Feriss Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
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Feriss Bueller’s Day Off Movie Review
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a 1986 teen comedy film directed by John Hughes and starring Matthew Broderick in his most iconic role. It is quite a good, if far from great movie.
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“ Life moves pretty fast.
If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it“
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This film basically follows one-day structure as a high-school slacker successfully spends a day off from school. Needless to say, that isn’t particularly ambitious thematically speaking. But it does what it sets out to do really well. It is basically a celebration of teen youth and having fun in those years and I liked that. Yes, I wanted some responsibility from the protagonist and a moral message at the end, but this was still a different and interesting approach in making him successfully ditch school for one day and not get punished. The emphasis here is on pure fun and I get that. It’s just that I wanted something more from it as I’ve come to expect big emotional scenes and a clever script from the director.
Ferris Bueller is an iconic character for good reasons. He has a memorable personality and although not particularly well established for a main teen character, that was still a good choice as it pained this sort of myth around him. Everyone knew guys like him in high school and he represents that part really well. Cameron is really good as his troubled, hypochondriac friend and I have to say that I liked his emotional scene at the end, despite it feeling a bit too overplayed.
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The problem with this movie is that the female characters aren’t as strong this time around. Sloane is charming and kind, but that’s about it. She’s far from memorable. And Jeannie I really, really liked and that ending in which she finally decided to help her brother go back to the house was wonderful and such a great ending for her character. However, the part with Charlie Sheen I disliked and found it to be pointless and not a good development for her.
Edward Rooney as the Dean represents the best and worst qualities of the movie. He was absolutely awesome in the first half as the humor there was so good and those comedic scenes between him and his secretary were top-notch. However, I really disliked what they did with him in the second half. He basically came to Ferris’ house to finally catch him and that was just stupid. Not only do I dislike the use of childish slapstick humor that the movie devolved to, but the problem that still maintains is why the hell would he be so obsessed with Ferris. That was not well explained and just childish.
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It may seem like I’m giving a harsh time to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but I really liked the movie, quite a bit actually. It’s just that it does seem very unrealistic at times as I do not see this plot happening ever in real life. It also has that annoying 80s cheese in it that it’s too energetic and naive and thus leading to a product of its time to some degree. But even though it was childish, the movie is mostly pleasantly childlike and of course a lot of fun. It is very entertaining consistently and their adventure is well worth following.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is very well directed as usual, but as I said, of his big three movies, ‘The Breakfast Club‘ and ‘Sixteen Candles‘ are much better. But this is still a good movie that is efficient in its humor for the most part and the characters are well developed. The script isn’t ambitious, but is well rounded up and its simplicity was mostly a good thing as the execution of the plot was great.
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The soundtrack is excellent, the use of Chicago is splendid and I really liked their adventure in it. The second half is weaker than the amazing first one, but it does have an admittedly awesome, unforgettable ending. Breaking the fourth wall is well utilized here for the most part and it’s memorable. The film is definitely quite authentic in its approach and it looks and sounds different than usual for the teen genre. The dialogue is great, the pacing is excellent and the film is involving from beginning to end.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is admittedly a product of its time as it is too naive, childish and unrealistic, but it mostly succeeds in its simplicity as it is a lot of fun. The structure of the movie works, the characters are very memorable, the humor is mostly quite good and the highlights are the first and last act. It is charming and entertaining, but still far from the director’s best works.
My Rating – 4
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