CAREER OPPORTUNITIES (1991)

In one scene thirty-minutes into John Hughes's CAREER OPPORTUNITIES, made during his career midlife crisis between teenage and adult comedies, gorgeous brunette dream girl Jennifer Connelly, standing in the central Target store location late at night, hours after closing, asks fast-talking star Frank Whalley: "What are you doing here?" Wherein he answers, "I work here." 

Probably the most coherently logical reply by a character so zany and over-confident, you can see how great Matthew Broderick was in Hughes's FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF just for not having to try so hard to be so likable... Whalley plays the rambling village idiot in a small town (Hughes's class envy spouted throughout), looked down upon by adults and "up upon" by three children who have no purpose but following Whalley around like puppy dogs, and it's impossible to understand what has them so captivated... The audience sure isn't, and wasn't: this was one of John's biggest bombs, and Whalley only played third or fourth bananas afterwards... However, there IS a purpose, a kind of exploitation element for CAREER, and it's twofold: the first being the mere casting of Connelly, who was truly gorgeous enough to put into a movie for being truly gorgeous enough to be IN that movie, especially the trailers (to get young men into the theaters)... but having no real plot-line doesn't help matters... Also, other than being NOT ONLY an endorsement for something that was pretty new at the time, the superstore experience... but it's a worthwhile location and somewhat of a dream job, working at a Target store, late at night and all alone, with literally everything at your fingertips... But there needed to be a better character besides "the town liar" to base a comedy romp on, beyond a stunning girl and final act keystone-criminal break-in trope that would have fared a lot more successfully in... well... HOME ALONE ring a bell? For John Hughes, who wrote and didn't direct either, this was an OPPORTUNITY for a big endorsement and to attempt making his FERRIS persona grown up... but that guy was a lot cooler, smarter, more mature and far more entertaining than this guy... Basically, watching Matthew Broderick wander around alone in a tiny dimestore would have beaten this turkey. Rating: **

PRETTY IN PINK

year: 1986

cast: Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Jon Cryer, Annie Potts

rating: **

After John Hughes died I brushed up on his work, and stumbled upon the one I never really cared for. Why? Two main reasons: Class envy and a flitting metrosexual named after a water fowl who I still think preferred Andrew McCarthy to Molly Ringwald. I'm not exactly sure who this movie's for... girls without money who love themselves or girls with money who hate themselves. Or was Hughes inventing his own dream-chick before he had two nerds do it for him? The characters were cliched, the plot nonexistent, and the corny scene where Andrew McCarthy hacks into Molly Ringwald's computer — providing her pictures and a glimpse into the future of Instant Messaging — literally almost killed me. I was near the end... I saw a white light... I heard Annie Potts' grating voice... The light grew larger...

FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF

year: 1986 
rating: ****

This is a beautiful and brilliant teen flick about a popular everykid highschooler who takes a "day off", i.e. fakes illness/tricks his parents and has one hell of an afternoon. The most endearing and/or memorable characters aren't Ferris, but his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and the villain/principle Ed Rooney (Jeffery Jones), who's the B side to the film as he tries thwarting our hero's plan (other great characters are Jennifer Grey as his jealous older sister and Edie McClurg as Rooney's secretary). Ferris's Woody Alleneque monlogs straight into the camera (breaking the "4th wall) work perfectly and the adventure never slows down - well, not really. Towards the end things get a bit "dramatic" (as do many Hughes films when they hit upon "the moment of truth") as Cameron discovers himself by totaling his father's car. I also felt some of Ferris's opinions-through-narration about Cameron were kind of... cruel and didn't seem befitting to a kid his age... And perhaps Mia Sara was way too hot for Broderick? Or anybody? The late John Hughes did some terrific work in his day, and while I think "The Breakfast Club" is his masterpiece, and "Uncle Buck" is his funniest... this one sums up Hughes, the writer. The script was scribbled in six days. Not too shabby.