Hughes and the 80s

John Hughes is not a man, he is a legend. If you are scratching your head right now, you need only turn to those who were teenagers in the 80s. Hughes gave a voice to the angsty teenager (often in the form of Molly Ringwald) and opened the door to a flood of copycats that continue to saturate the market. While he hasn't directed anything since 1991, Hughes continues to write. Here's a little retrospective on Hughes as an 80s (mad?) genius. By the end, so much fun will be had that, in the immortal words of Clark W. Griswold, you will "be whistling 'Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah' out of your assholes." Enjoy.

Mr. Mom was a shout out to stay-at-home dads. Besides being downright funny, it's packed with binkies, carnivorous vacuum cleaners, and nympho neighbors.



Then, of course, there's Vacation. (Warning: Contains language not suitable when the boss is looming.)




Hughes made his directorial debut with this lil' gem called Sixteen Candles. He also wrote this story which follows the high school shenanigans of Sam, Jake Ryan, and the Donger.



Hughes then made detention fun in the "tragicomedy" The Breakfast Club.



After a return to the Griswold's in 1985's Europeon Vacation ("Oink oink, my good man") and Weird Science (a film that briefly made Kelly LeBrock famous), Hughes teamed up with Ringwald again, writing Pretty in Pink. Was I the only one pissed off that Andie chose that stick-up-his-ass Blane over Duckie??




Next, Hughes wrote and directed 1986's Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a film that gave teens everywhere the know-how to skip school (and avoid guys like this.)



Hughes then wrote a slew of comedies which continued the themes of teens and the caste systems in which they navigate (with a little John Candy thrown in here and there), including Some Kind of Wonderful, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, and The Great Outdoors. (He also directed Planes and Baby.) At the end of the 80s, he would drop one more guilty morsel on our plates: Uncle Buck.

Sadly, Hughes jumped into the kiddie pool in the 90s and 00s with five Beethoven films (the one about the dog), four Home Alone films, and some other forgettable fare. Maybe I just needed to be a teen in the 90s to appreciate these later films. I suppose some blogger could be posting a story right now about how Curly Sue changed his life.

Geek links

--For those who can't wait, here's a preview of tonight's Lost plus a little background on Charlie and Jack.

--AOL is streaming (for free) Tori Amos' new album and the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack which includes the likes of The Flaming Lips, Snow Patrol, and The Oohlas.

--Speaking of the web-slinger, MSN compares Spider-Man to real spiders in this article.

--Ain't It Cool News reports that Del Toro's Hellboy2 has named a villian.

--Over at Cinematical, they say Choke, adapted from Chuck Palahniuk's novel (he also wrote Fight Club) may be a go.

--True Geeks, check out Code Guardian, a cool little CGI film in two parts (part 2 is to the right of the main screen.) I realize the implicit (or perhaps blatant) social commentary, but I'll leave that to you.

--Here's a nice article on Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival.

--Squirrel problems? You need Twirl-a-squirrel. I especially like how the squirrels appear to be drunk after being subjected to the gadget (and I hate those smug birds. Damn you, smug birds!)

--The Phat Tree has posted a very funny Fifteen Unintentionally Homoerotic Films (with video!)