Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Steelbook Edition - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Steelbook Edition



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
The only time I've reviewed this amazing classic was in the John Hughes 5 film boxset, but very little needs to be said for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Widely considered John Hughes biggest cult hit, surpassing even Pretty in Pink for the most popular and wide appealing film he ever did, it was the movie that made skipping school fun, abusing the principal funny, and Matthew Broderick a god among men for a while. Plus, it just so happens to have a million quotable lines that still make themselves prevalent in today’s pop culture. It was THE teenage adventure movie of the 1980s and probably one of my top 3 comedies of all times. I’ve very rarely said that a movie is “perfect” (even with a 5/5 rating), but Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is about as close to perfect as you can get.

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) is the class clown at his school, and probably the most beloved person at said school. Well, except for Principal Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) and Ferris’s own sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey). He’s been absent WAAAAAAY too many days to count, and while Principal Rooney thinks he’s got Ferris right where he wants him, young Master Bueller has access to a computer and a desire to have a day off with the company of his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) and best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck). What ensues next is a day of fun, hijinks, moral quanderies, and a off Principal Rooney trying to catch Ferris at his own game.

It’s almost an effort in futility to describe Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The movie is completely whimsical, full of a million different vignettes and plot twists, along with some discussion about what the future holds for these 3 seniors in high school. The movie reeks of John Hughes bubblegum pop humor, but foregoes much of the romance that defines Hughes for many of his fans. I would say that Ferris Bueller’s Day Off reaches a wider variety of audiences than his previous films, as it focuses on whimsical adventures rather than teen love. It still shows the tale of young people coming up into adulthood in their own way, but it’s much more fun and lovable over the soap opera style that Hughes can sometimes fall into.

The humor is nothing short of magical, and both Alan Ruck and Matthew Broderick destroy their respective roles. But what always makes a John Hughes movie so memorable is not JUST the main characters. It’s the side kicks and background characters that fully flesh out his films, and Ferris Bueller does so in spades. Jennifer Grey as Ferris’s jealous sister, a cameo by a VERY young Charlie Sheen, and Jeffrey Jones is priceless as the fall guy Mr. Rooney. When I heard that they were trying to do a remake of this film I felt sickened and horrified. Not because I felt like it was sacrilegious and the first movie above reproach, but simple that Ferris Bueller’s Day off was the very definition of lightning in a bottle. It was the type of movie that could only have been made during it’s respective time period, and was such a fantastic and wonderful mixture of EVERYTHING blending perfectly, that even trying to replicate that by having lightning strike twice in the same place is an effort in futility.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

Now, I’m not going to lie that I was a BIT nervous going into this review. I love Ferris Bueller’s Day off, but after how badly Planes, Trains and Automobiles turned out on 4K (another John Hughes classci) I was sitting in my chair as the disc started up praying to myself “please don’t be awful, please don’t be awful”. Well, I can happily say that this is NOT a repeat of that debacle. Given a brand new master and restoration (not sure how in depth it was but just going off the press release given to us), our good friend Ferris Bueller looks AMAZING in 2160p. The entire film has been given a gigantic breath of fresh air with the new master that fixes 99% of the issues that the mediocre and aging Blu-ray suffers from. The first being that we have actual film grain instead of every bit being scrubbed out completely, and the detail levels show massive improvement. The old Blu-ray was a waxy scrubbed “meh” of a film, but here we have tons of details, with brightly saturated colors that really pop off the screen. Check out the scene where Cameron is lying catatonic on the brick wall. You can see every bit of stubble and razor burn on Alan Ruck’s face. Or the black eyes and creases under Charlie Sheen’s eyes in the police office. There has definitely been some grain management applied to this release, but it's very judicious and looks clean as a whistle rather than waxy and problematic

The HDR application is superb here, adding rich and deeply saturated colors that don’t looks washed out and faded as they did on the Blu-ray. Black levels are superb, and overall this entire film just feels like it got new life. I don’t usually say this, but Paramount out did themselves here, and outside of a couple of naturally soft scenes (the kids talking outside while they try and run back the odometer, or the opening couple of minutes), this is a stunner.









Audio:

Ok, even I have to admit that the Dolby Atmos capabilities on the disc are a bit overkill. Ferris isn’t an action film. It’s a mid budget comedy from the 1980s that had a perfectly capable 5.1 mix from the Blu-ray (nothing special, but not bad). While it IS overkill, the addition of the extras channels does tweak the listening experience just a tad in places. The entire track sounds a bit fuller and richer during the infamous parade sequence, as well as some minor tweaks in ambient overhead noise with the crowds. Bass is tighter and cleaner, and I noticed a lighter sound to the mix with a stronger dynamic range (music to dialog scenes in particular). Is it overkill? Oh yeah, but it’s the best the audio track has ever sounded and is a welcome addition rather than just recycling the old 5.1 TrueHD track that was merely “serviceable”. A half point improvement from 4/5 to 4.5/5 with our new Atmos mix.







Extras:

• Audio Commentary with Director John Hughes
• Getting the Class Together: The Cast of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• The Making of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Who is Ferris Bueller?
• The World According to Ben Stein
• Vintage Ferris Bueller: The Lost Tapes

Final Score: ​

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off has a bit of everything for everyone in it. It’s part teen movie, part coming of age, part fantasy, and part comedy in a blend that just defined the late 1980s. Yet somehow, the flick still manages to be relevant today, despite many cultural shifts that would make most other movies from nearly 40 years ago to be obsolete. What’s even more amazing (after the debacle that was Planes, Trains and Automobiles), is that the 4K UHD disc is utterly SUPERB in audio and video, leaving the lackluster Blu-ray straight in the dust. On the bright side, it looks like we have all of the old extras from the Blu-ray, as well as an audio commentary that I don't ever remember being on the Blu-ray as well. I’m a bit frustrated that Paramount persists in leaving out the Blu-ray (to be fair, we have at least one copy of it sitting on our shelves), but overall this is a technically amazing disc and and the premiere way of seeing this film outside of a theater. (This version here that I'm linking to is the steelbook version that I received, but the regular 4K edition is identical in all but packaging and available on amazon as well).


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck, Jeffrey Jones, Jennifer Grey
Directed by: John Hughes
Written by: John Hughes
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DVS, German, Spanish, French, Italian DD 2.0
Subtitles: English, English SDH, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 103 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 1st, 2023

Recommendation: Great Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. A great movie to have!

 

[Todd Anderson]

Love that a stone-cold classic like this is getting upgrade it deserves!