Weird Science (1985)

Just in case you haven't noticed, I've been watching a lot of teen movies from the 80s and 90s lately, partially because I don't have a lot of time and these movies are fairly short, partially because they've been on my list forever. Weird Science is one of those, and it ended up there because it's a John Hughes film. 

The story follows Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith), two very unpopular high school nerds who are not accepted by their peers — while the girls ignore them, the boys bully and embarrass them. One night, they are watching Frankenstein on the TV and they come up with the idea of creating their own creature using a computer program, only instead of a monster they want to create a gorgeous woman who can help them socially. Their experiment proves successful, and they create their perfect woman, Lisa (Kelly LeBrock). 

It comes without saying that the premise is incredibly stupid and, unfortunately, as the story progresses, it doesn't get any better. It's just idiocy after another, a plot hole followed by an even bigger plot hole, and overall nothing but a misogynist teen fantasy that bored me to death. 

The characters are perhaps even worse than the plot as every single one of them has no depth nor development. Furthermore, the leading duo, Gary and Wyatt, couldn't be anymore unlikeable than that. Actually, they can as they are pretty annoying and unlikeable at the beginning, and become more and more annoying as the film moves forward — if you have read my review of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, you know I didn't particularly like the character of Ferris because of Broderick, but Broderick was way more likeable than these two — as they do something bad, eventually realise it but don't stop a moment to reflect on what they did. As for the antagonist, Gary's brother (played by Bill Paxton) is nothing but the typical evil big brother who acts like a douche and makes his brother's life a living hell. And yet he is the most sympathetic character in the film. The fact that Bill Paxton gives a hilarious, over-the-top performance surely helps.

Universal Pictures

As for the comedy, apart from Paxton's performance, we don't get much of it. The humour is just lazy and stupid as most of the jokes are predictable and therefore dull and the gags aren't anything special. I have to say that, given the premise, the humour wasn't nearly as vulgar as I thought it'd be.

The film has some nice cameos though, one being from Vernon Wells who reprises his Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior role. Unfortunately, this, Paxton, some funny moments and the fact that the leading actors were actual teenagers aren't enough to make of Weird Science a solid and entertaining film. If anything, it's just a huge disappointment as I was not expecting something this stupid and lazy from John Hughes.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

I've been meaning to check out Ferris Bueller's Day Off since I saw the musical scene in Easy A but, for a reason or another — the latest being the idiotic idea to watch Step Brothers — I kept putting it off. 

The film follows a day in the life of Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), a popular high school student who gets away with everything. On this particular day, he fakes sick to take a day off from school and enjoy Chicago with his best friend, Cameron (Alan Ruck), and his girlfriend, Sloane (Mia Sara), while trying to outwit Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), the suspicious school principal who wants to prove Ferris is not sick, and his sister, Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), who is sick of her brother getting away with his tricks all the time. 

The plot is incredibly simple and predictable and yet it's still quite entertaining and fun to follow Ferris and his friends as they do their tricks to get/do what they want. Unfortunately, the subplots don't work at all. The one involving the school principal doesn't really belong to the film as it's nothing but lazy and unfunny slapstick and it's also quite annoying; the one involving Ferris's sister isn't particularly compelling.

The characters aren't that great either as they lack depth, proper development and likeability, starting from Ferris Bueller who is probably one of the most obnoxious (leading) characters I've seen on screen to Ferris's bland, bull girlfriend, Sloane. The only likeable and interesting character is Cameron as he struggles with standing up to his father but unfortunately, he's treated poorly.

John Hughes's poor screenplay, however, is not the aspect of Ferris Bueller's Day Off that bothered me the most, the acting is, or rather the cast. I guess Matthew Broderick is one of those actors you either like or hate, because so many people love him but I just can't with him. Anyways, his performance is average, and so are the others.

Paramount Pictures

Hughes's direction is not that great either, the biggest issues being his decision of having Ferris speaking directly to the camera, and therefore to the audience, which feels quite uncomfortable and disrupts the flow of the film.

Thankfully, the slapstick in the principal subplot isn't the only source of humour in the film. Although it's not laughing-out-loud funny, there's still plenty of humour in the film and overall it works well.