>>REVIEW
FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF – BUELLER… BUELLER… EDITION
Directed by John Hughes
Paramount, 1986 (2006)
Everybody’s favourite hooky-playing movie of the ’80s is back (hooray!). It’s bargain priced (hooray again!). And unlike the previous DVD release, this time there’s no audio commentary (hoora…huh? What?).
That’s right folks – not only is there no new audio commentary, but the reportedly excellent commentary track recorded by writer-director John Hughes for the original DVD release has not been retained for the new Bueller… Bueller… Edition. In its place we get a handful of featurettes pieced together out of old and new interviews with the cast and crew. In these, everybody says pretty much the same thing – how great the cast was, how lucky they feel to be part of a movie that has become such a pop-culture icon, yadda, yadda, yadda. Actually, these clips are pretty neat – I’m just crestfallen that there’s no commentary. How hard would it have been to just re-release the old disc with the new featurettes added to it?
Don’t mind me, I’m just being grouchy over the realization that I saw this flick in a theatre 20 years ago, (sweet back-flipping Jesus! Has it really been that long?). Still, I can’t think of any movie that can make a persnickety old coot like me crack a smile faster than this one right here. This movie is pure delight in cinema form. Of course, I don’t have to tell you that, because – well, you’ve seen it. I know you’ve seen it. Everybody’s seen it. I’ve searched high and low, trying to find somebody who hasn’t seen this film and I’ve failed. Not only has everybody seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but they all really, really like it. A lot. What’s not to like? The cast is perfect, the script is funny and the hero takes a one-day vacation from that purgatory we call high school and gets away with it. Just look at the economics class in which a droning Ben Stein puts his class to sleep with an impossibly dull lecture – we cheer for Ferris because he escapes from that hellish experience, not because he goes to a ball game and a gallery. And cheer him we do – Matthew Broderick has seldom been as endearing as he is here.
The previous widescreen DVD, complete with audio commentary, should still be available, so look for it first. If you can’t find it, settle for this disappointing but affordable re-release. It’s still Ferris Bueller, and that’s the important thing. |
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