Review by Matt Anderson

Back in the '80s, John Hughes was an unrivaled cinematic trailblazer. During the course of seven wildly productive years he directed seven popular, epoch-defining flicks.He also wrote and/or produced a slew of other hits before tanking with Curly Sue in 1991. In the thick of Hughes' hay-making period was Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a mild success in theaters that achieved "cult classic" status thanks to home video, much like Napoleon Dynamite several years later.

In brief, Ferris Bueller is a high school kid with a charmed life. His parents adore him, his sister is insanely jealous of him, everyone else at school admires him (except for the principal) and his girlfriend is incredibly hot. Taking yet another day off from school, Bueller spends the morning managing the parents, the principal and the implementation of his free day. Then he's off with friends Sloane (Mia Sara, Legend) and Cameron (Alan Ruck, Ghost Town) to check out an art exhibit, hijack a parade float and basically reaffirm the message that life is short. Live it up!

Compared to the majority of high school comedies these days (and just about anything with the names Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen attached), Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a lighthearted, inoffensive affair. Thankfully, Ben Stein, one of the financial gurus on Fox and former host of Win Ben Stein's Money, is on the scene as a teacher of economics. His half-hearted conversational manner bores all his students into a borderline catatonic stupor. And because of that droll, monotone voice, the infamous line, "Bueller... Bueller..." is entrenched in the American lexicon.

All of the video supplements are presented in standard definition (1.33:1) and are rehashed from the 2005 DVD release. It's disappointing to report the John Hughes running commentary from last year's "I Love the '80s" edition DVD is NOT included. That's really lame, Paramount. Certainly a lack of disc space cannot be the excuse.

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