Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
At the time this comedy gem came out I declared it the best movie of all time. I was roughly 8 at the time so consider me a child-genius! I unabashedly love this film. While I like and adore most of John Hughes filmography, some of his films remain dated and/or don’t resonate the way they used to when you were coming-of-age. 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink are really just for teens and a teen mentality. Don’t get me wrong I still love those films but I’m not sure I love them as much as I did. Not the case for Ferris Bueller. Ferris is just as funny and heartwarming at 36 as it was when I was 8. I wanted to be Ferris he was so fucking cool and still do. This comedy had everything: hilarious quotes, funny and thoughtful philosophy, slapstick, screwball romance, some farce thrown in for good measure and Charlie Sheen ironically playing a junkie! It also had Jeffrey Jones at his best and Jennifer Grey definitely out of her corner. It made Chicago the best city to play hooky in and gave us all mega-crushes on Mia Sara!
One of the best things about this movie is its eclectic soundtrack. While almost every teen movie directed by Hughes has great soundtracks, Ferris has the most varying mix of genres and best uses of songs in the film. Like The Beatle’s Twist & Shout in the parade scene after the silly Danke Schoen. And while Oh Yeah by Yello was way over-used in commercials and other films in the 80s I think most of you would agree its best use was in Ferris. My personal favorite was a remix version of some obscure song by the highly underrated English Beat called March of the Swivelheads. The finale’s chase scene is probably my most watched scene in the whole 80’s (besides the scene in RoboCop when the guy, who’s dosed in toxic waste, gets run over and annihilated by Clarence Boddicker’s car) because of the awesome and funny song used to heighten the tension of Ferris running home before his crazy vengeance-seeking sister and absent-minded father get home first. It took me years, YEARS, to find a proper recording of that song because the soundtrack was never officially released. I finally found the whole soundtrack on ebay in 2000 and played the shit out of the whole thing.
Hard Ticket to Home Video 
I’ve seen this one!!! You can’t make fun of me today…
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The day ain’t over yet.
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YES! I love this movie so much.
There’s a scene of this extra during the parade (you’ll probably know who I’m talking about Brad) it’s a black guy with sort of a newsboy cap on. He’s shaking the shit out of himself and having the best time doing it. He is my favourite extra in a movie ever.
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I love that guy!!
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You found him!!! *Super High-five*
And henceforth he shall be known as the Shaky Black Guy from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
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I like to think he wasn’t dancing but having a severe epileptic episode just when they put the camera on him.
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lol! I like to think that he’s an undercover alien and doesn’t understand this “dancing” thing we humans do, so that was his attempt to blend in.
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Or he stepped on a frayed wire the production crew left out.
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Hahahaha! Then went on to unify all of the extras in a class action lawsuit against big money Hollywood, ultimately obtaining handsome compensation for all the extras that got hurt on production. And there were a lot of hurt extras.
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As part of the settlement, they declared that Matthew Broderick could never be cool again.
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A punishment worse than death, it can never be expunged!
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“Beat City” by the Flowerpot Men…freakin’ rocks. It still makes it into the rotation every now and then.
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Another one I played til my ears bled when I finally got the soundtrack. Also Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want.
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Agreed. This movie, and it’s soundtrack, are awesome. (I also still really like The Breakfast Club, although I admit it’s mostly for teens. Perhaps my affection is bred from nostalgia.)
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I’m all on board with The Breakfast Club until they start getting all melodramatic about mid-way through. But the first half is hysterical. John Bender is one of comedy’s best written degenerates.
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I’m also a huge Brian Johnson fan!
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Best character name ever!
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I really hope you jumped over hedges and through houses while listening to it
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More watched than Phoebe Cates getting out of the pool?
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Sadly, I didn’t see the uncensored version of Fast Times until college. I know! Blasphemy!
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