Ferris Bueller's Day Off 1986
John Hughes made a lot of very good movies in the 80’s and 90’s, but Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is the best of the lot. Not as silly as Sixteen Candles or as overly dramatic as Breakfast Club, this movie stays light as it follows the title character and his friends on a day off from high school. Matthew Broderick really hit it big with this movie, but there are so many great small performances in the movie including great scenes from Ben Stein and Charlie Sheen. Ben Stein wasn’t even supposed to be seen in the movie, just an offscreen voice calling roll. But he knocked it out of the park and Hughes, both writer and director, decided to add to the part, just letting Stein go on whatever subject he wanted (he chose the Hawley Smoot tariff act, the Laffer Curve, and Voodoo economics, which he says are still very interesting). Even the parents are perfect in how completely oblivious they are to Bueller’s schemes, showering him with compassion (they wound up getting married in real life, later divorced).
Not all of it works, primarily the stuff with Cameron for being too heavy, and the stuff with the principal which is just too silly. But it is fun watching Broderick playing the guy everyone would love to be. This is a well made movie that holds up pretty well, even 30 years later.
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital