(Breakfast Club, Curly Sue, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, Sixteen Candles, Uncle Buck, Weird Science)
Producer:
John Hughes and Tom Jacobson
Screenplay:
John Hughes
Music:
Ira Newborn
Cast:
Ferris Bueller: Matthew Broderick Cameron Frye: Alan Ruck Sloane Peterson: Mia Sara Dean Edward 'Ed' R. Rooney: Jeffrey Jones Jean 'Jeanie' Bueller: Jennifer Grey Grace: Edie McClurg
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
is what Matthew Broderick, as the eponymous character, plans to take,
but he's not just going to spend it lying in bed or watching DVDs (well,
laserdiscs, in 1986). No, it's probably the last full day he and his best
friends are going to have before they graduate before they head for college
next year.
Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck, who I only remember since in Speed
and Young Guns 2), is seriously ill in bed... or is he a hypochondriac?
Either way, he's rather a loser and Ferris ensures that Cameron gets out of
bed and doesn't waste what is turning out to be a glorious day of sunshine.
The day wouldn't be complete if he didn't also engineer for his gorgeous
girlfriend, Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara, someone else who's hardly been
in any other memorable films, the only titles that spring to mind being
Legend and Timecop), to skip the rest of the school day.
Over the course of the coming day, they will go for a spin in a classic
1961 Ferrari, see a baseball game, have lunch at a posh restaurant,
take in a gallery, more than engage in a local parade and relax in a
jacuzzi. Nothing can go wrong, surely...
Well, yes it can and it begins with Dean Edward 'Ed' Rooney (Jeffrey Jones),
the school principal. Jones plays this like a charm and his best scenes come when he's
paired with school secretary Grace (Edie McClurg, the woman who fought off Steve
Martin f-ing advances in Planes Trains and Automobiles). She does her unhelpful
best to calm him down, to the point where it tests Ed's patience to the limit, although she
thinks she's doing the right thing.
When particularly stressed out...
Ed: "I don't trust this kid any further than I can throw him." Grace: "With your bad knee Ed, you shouldn't throw anyone..."
and on Ferris affecting his pupil-management skills...
Ed: "He jeopardises my ability to effectively govern this student body." Grace: "He makes you look like an ass, is what he does, Ed."
Jennifer Grey plays Ferris' frustrated sister - frustrated because her brother
gets right on her wick thanks to the pranks he pulls getting days off from school, or
just about anything else he wants from life. However, what's happened to her acting career?
After Dirty Dancing, she's hardly done anything of worth since other than the
short-lived TV sitcom, It's Like... You Know, which also starring the babelicious
A.J. Langer.
There's so many things to recommend this film, such as Ferris' monologues to camera about
getting off school without being suspected, best friend Cameron finally flipping out and
confronting his fears over his dominating father, a cameo from Charlie Sheen,
economics expert Ben Stein as his teacher ("Bueller? Bueller?"), plus the
closing credits as Ed suffers his final humiliation and afterwards when Ferris makes
another appearance.
Note that this film is only a 15-cert for a single f-word used by Ed Rooney 63 minutes in.
Had it been released after 1989, it would have received a 12-cert after they were brought in.
Of course, half of this line always gets clipped on TV :)
The picture is presented in the correct 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and is
anamorphic. There are a few flecks on the picture but nothing to get worked up about
as it's fine the rest of the time. The average bitrate is a high 7.72Mb/s, often peaking
over 9Mb/s.
The sound appears to pose no problems most of the time and comes in a remixed
Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, with songs by Sigue Sigue Sputnik and The
Beatles coming out fine. However, when directional effects come into play,
such as when Ferris and co go to pick up the car from the car park, the stereo channels
are clearly reversed. D'oh! How'd that happen?
Extras :
Chapters :
Only 14 over the 99 minutes. Not enough by a long stretch but it's the same number as
on the Region 1 DVD.
Languages/Subtitles :
Dolby Digital 5.1 in English only, with French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Subtitles are available in English (and hard of hearing), German, Bulgarian, Croatian,
Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, French, Icelandic, Portuguese, Swedish and Turkish.
And there's more... :
Just one extra, but it's a fascinating Director's Commentary from the sour-sounding
John Hughes, who reveals that Jennifer and Matthew were dating during the shoot
(IMDB.com reveals they later
got engaged) and that the parents, played by Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward,
actually tied the know when filming wrapped.
Also, the high school corridors used in the film were from the same abandoned high school
where he shot The Breakfast Club, another film that defined my teenage years.
Menu :
A basic static and silent menu with a shot of the front cover, lots of stark colour
and the usual options.
Overall, this is one of my favourite films of all time and I'm glad to see it played out
uncut and with an anamorphic print. However, we could use plenty more extras than those
we've been given.
You still here? The review's over... Go home... Go.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
