T/S: John Hughes vs. Judd Apatow

Dude. What would you say to someone who is pissed at you for something you can't remember and then tells you to get cancer? I don't think Judd had any responsibility to find some key phrase to make this guy act reasonably. xx

I'll go back to my life of thievery and leeching. As for the cancer, I'll wait till you get it and then steal it from you. By the way, that joke was one of my writers', Rodney Rothman (see, I credited him). See, I have no original thoughts.

LOLZ

xxxx-posts, etc.

Thanks for digging up the Apatow-Brazill thing, y'all. "...We were friends in the early 90's" makes me laugh for some reason.

Well, yes, Ferris Bueller is smug, and I can understand how people would say that it's a sort of epitome of the grossness of the Reagan era/attitudes...but Matthew Broderick brings a genuine winningness to his role that Reagan in his abject phoniness and hypocrisy and overal dubious "morality", could never pull off in his role as the president. The Ferris/Cameron scenes alone make the movie. And it's, um, fun. It's still a fun movie to watch. It was not "fun" to live through the Reagan administration.

Hmm, I will never understand all the love for Dazed and Confused. So overrated, in my opinion. Over the Edge, though, yeah, that's bad-ass.

Good point upthread, Shakey, about Hughes' portrayal of teens vs Little Darlings, etc. I think that is what makes most of his films so watchable, even when they are kinda lame and riddled with lazy stereotypes (e.g., The Breafast Club!)

Shit, The Swimmer is such an amazing movie. That should really get more attention than it does. And Hank Scorpio=best Simpsons one-off character other than Frank Grimes!

I like the idea of having a writing team to consult for zings.

I wd have said "Try not to be so angry while I try and make you angrier" OH WAIT

i mean, yr right, he has every right to say what he LIKES back to cancerwisher, but if he actually meant to calm him down a bit that seems a silly approach (at least it wd annoy me) (in fact it did)

i have less than zero invested in ferris bueller, but can someone explain exactly what's wrong with it? is it because it's about upper middle or upper class kids who get away with being lazy and irresponsible, or even worse happy and well-adjusted (they have no right, those fuckers)? or because they're punker than the mopey, less popular kids? because richard edson plays a dude of semi-indeterminate ethnicity?

IMPAWARDS HAS FOILED ME AGAIN

WILL I NEVER LEARN

it's less apathetic than dazed and confused, that's for sure

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN RICHARD JOBSON

gabbneb its because Ferris takes advantage of everyone around him and then acts like their sacrifices and contributions to his happiness don't actually matter in any way (among other things)

or because they're punker than the mopey, less popular kids?

I have no idea what you mean by this

surprise

gabbneb its because Ferris takes advantage of everyone around him and then acts like their sacrifices and contributions to his happiness don't actually matter in any way (among other things)

pls

cap'n save a rich kid

yeah, that always struck me about ferris... his sister is totally right about him

megaphone mark upside down in the garbage can

I SEE THINGS THE RIGHT WAY UP FROM THERE

but can someone explain exactly what's wrong with it

It's pure, unadulterated fantastic super-fun.

also, they go around all day doing the most obvious possible stuff. If ferris has cut class nine times, dontcha think he'd have been to the art institute already? What's the point of being a tourist in your own city?

Is Chicago really 'his city'?

Oh, sure! Palm of his hand, baby.

Ok, Cubs games are fun.

...Ferris takes advantage of everyone around him and then acts like their sacrifices and contributions to his happiness don't actually matter in any way (among other things)

Yeah, but the script is not dumb to this fact; Ferris' sister and Cameron give him shit for his self-centeredness...and his parents, who blithely overlook his b.s. artistry are portrayed somewhat unflatteringly in the film as being blissfully ignorant/having the usual giant blindspots that parents have for their kids.

genuine winningness to his role that Reagan in his abject phoniness

Um, Reagan was more "genuinely winning" than Ferris.

He's the younger sibling who gets away with everything, and we're taken along for the ride one day. Sure, he treats Cameron like shit, and sure, he totally sees no fault in anything he does, but dude....SLOAN!!! FERRARI!!!! ABE FROEMAN!!!!

