A great movie for a lazy weekend afternoon. Watching it recently I got a kick out of his room decor, notably the pictures of Pete Townshend and Elvis pinned up next to each other. (strangely presaging Pete’s using the riff from “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” in a song 20 years later)
Sloane was terrible. She was not a good actress and the character was poorly written. Probably should have been left out of the movie. It is about Ferris and Cameron.
Really it’s about Cameron. Ferris doesn’t change or grow at all. Cameron does.
How great is the “Ferris Effect” on Cameron? Well his great-great-great grandson goes on to be the captain of the USS Enterprise B effectively replacing James T. Kirk. So you know, there’s that.
Still, not as good a movie as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
(but then nothing is)
Ferris doesn’t need to change. Cameron does.
Speaking of change, his sister Jeanie certainly transformed, both in her discontent with her brother, and her hardened shell when it comes to socializing. And Charlie Sheen! Boy did he give a special preview to what was to come of him!
Oh, I don’t object to movies with flawed, unlikeable characters. Hell, I’m an enormous fan of almost everything the Coen Brothers have ever made, except that shitty remake of The Ladykillers. But the viewer is clearly supposed to sympathize with Ferris in his efforts to win the forces of conformity trying to oppress him and force him to attend school, go to college. But except for the idiot prinicpal, nobody is holding Ferris back or forcing him to conform. And it isn’t as if he is especially clever. Oh, gee, he makes his forehead warm and his palms sweaty to trick his parents into thinking he is sick. Nobody in the history of adolescence has every done this. What kind of absolutely clueless parents have ever fallen for these wacky hijinks?
Not a very interesting movie, not even by the standards of 'Eightes teen movies. I give Ferris Bueller’s Day Off three big yawns and a polite cough.
Stranger
No real argument. What’s your 1-paragraph review of Risky Business?
I don’t think I’ve seen that movie since 1986. All I remember is that he has sex with Rebecca De Mornay on a train to the tune of “In The Air Tonight”, and his mother is pissed that there is a crack in her big glass egg.
Stranger
So you loved it? 
Ferris Bueller is an ok movie. That’s all, ok. I’d much rather watch Dead Alive.
As I recall, De Mornay was not wearing a bra under her sweater, so my fourteen year old self probably thought it was the best thing since I discovered a stack of Playboy magazines at the top of a closet. I can’t say that I’ve thought about it in years.
Stranger
Abe Froman, The Sausage King of Chicago.
The best ever? I’d say it rises slightly above Weird Science but not even my top 10.
It couldn’t possibly be the greatest. Think about this: what would happen if Ferris Bueller got into a contest with Parker Lewis?
That is the nightmare scenario that Ferris Bueller fans are afraid to face.
Actually, I would content that one of Matthew Broderick’s best performances, if not the best, is in the Alexander Payne film Election, playing the anti-Ferris Bueller, “Mr. McAllister” and driving a Ford Festiva instead of a Ferrari GT California.
Stranger
You (OP) are exactly right… except slightly behind Animal House, and Blazing Saddles, and Caddie Shack, and Young Frankenstein, and Holy Grail. But otherwise, #1.
Dear Happy-
I feel like I can call you Happy because you and me are so much alike…
If you didn’t post that link, I would have had to.
Garbage movie about unlikable people. Wouldn’t even crack my Top 500.
Challenge accepted. Name your 500. Granted, it is no Titanic or even Casablanca but I think it could make my Top 50.
I’m not going to list them all, but
- I own over 700 movies on DVD.
- It ain’t one of them. And I own DVDs of some really shitty movies (Water, anyone?).