Couldn’t care less about the characters, spoilt, SHALLOW, self obsessed, privileged, sense of entitlement off the scale, set piece dumb parents, set piece frigid uptight sister who just needed to snog a bit of rough to turn into a nice person. In the right hands I might have ended up caring about them in spite of all, that but no. . Reminds me why I was glad when the 80s was over. A friend told me it was wonderful so my reaction may be in the minority
I missed all the 80s popular teen movies, like this, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, St Elmo's Fire (should have been St Elmo's Dire!) etc. so thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. After StE'sF which I found very dull, this actually had some amusing moments, mostly of creativity, such as Ferris' excuses, his fake recordings, the figure mimicking him ill in bed, etc.
The parents seemed incredibly dimwitted especially the father, and the huge parade in Chicago made me question why it was held on a school day, given plenty of all ages in the crowd? The school headmaster played by Jeffrey Jones was a hoot who quite rightly doesn't believe he's ill and sets out to prove it, with rather painful and funny consequences. Ferris' friend Cameron was a guy named Alan Ruck, who seemed to me a pretty close double to Nicholas Lyndhurst (of Only Fools and Horses & Goodnight, Sweetheart fame) with a long lugubrious face. I've never seen him before or since yet he seems to have been in nearly 75 films,
at least on CP's list. Jennifer Grey just before Dirty Dancing fame plays his jealous and scheming younger sister, but in the end she seems to slightly admire how Ferris so blatantly gets away with everything and starts to cover for him.
For a feelgood movie without any mention of drugs, little alcohol nor appalling teen bad behaviour this one was reasonably amusing and clean. They may be portrayed as somewhat entitled, spoilt teens, but then most American movies do that unless they're portraying far more real grit types. Not really so bad, methinks, given its an American film.
I thought I’d better watch this as it’s supposedly an iconic film from the 80’s. I wish that’s where I’d left it!
Couldn’t get beyond half an hour’s worth.