As much as I like this film, I actually consider Planes, Trains and Automobiles John Hughes' best film. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is immensely fun and likable as both a comedy and a film. It is marred slightly by some of the sentimentality, but the story is engaging and the script is smart and funny. Hughes does a very admirable job directing, and the film also boasts some lovely cinematography and a catchy soundtrack. Then there is the acting, I liked all the performances in this movie. Matthew Broderick indeed plays an arrogant, spoiled and bratty sort of character, but he actually manages to give him some likability too. Alan Ruck is also excellent as his melancholy friend, and Mia Sara is gorgeous as his girlfriend. But it is Jeffrey Jones who almost steals the show as he suffers all those humiliations he goes through. In conclusion, I like it a lot and it is one of Hughes' best. 9/10 Bethany Cox

One of the iconic films of the 80s is Ferris Bueller's Day Off in which a Puck like Matthew Broderick in the title role decides he's going to break all the rules and flout convention. He's simply going to what he wants on that day.

With two chosen companions Mia Sara and Alan Ruck, Broderick goes off and just has his day. Of course he feigns illness so that parents Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward just think Broderick is under the covers suffering.

Something about Broderick's flouting all the rules and conventions of the day just gets to certain people. One of them is his sister Jennifer Grey. The other and the Wile E. Coyote of the piece is assistant principal Jeffrey Jones. For whatever reasons that drive this man he has made it his life's ambitions to nail Matthew Broderick in the act of doing something he ought not.

Jones really got a career role out of this film. So did to a lesser extent Broderick. I think you would get a more varied response if you were ask people to name the role they associate with his name.

You can see why in the years of the Brat Pack this John Hughes film struck such a chord. The kids are cool and hip although in the case of Ruck trying to be. And the adults are symbolized by Jones, just uptight and rather stupid.

In fact in a scene at a police station Jennifer Grey meets up with Charlie Sheen who was getting his first notice. If you can imagine an outlaw kid like Sheen plays convincing Grey she ought to embrace her brother's rebellion.

One wonders now that Ferris Bueller and Matthew Broderick are not forty somethings how they feel about their kids flouting the rules.

I quite enjoy the long and successful run of films that John Hughes had back in the 1980s; PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES has long been one of my very favourite comedies. I'd seen bits and pieces of FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF in the past, but never once had I sat down and watched it all the way through - until now.

To say that I was disappointed is an understatement. I should like BUELLER because it has an easy-going charm and plenty of incident packed into the running time, but I ended up hating it, and for one reason alone: Bueller himself. He's the most idiotic, sarcastic, and sheer unlikeable protagonist I've seen in a film in a good long time, and never once could I warm to his supposed humour or character. He's a prime example of hubris, thinking himself better than his friends, his classmates, his parents, and his teachers, and I despised him for it. Even worse, Hughes seems to celebrate this cockiness in the character, never once cutting him down to size. This film is the reason I don't like Matthew Broderick as an actor (well, this and GODZILLA),even though he'd previously been good in WAR GAMES.

The film itself adopts a journey narrative and offers a handful of memorable set-pieces, including Charlie Sheen's cameo, the elaborate bedroom set-up, and a great public sing-along to the Beatles song. And, although I'm no fan of the actor, Jeffrey Jones has a great role as the antagonist of the piece. FERRIS BUELLER is light-hearted, brash, and full of humour, so it's just a pity that I didn't identify with the jerk lead in any way, shape or form, rendering this a near-unwatchable movie for me.