John Hughes’ death was one of the saddest things to happen to Hollywood. His ability to balance comedy with understanding relationships has provided us with many classics that have greatly influenced modern film-makers. Today, on his birthday, I have a list of my top ten Hughes films:
This was the last film John Hughes ever directed – although he went on to write and produce many more. An orphan Curly Sue and her guardian James Belushi make their way through life by scamming innocent people - but before you start to dislike them, it’s not for profit but just so they have enough to eat. Divorce lawyer Kelly Lynch hits Belushi with her car and feels so guilty she invites them to stay with her, much to the objections of her stereotypically horrible boyfriend. Queue fireworks as Belushi and Lynch fall in love and they become a nice little family. Sugary sweet but very enjoyable. Curly Sue is like the Artful Dodger meets Annie, minus the singing.
This is the second film that Hughes wrote for National Lampoon, and the first of the classic comedy series that showed Hughes’ talent for writing trips that go awry. It is considered by many to be Chevy Chase’s best non-Saturday Night Live work (obviously not including Community). Hughes creates a cursed vacation that’s fun to watch and makes you glad you can’t afford a holiday.
Completely off the wall and fulfils all teenage boys fantasies. The lesson of this film is that if you are lonely virgin, instead of going out and socialising, create a woman. Two geeks create the perfect woman on their computers and out pops Kelly LeBrock making me seriously question my sexuality and changing their lives forever. Hughes regular Anthony Michael Hall and barely known IIan Mitchell-Smith take the lead as the geeks alongside some lad called Robert Downey Jr and another called Bill Paxton. But they've gone on to do nothing with themselves. An underrated and completely stupid teen comedy.
A modern day Cinderella story: girl from the poor side of town dates the dashing, rich boy until outside influences cut their epic romance short. That is until the dance where Molly Ringwald wears the ugliest prom dress ever and they realise that nobody matters but each other. A sugar-coated, girly flick but one you just can’t help but love. The formulaic love story is overshadowed by James Spader as the smarmy, bad boy and, of course, the quirky (and stalkerish) best friend Duckie.
John Candy stars in this movie as a slovenly uncle who cares for his brother’s kids armed with the crappiest car in existence and some good old-fashioned power tools. Hughes and Candy worked together on numerous occasions and made a great partnership. On this occasion they managed to take a formulaic story, about a no-good uncle learning the meaning of love and family, and turn it into a classic.
The best role of Matthew Broderick’s career - he plays the high school slacker who fakes illness so he can skip school and take his girlfriend and best friend on a series of amazing adventures. Ferris should be considered a jackass – he forces his best friend to skip school, steals his dads car and then convinces his to take the fall for the destruction of it (the joys of peer pressure) - but Broderick manages to make his rebellious nature seem endearing. How dare Edward Rooney do his job and try to make sure students attend school. Teachers these days.
Two of the greatest comedy actors of all time: John Candy and Steve Martin. John Candy, a regular to John Hughes films, was never used more effectively than as the annoying salesman with a heart of gold. He drives forced his forced companion nuts as they struggle to get home for Thanksgiving. This film brings laughs from start to finish, when Hughes delivers his textbook heart-warming ending. It is extremely well written with two of the greatest comedy actors of their time.
This is Hughes’ most successful film and still remains one of the top grossing movies of all time. It defines the childhoods of every kid born in the 1980s and 1990s, and made Culken a household name. Kevin’s irresponsible parents leave him behind when they go on holiday and instead of calling social services, the police treat his mum like an overbearing mother. When two dim-witted thieves, played brilliantly by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, try to break in, Kevin is forced to use everything at his disposal to fight them off. This leads to an awesome 10 minutes of Kevin torturing them with tarantulas, irons and groin hitting. It also teaches kids to talk to strangers no matter how scary they look (clearly a good idea).
The Nerd, the Jock, the Princess, the Basketcase and the Criminal. This is the most iconic and influential teen film of all time. The five teenagers are forced to spend their Saturday together in detention and soon discover that they have more in common then they realised as they bond over dancing, weed and running from the teacher. It might be a clichéd premise now, but at the time it was one of a kind. Despite the majority of the film taking part in one room, every second of this film is hilarious. It is a poignant and honest look at high school life that teaches us many life lessons: everyone has feelings, cleavage can be used for lipstick application and fist pumping is always cool.
In at number one I am going to have to choose the inspiration of The Donger Needs Food, Sixteen Candles. It was the movie that started the 80’s teen movie craze, the Brat Pack and Molly Ringwald’s career, and on top of that it brought us Jake Ryan, Long Duck Dong and Farmer Ted. Caught up in the excitement of her older sister’s wedding to an oily bohunk, Ringwald’s family forget her sixteenth birthday. Dreams of a big party and a black Trans Am are replaced by a series of embarrassing moments: felt up by her grandma, forced to show around a foreign exchange student and a freshman showing everybody her underwear. That is until the perfect guy, Jake Ryan, makes her day of hell completely worthwhile by dumping his perfect girlfriend and whisking her off her feet – and since he cut his film career short and moved to Pennsylvania, this is one of very few chances to watch his beautiful face.
What are your favourite John Hughes films?
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