This John Hughes film always felt as though it belonged in a slightly different universe to this others - you could see the kids of Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful all going to the same... not so much Ferris. Partly the optimism, partly because of breaking the fourth wall... he seems to fit in more with Sixteen Candles or even Weird Science.
Like most of the Hughes classics it has a brilliantly simple, universally identifiable idea - who didn't want to take the day off school? Or even work? There are many memorably moments, and characters - Ferris, tormented Cameron, jealous sister Jeanie, the drug selling teen, antagonist Rooney. Dream girl Sloan isn't that memorable.
Fascinating to see what's in the script that was cut from the final film - Ferris and his friends visit a strip bar, Ferris talks about a girl he knows who sleeps around, Ferris steals money from his sister and parents,Ferris mocks the baby boomers for being ex hippies. All really, really good cuts. (Some of Ferris' whingeing and racism still makes the final film eg complaining about not having a car, asking the car valet if he speaks English).
It has the energy and pace of a script written very quickly - unfortunately also the flaws... the plotting isn't the best. Jeanie and Rooney are both set up to go after Ferris but they don't do much other than go to the home. (NB that end credit sequence of Rooney getting on a bus is revealed to have taken place a lot earlier in the script).
A lively, energetic, flawed script - but still, I think few writers have come near Hughes when it comes to making entertaining teen films.
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