Bueller, Bueller, Bueller…. Ferris Bueller is now available on Blu-ray. I’ve always had a weird feeling about this classic 80’s high school comedy. On the one hand I’ve always liked it a lot, but I never “loved” it like everyone else seems to. So watching it again on Blu-ray after all these years, I still come away thinking that I should absolutely “love” this movie. It’s weird watching Matthew Broderick in this iconic role, I think my problem with the movie is, it’s just over the top “wholesome,” and “sugary.” When Ferris cuts class, he, Cameron (Alan Ruck) and Sloane (Mia Sara) don’t go off and do what normal or “today’s kids” would do (like hang out at the mall, do drugs, play games, etc) – they go site-seeing in Chicago. More than anything else this John Hughes movie is really a love letter to Chicago. It’s never looked cleaner, more wholesome, and beautiful than in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
The 1080p transfer of this is in most places gorgeous, the famous Red Ferrari glistens here and a lot of the background props like phones, grass, plants really sparkle. But some of the foreground stuff, like the faces, and lighting looks a little too sharp while the whites look a bit oversaturated in some parts (about 10 or 15 percent of the time). The menu navigation is easy and straight forward, although the main graphic is busy. The Audio is English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 2.0 Dolby Surround, and Spanish Mono (Mono on a Blu-ray?! Why even waste time putting this language track in? language track!). Subtitles are English, English SDH, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Extras
The Extras are really lame, they would be ok if this was a DVD, but for Blu-ray, they are all standard definition and nothing to go gaga over.
- Getting the Class Together – The Cast of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (27:95 Min) (SD)
Mixture of recent and old interviews with the Bueller’s cast. I didn’t know that Alan Ruck and Mathew Broderick were already working together on Broadway when they were cast in Bueller. The interview with Mia Sara (Sloan) was done in 1986. Alan, Matthew, Jennifer Gray, Jeffrey Jones (Ed Rooney) and the Parents are recent interviews (done in 2005). - The Making of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (15:29 Min) (SD)
- Who is Ferris Bueller? (9 Mins) (SD)
- The World According to Ben Stein (11 Min) (SD)
I never got the Ben Stein thing. This is a feature about Ben Stein. - Vintage Ferris Bueller: The Lost Tapes (10 Mins) (SD) – Shows a young Matthew interviewing Alan and the two talking about their characters.
- Cast Album
This is a decent Blu-ray package and worth picking up if you don’t already own a copy of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and if you can find it on sale for under $19. If you have the DVD then skip this, this doesn’t add enough oomph to justify a double dip.
Grades
- Movie – B
- Video – B
- Audio – B
- Menu – B
- Features – C
Final Overall Grade – B
EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally posted 5.28.09