Fuck the script: what's most annoying about Ferris Bueller is Matthew Broderick STARING INTO THE FUCKING CAMERA every five minutes to deliver an incoherent mish-mash of hippie self-determination and supply-side avarice with the most grotesque twinkle in his eye. FUCK OFF.

lol, cap'n-save-a-ronnie

isn't there a quote from hughes where he says that ferris would be a lobbyist as an adult. or something where he would use his manipulation skills.

Ferris turned into Matthew Broderick.

http://victoryatseaonline.com/war/otherwars/images/glory-broderick.jpg

Is Chicago really 'his city'?

This is a good point. He's from the North Shore.

(And if I'd ever cut class in high school and decided to go to Chicago, I'd have been all about Navy Pier and Ed Debevic's and the Field Museum and shit, just because I wouldn't have known any better.)

I am totally with Alfred on this, sorry

Weirdly, I was looking up Mia Sara on IMDB last night and discovered she's been married twice, the first time to Sean Connery's son and the second to Jim Henson's son.

most boring weird thing ever!

I will say this - none of Apatow's regular characters are ever as baldly self-satisfied as Ferris. Even his asshole characters are given oddly humanizing details.

But, no, that's part of what makes it such an interesting film. Ferris is the likeable, charismatic, despite approaching-semi-sociopathic-status guy, of the like of whose charms we've all succumbed to at one point or another, despite our better instincts. He's almost like a Reagan-era version of Neal Cassady.

Sheesh Ed Debevic's. There's this other place that's like that, Dick's Last Resort, where one of the contrivances is that the waitstaff is really rude.

I think it would be funny to open a restaurant where the waitstaff is REALLY rude, and not even in a funny way. Like, you order a burger and the waiter goes, "What are you, a faggot?! Go suck a cock, shitstain!" All the children in the restaurant are crying, and the waiters are always getting into fights... that would be an awesome theme restaurant.

Someone was trying to tell me that Buffalo Wild Wings is supposed to be a funny bad service place. I was like, uh, dude, I think it's just the normal kind.

Right? or Wiener's Circle. "Wait a minute... this isn't fun! You're just a bitch!"

Well, Mr. Sinkah, the weird (coincidental?) part was that I was looking her up the very night before Ferris Bueller was being discussed on ILX.

I will say this - none of Apatow's regular characters are ever as baldly self-satisfied as Ferris. Even his asshole characters are given oddly humanizing details.

True that. But, as I see it, with Ferris, the viewer is left to fill in the humanizing details. I dunno, maybe I am too forgiving...

But in any case, one could simply watch it as I suggested just above; as a study of a charismatic person who edges dangerously over onto the sociopathic side of the social spectrum, with additional glimpses of friends and family members and others' reactions to him.

Do I think that Ferris is annoying and smug? Hell, yes. Does John Hughes think so? Definitely. But is the film entertaining? Definitely...and a big part of what makes it entertaining is the tension between his likeability and the more sinister aspect of his comportment.

Ferris doesn't deserve to own the Bryan Ferry poster in his bedroom.

Do I think that Ferris is annoying and smug? Hell, yes. Does John Hughes think so? Definitely. But is the film entertaining? Definitely...

for some reason I can't help but hear this in the voice of Donald Rumsfeld

http://www.roundbarn-inn.com/image_library/police%20light.gif GIVING THIS MOVIE WAY TOO MUCH CREDIT http://www.roundbarn-inn.com/image_library/police%20light.gif

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:4fXRqBQuQXhkCM:http://www.geocities.com/rummyfan/Throwsuphands.jpg

"Did Ferris get a little out of control? You bet. But is the movie bad? Absolutely not."

so much RONG in this thread

uncle buck is one of the funniest movies of all time

Do I think that Ferris is annoying and smug? Hell, yes. Does John Hughes think so? Definitely. But is the film entertaining? Definitely...

for some reason I can't help but hear this in the voice of Donald Rumsfeld

Oh my god, you're right! And I am appropriately horrified. Apparently I've been infected. Oh dear...

Kenan, I know, you're right. It's just the best from Hughes that I can think of other than 16 Candles... and, as I was always annoyed by Ferris' smugness, I wanted to attempt to work out, if only by thinking out loud here, just why he and the movie overall nonetheless still hold an appeal for me.

so much RONG in this thread

otm

x-post

(maybe I am just a people-pleasing easy mark for aspiring sociopaths!)