Posted on 02/03/2025 6:04:40 AM PST by Beowulf9
John Hughes, the great bard of 1980s teen movies? That's what one reviewer said.
Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in pink, National Lampoons Vacation, Home Alone, Ferris Bueller's day off on and on with movies that make me think of some NOT teenaged guy, but a pervert living out his sexual fantasies vicariously through some teens used as pawns by him in his movies forced to act as if this is the real way teens think and behave.
Only they don't, didn't.
How do or did people find this guys films charming? The only good things in them are there because of the culture he grew up in and still existed inside him like some ragged piece of cloth hanging onto to someone who went through a natural disaster. Which is what happened to our country and the better times that we saw torn away from us by the liberal faction in Hollywood and politics making movies like this populating the screens in theatres, you know, just before movie prices went too high for people to pleasantly to afford a nice time in the theatre. Only they took that away from us too, by making movies like these.
Only who could with scripts like this peppered with unsightly views of youths used like puppets for a dirty joke, a baudy snicker, a condescending tale to tell or was it an envious gape at the fresh faces coming into their own.
The talented kids in those movies made them somewhat watchable as I flinched through the lines fed them. I did not know they were all made by the same man till reading today on the net of this producer, writer.
Yet, he is lauded. Unbelievable.
Fellow GenXer. You nailed it.
One of my favorite scenes in Uncle Buck.
I prefer the first two “Home Alone” movies and “Uncle Buck” but that’s just me.
Yes, in Home Alone 2, the kid was lost in NY City. He decides to stay at the Plaza Hotel, which was one of Trump's flagship, well-known projects of the late 1980s.
So the movie had a scene where 'Kevin' met Trump briefly in the lobby. It was very relevant and therefore funny at the time - and yes, some stupid leftists removed the Trump later.
This - anything with John Candy or Steve Martin is good, but together? Once in a lifetime pairing.
“You see that Bears game last week?”
Yes, John Hughes did make “Home Alone 2” and yes, one tv network in Canada DID remove the cameo from Donald Trump.
So the movie had a scene where ‘Kevin’ met Trump briefly in the lobby. It was very relevant and therefore funny at the time - and yes, some stupid leftists removed the Trump later.
IIRC during the 2016 campaign they actually refused to show the movie on TV.
Ok, boomer.
CC
Emilio Estevez did a masterful job with his 2011 movie, "The Way," starring his dad. In some ways, it's kind of a grown up "Breakfast Club," with a spiritual/religious bent. Estevez somehow got his dad to bottle his politics and focus on his Catholicism long enough to make the movie, which does contain one or two subtle visual allusions to Breakfast Club.
If you haven't seen it, it's worth (IMHO) taking the time to watch. It also serves as a very tender bookend to Martin Sheen's 1988 movie, Da, in which Sheen plays an Irish born playwrite who is living in NYC and has to return to Ireland to sort through his father's affairs after his father dies. The Way is likewise a touching movie about generational relationship, with Sheen as the father this time, dealing with the death of his son.
Times were different then. Hughes’ movies were practically innocent in comparison with other teen movies in the 1980’s.
Think of ‘Risky Business’ and ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High.’ Then, there was ‘Weird Science,’ etc.
Times were different then. Hughes’ movies were practically innocent in comparison with other teen movies in the 1980’s.
You’re not kidding.
“Planes, Trains and Automobiles is one of the funniest movies ever.
Great movie. John Candy was just fantastic, and had great chemistry with Steve Martin as the straight guy.”
I have not seen it in years. Thanks. I will get hold of it and watch it again. It 38 years old. Can you believe that!
The thing about “Breakfast Club” is that it points out that our teen years are a pivotal time...
++++++
I’m 61 and watched Breakfast Club for the first time just this past year. Pretty much everything you said in your post is spot on. I thought it was a good movie and quite funny. Also wished Molly was in my high school.
yes, recall reading about it, but never saw it. Will remember it for the future.
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I tend to agree. All his movies are mostly sight gags. Typical Chevy Chase stuff, prat falls, toilet paper stuck to someone’s shoe, pie in the face. Like those stupid Family Guy or American Dad cartoons.
The words they say are rarely funny. I saw Planes, Trains & Automobiles on a plane, actually, and was not amused. One of the worst films ever.
Yoga, meditation, a vacation to a sunny location, strong alcohol might be of help.
Yes, they are and they are reflective of the times.
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