This is an eighties feel good movie and I think that sums this up quite well. This movie is called ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’. A repeating name in these reviews is John Hughes. Tom Jacobson shared the producing credits, but John Hughes wrote, directed, and produced this movie and fair play to him. Released in 1986 and made on a budget of $5.8m which went on to make $70.1m at the box-office making this a big success in my eyes. Critically we are in a similar agreement but not close enough to worry the scoreboard of the Tri-Critic Sync Challenge as IMDb gave it 7.8 out of 10 whilst Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score 80%. The movie stars an incredibly young Matthew Broderick, Mia Sarapochiello (normally shortened to Sara, oh an un-fun fact Mia Sara is currently married to Brian Henson the son of Jim Henson who made the muppets), Alan Ruck, Jennifer Grey, along with Jeffrey Jones, Edie McClurg, Ben Stein, and a very young version of Charlie Sheen. As the film was based in Chicago it highlights some of the landmarks of the windy city and there is so much going on in one day its unbelievable.
The basic plot just follows a student called Ferris Bueller who has decided that he needs a day off and the opportunity to throw a sickie is fast running out. So, he believes this is the last change and as a result he is going to make it a special one! Firstly, he finds out that his best friend Cameron is also off, so he demands that he comes over and collects him as Cameron has a car and Ferris does not. After finally teaming up with Cameron (I shan’t give you the details here) they hatch a scheme to retrieve Ferris’ girlfriend from the school so she can join in on their days adventure. That basically is the plot three kids bunk off school for a special day of fun and japes which would be enough for a week vacation all squeezed into one school day. I’ll leave you to work that one out.
I have seen enough people try to breakdown the factual inaccuracies related to the times involved. I will just point out that an average baseball game will last around three hours. You can work the rest out for yourself. I won’t be indulging you here. There are lots of the eighties here to enjoy. The soundtrack is kicking, and the fun is innocent enough to get away with. The teacher hunting down Ferris is the villain of the piece but by common consensus this should be the other way around, as Ferris is the villain and trickster who deserves to be caught on punished. Instead of that you as the viewer are kept on his side as he often breaks the fourth wall and speaks to you directly making his character likeable and you instantly connect with him. Ferris is the overconfident mischievous youngster that we either wanted to be or was in au of. We have all been there and this movie allows you live out that fantasy. It is a great movie that allows you to revel in the crafty side of youth. There are so many reasons to enjoy this comedy that I couldn’t list them here, but you hate the head teacher and appreciate the horrible day he has in hot pursuit of Ferris and friends. Whilst his jealous sister is out to prevent her brothers confident and could bring him down to size just like all sibling rivalry. It is clever and funny throughout with a chase to conclude just to get you on edge in time for the conclusion. All the chase is accompanied by Yello’s - Oh Yeah which should be enough for you watch already.
Next on the countdown is another High School comedy movie which is not like this one, to say the list.
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