Ferris Bueller's Day Off on Blu-ray Disc Review by Brandon A. DuHamel on BigPictureBigSound

Blu-ray Disc and DVD : Blu-ray Disc Reviews

Published: 2009-05-01 - 15:04:21

Ferris Bueller's Day Off on Blu-ray Disc Review

By Brandon A. DuHamel

Save Ferris!

The Film

How many Gen-Xers out there don't remember the days when John Hughes reigned supreme as the arbiter of all things teen angst? His cycle of films in the 1980's gained an audience amongst some crowd of teens, regardless of clique or other affiliations. If you were of the female persuasion, chances were you found yourself drawn to Pretty in Pink or Sixteen Candles, whilst the guys probably leaned towards favoring Weird Science; a film like The Breakfast Club took in a slightly wider cross section of disaffected teens.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off, on the other hand, truly stretched across boundaries and was a hit with everyone. Who could not relate to the tale of this wisecracking high school senior out to do nothing more than skip school and have the time of his life with his best friend, Cameron (Alan Ruck), and girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) while outwitting his parents and high school dean?

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) allowed us all to live vicariously the feeling of liberation and empowerment against the adult establishment without the risk of getting busted ourselves. When he, umm, commandeers, Cameron's dad's classic Ferrari for a day out on the town in Chicago or performs "Twist and Shout" on a parade float, we all wished that could be us.

The comedic moments in Ferris Bueller's Day Off are plenty; there is, of course, Ben Stein's classic "Anyone...?" and "Beuller? Bueller? Bueller?" deadpan delivery, which he will probably never live down, but some of the best slapstick comes from Jeffrey Jones as the school's dean Ed Rooney in his efforts to expose Ferris' "sick day" for what it is, a ruse to play hooky.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off was most definitely John Hughes at the peak of his teen angst phase, and, sadly, from there he would move on to lesser, more forgettable fare, like a million "Home Alone" and "Beethoven" movies, but at least we'll always have Ferris.

The Picture

Ferris comes in a 1080p/24 AVC/MPEG-4 encoding of its original 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio. Those looking for spectacular HD picture quality of this 1980's classic will definitely be disappointed, however, as little has been done to clean up the source for its debut on Blu. Early on, the picture suffers from scratches down the left side of the frame. Straight through many speckles of dust and scratches creep up that hinder the presentation. Details are a bit soft and contrast is sometimes a little on the hot side, but flesh tones are accurate and compression artifacts aren't a problem. Still, this is an underwhelming catalogue release from Paramount.

The Sound

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is provided with English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless, French Dolby 2.0 and Spanish Mono audio options. The English TrueHD soundtrack is subtle, to say the least. The surround channels are mainly used for some ambient effects and there are some rare discrete foley effects panned into to the rear. The liveliest moments, as one might expect, come during Ferris' famous parade float performance and few scenes of the classic Ferrari roaring through the streets of downtown Chicago.

The mix has clear dialogue with no clipping, but like the video transfer, it is hardly reference quality and might have been just as well served by a simple 2.0 or 3.0 track.

The Extras

All of the added video extras are provided in standard definition, but they have managed to assemble most of the original cast and crew for interview segments, as well as unearth some classic behind-the-scenes footage.

The extras available on this release are:

Getting the Class Together -- The Cast of Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1.33:1; 480i/60) -- The original cast members reminisce about their time filming the comedy.
The Making of Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1.33:1; 480i/60) -- In this featurette, John Hughes reveals, in an interview segment from 1987, how he wrote the screenplay in six days under the threat of a looming writer's strike.
Who is Ferris Bueller? (1.33:1; 480i/60) -- The mindset of the Ferris Bueller character and actor Matthew Broderick's ability to play him is explored in this brief featurette.
The World According to Ben Stein (1.33:1; 480i/60) -- In a mixture of archival and more recent interview segments, Ben Stein discusses how his connections as a speech writer for Richard Nixon led to him getting the role in Ferris Bueller and his now classic, "Bueller…Bueller?" line.
Vintage Ferris Bueller: The Lost Tapes (1.33:1; 480i/60) -- Archival behind-the-scenes footage from the filming of Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Class Album -- Publicity stills.

Final Thoughts

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a fine film ill-served by this ho-hum transfer from Paramount. Whilst this Blu-ray release is surely superior to the DVD, it could have been done with far more care, so while the film is indeed recommended, perhaps this disc will remain a rental recommendation until it is redone properly.

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