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Dom Robinson reviews
Paramount
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PHE 8012
- Running time: 99 minutes
- Year: 1986
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 14 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: 5 languages available
- Subtitles: 13 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Director’s Commentary
Director:
- John Hughes
(Breakfast Club, Curly Sue, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes Trains and Automobiles, She’s Having a Baby, Sixteen Candles, Uncle Buck, Weird Science)
Producer:
- John Hughes and Tom Jacobson
Screenplay:
- John Hughes
Music:
- Ira Newborn
Cast:
- Ferris Bueller: Matthew Broderick
Cameron Frye: Alan Ruck
Sloane Peterson: Mia Sara
Dean Edward ‘Ed’ R. Rooney: Jeffrey Jones
Jean ‘Jeanie’ Bueller: Jennifer Grey
Grace: Edie McClurg
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is what Matthew Broderick, as the eponymous character, plans to take, but he’s not just going to spend it lying in bed or watching DVDs (well, laserdiscs, in 1986). No, it’s probably the last full day he and his best friends are going to have before they graduate before they head for college next year.
Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck, who I only remember since in Speed and Young Guns 2), is seriously ill in bed… or is he a hypochondriac? Either way, he’s rather a loser and Ferris ensures that Cameron gets out of bed and doesn’t waste what is turning out to be a glorious day of sunshine.
The day wouldn’t be complete if he didn’t also engineer for his gorgeous girlfriend, Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara, someone else who’s hardly been in any other memorable films, the only titles that spring to mind being Legend and Timecop), to skip the rest of the school day.
Over the course of the coming day, they will go for a spin in a classic 1961 Ferrari, see a baseball game, have lunch at a posh restaurant, take in a gallery, more than engage in a local parade and relax in a jacuzzi. Nothing can go wrong, surely…
Well, yes it can and it begins with Dean Edward ‘Ed’ Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), the school principal. Jones plays this like a charm and his best scenes come when he’s paired with school secretary Grace (Edie McClurg, the woman who fought off Steve Martin f-ing advances in Planes Trains and Automobiles). She does her unhelpful best to calm him down, to the point where it tests Ed’s patience to the limit, although she thinks she’s doing the right thing.
When particularly stressed out…
- Ed: “I don’t trust this kid any further than I can throw him.”
Grace: “With your bad knee Ed, you shouldn’t throw anyone…”
and on Ferris affecting his pupil-management skills…
- Ed: “He jeopardises my ability to effectively govern this student body.”
Grace: “He makes you look like an ass, is what he does, Ed.”
Jennifer Grey plays Ferris’ frustrated sister – frustrated because her brother gets right on her wick thanks to the pranks he pulls getting days off from school, or just about anything else he wants from life. However, what’s happened to her acting career? After Dirty Dancing, she’s hardly done anything of worth since other than the short-lived TV sitcom, It’s Like… You Know, which also starring the babelicious A.J. Langer.
There’s so many things to recommend this film, such as Ferris’ monologues to camera about getting off school without being suspected, best friend Cameron finally flipping out and confronting his fears over his dominating father, a cameo from Charlie Sheen, economics expert Ben Stein as his teacher (“Bueller? Bueller?”), plus the closing credits as Ed suffers his final humiliation and afterwards when Ferris makes another appearance.
Note that this film is only a 15-cert for a single f-word used by Ed Rooney 63 minutes in. Had it been released after 1989, it would have received a 12-cert after they were brought in. Of course, half of this line always gets clipped on TV 🙂
The picture is presented in the correct 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and is anamorphic. There are a few flecks on the picture but nothing to get worked up about as it’s fine the rest of the time. The average bitrate is a high 7.72Mb/s, often peaking over 9Mb/s.
The sound appears to pose no problems most of the time and comes in a remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, with songs by Sigue Sigue Sputnik and The Beatles coming out fine. However, when directional effects come into play, such as when Ferris and co go to pick up the car from the car park, the stereo channels are clearly reversed. D’oh! How’d that happen?
Extras :
Chapters : Only 14 over the 99 minutes. Not enough by a long stretch but it’s the same number as on the Region 1 DVD.
Languages/Subtitles : Dolby Digital 5.1 in English only, with French, German, Italian and Spanish. Subtitles are available in English (and hard of hearing), German, Bulgarian, Croatian, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, French, Icelandic, Portuguese, Swedish and Turkish.
And there’s more… : Just one extra, but it’s a fascinating Director’s Commentary from the sour-sounding John Hughes, who reveals that Jennifer and Matthew were dating during the shoot (IMDB.com reveals they later got engaged) and that the parents, played by Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward, actually tied the know when filming wrapped.
Also, the high school corridors used in the film were from the same abandoned high school where he shot The Breakfast Club, another film that defined my teenage years.
Menu : A basic static and silent menu with a shot of the front cover, lots of stark colour and the usual options.
Overall, this is one of my favourite films of all time and I’m glad to see it played out uncut and with an anamorphic print. However, we could use plenty more extras than those we’ve been given.
You still here? The review’s over… Go home… Go.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.