their way into a classy restaurant, going to a baseball game and taking part in a parade. However, Ed Rooney isn't buying Ferris' sick story and plans to catch him in the act, even going so far as to show up at his house.

When I was a kid, I missed a lot of school and more often than not it was by playing hooky, much like Ferris Bueller. Sure, I didn't go to the extremes he did, but I did have overprotective mother who didn't take any chances at the slightest utterance of me possibly being sick. I think we've all probably ditched school at one time in our life. We were all school age at some point and we've all had those circumstances come up where we just couldn't go to school that day, because either we just didn't feel like it or we had someplace better to be. Therefore, I think we can all relate to "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and watch it, all the while flashing back to our own teenage years. In John Hughes' movies it's the teenagers that matter and while they have lines, the parents kind of play the part of Charlie Brown's mother, unable to grasp the plight of the high-schooler, just there for a visual aid. I wonder if John Hughes had bad parents growing up, because there always seem to be bad parents in his scripts, ones that never seem to show up. In "Ferris Bueller" it's Cameron's father and in "The Breakfast Club", there are several less than savory parental figures mentioned.

"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" isn't quite AS GOOD as "The Breakfast Club", but as mentioned, it's something we can all relate to and I think it's a little easier to enjoy than "The Breakfast Club". It's more accessible, more quotable and has a more universal humor. The primary cast do a fine job, but I particularly like Alan Ruck, who was 30-years-old at the time this was made, playing a high-school senior. Years later, Ruck would go on to play Stuart on "Spin City" - a semi-popular sitcom that I used to enjoy.

RATING: 7/10  Well another one hundred movies dropped in the bucket, four hundred to go! I can't say for sure when I'll be back to present the new TOP 20 list. It probably won't be tonight and maybe not even tomorrow. Check back sometime at the beginning or middle of the week, as I owe my wife a little bit of my time, after she's allowed me to watch all these movies.

MOVIES WATCHED: 601
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 400

December 2, 2012  12:51am

721. The Breakfast Club (1985)

Running Time: 92 minutes
Directed By: John Hughes
Written By: John Hughes
Main Cast: Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy

ON MY JOURNEY I MET A PACK OF BRATS

Well I've returned to the blog, from yet another hiatus, but we won't dwell on that too much, but instead just jump right into the thick of things. It has become the standard for me to watch a familiar film when I return from hiatus, so I marched to my DVD shelf and plucked off "The Breakfast Club".

The plot is fairly simply, so it shouldn't take long to recount it here. Five teenagers are sentenced to spend a precious Saturday in detention. The "prisoners" are a wide range of personalities, including John Bender (Nelson) - the rebel, Claire (Ringwald) - the prom queen, Andrew Clark (Estevez) - the athlete, Brian Johnson (Hall) - the brain and Allison (Sheedy) - the basket case. They are presided over by teacher Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason), a hard-nosed man, very qualified to be the detention enforcer. At the beginning of the day they're given the assignment of writing a paper on "who they think they are", but it's pretty much blown off, as the five engage in various arguments and discussions about school life, home life and sex. As the film progresses, the group becomes closer, as they wage a war of words with one another and the reasons for their detention sentences become clear.

SPOILER ALERT!

I can still remember it like it was yesterday - my brother raving about this movie called "The Breakfast Club" and insisting that I see it. As I've mentioned in the past on this here blog, most of the movies that would go on to be my all-time favorites were initially shown to me by my big brother. This one is no exception and from the first time I saw it, I fell in love with it. Watching it for, what seems like the 100th time, again last night made me realize something very important about my own tastes in films and how they're changing big time as I become an adult. When I was younger, my favorite part of "The Breakfast Club" was always the first half. That's the more jovial half, the half that is packed with the most comedy and the half, that as a young person, you can have more fun with. When I was younger, I remember always dreading the second half, because while it was still good, it got more serious and was more dialogue driven and as a youngster, that wasn't my cup of tea. However, last night, when re-watching, I enjoyed the second half much more than the first half and that's the part that now really hammers this film home as a true classic. As John Bender, my favorite member of "the club", sits on the floor with his four cohorts and the five sound off, arguing and sympathizing with one another and realizing that they have much more in common than they initially thought.

Sure, if you want, you can nitpick the hell out of the movie. Personally I think it takes off way too fast. It seems like no more do the beginning credits end and we're right into the thick of things, focused in on the library, where we'll spend the next ninety minutes with this group. The ending also gets a little hokey and almost silly, as John & Claire and Andrew & Allison seemingly become a pair of couples and the groundwork for those relationships really isn't established at all. In fact, Bender and Claire are at each others throats BIG TIME at one point, delivering these lines...

John Bender: Don't you ever talk about my friends. You don't know any of my friends. You don't look at any of my friends. And you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends. So you just stick to the things you know: shopping, nail polish, your father's BMW, and your poor, rich drunk mother in the Caribbean.
Claire Standish: SHUT UP!
John Bender: And as far as being concerned about what's gonna happen when you and I walk down the hallways of school together, you can forget it cuz it's never gonna happen. Just bury your head in the sand and wait for your fuckin' prom.
Claire Standish: [Crying] I hate you!
John Bender: Yeah? Good!

....and the next minute, she's sneaking into a broom closet, that Vernon locks Bender into and making a move on him. There's never any explanation as to why these two would want to even be around each other at the end of their detention day. I guess, if we stretch it, we can surmise that maybe the reason that they were at such odds, is because they had a little thing for one another, but that's probably reading far too into the whole thing. And really, these are just "nitpicky" things. The film is absolutely brilliant and if you haven't seen it, then you have a treat to look forward to someday. It's a film that I can't imagine anyone not liking, at least a little bit.

The personalities are ones that we all knew when each of us went to school. We all knew people who were represented by someone in this film - I know I did. So it's a film that is really easy to relate to, even if you don't necessarily fit into one of the five categories of teenager on display. It's also an extremely quotable film, with a truckload of memorable scenes and dialogue exchanges and as the cherry on top, it has a pretty kick ass 80s soundtrack.

RATING: 8.5/10 I may be undercutting this one, just a hair, but if I am I'll rectify it at the end of the month, during recap time. Sorry if the review was a little rusty, it's my first one in a couple of months. They'll get better.

MOVIES WATCHED: 329
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 672

October 10, 2011 6:39pm