John Hughes

December 12, 2011

“A lovely cheese pizza, just for me.”

Few films bring on overwhelming rushes of nostalgia for me like Home Alone. There’s no way to determine the number of times I’ve watched Kevin fear sharing the Hide-A-Bed will Fuller, eat ice cream while watching Angels With Filthy Souls, and light Joe Pesci’s head on fire. But let me tell you friends: it’s a lot.

For me, Home Alone is the film of my youth, and although I’ve quoted it for years (and can pretty much recite the entire screenplay while watching it), I had never considered it a Christmas movie. Growing up, it was an adventure flick about a clever wise-ass kid setting traps for dumb-ass crooks. “This is [his] house. [He has] to defend it.” *chick chick*

Over the years and as I’ve continued to watch this movie on a regular basis, what I see in it has changed. Home Alone is a Christmas movie. It is also, very obviously, about family. Kevin gets his Christmas wish a few days early, making his kinsfolk disappear (to France without him) and he spends the next few days living on his own realizing how much he misses them, and even teaches the local shovel-slayer about family along the way.

Home Alone, just like Christmas, brings me back to my childhood. It reminds me of being a kid and playing with my sister and sitting beside our multi-coloured Christmas tree watching movies. Also, tell me: does anyone do Christmas cinema like Chris Columbus? I think not.

This is why it made for the perfect film to kick off our annual Christmas Movie Marathon.

August 14, 2009

Speaking of John Hughes…



I was going through some of my UPEI stuff today when I came across this video I did at the end of last summer to promote the contest to name the UPEI Panther. Any John Hughes fan should recognize the several Breakfast Club references towards the end…

August 8, 2009

Memorial Movie Marathon: John Hughes edition.

I was quite shocked/upset to hear about iconic 80′s teen movie writer and director John Hughes passing this past week. I have always been a huge fan of Hughes, and always admired how he could make incredibly deep films whilst making each and every scene of his movies incredibly and genuinely entertaining. I think I re-watched his films more than any other filmmaker’s.

John HughesIn that spirit, it is only proper for myself (and any other John Hughes fan) to celebrate his life with a movie marathon. I plan to watch:

  • The Breakfast Club: My all time favorite high school movie.
  • Home Alone: He didn’t direct it, but I my sister and I have quoted this screenplay many, many times.
  • Weird Science: Which I will embarrassingly be seeing for the first time, although I have caught the odd episode of the TV show.
  • Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Which I have seen only once, but know it is worth seeing again (and again).
  • Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: My second all time favorite high school movie. (Rooney eats it).

I know this is only a taste of his work, but I don’t like suggesting marathons longer than five movies because they’ll never all get watched.

There has always been a handful of filmmakers I really wanted to have lunch with. Hughes, with his tight, well written, and amazingly entertaining and fun films (there are few of those these days) was most definitely on that list. I suspect we’d have eaten at Chez Quiz (reservation under “Froman”).