No John Hughes, No 1980s

Without John Hughes, would there have been a 1980s? The filmmaker and screenwriter died of a heart attack while walking Thursday in Manhattan. For the uninitiated, he wrote National Lampoon’s Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Weird Science and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off–directing several of those films as well.

Memories of Hughes’s films are as likely to be audio as visual: The Psychedelic Furs, The Smiths, and Simple Minds were among the acts introduced to a wider audience through Hughes’s sonically-savvy films. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 80s, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, John Hughes, Molly Ringwald, National Lampoon's Vacation
Posted Aug 7th 2009 at 9:34 am in Classic Hollywood, Culture | 20164639 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dflynn/2009/08/07/no-john-hughes-no-1980s/No+John+Hughes%2C+No+1980s2009-08-07+16%3A34%3A55Daniel+J.+Flynn

Remembering a ‘Sweet’ Little Birthday

“Wax on, wax off.” “He slimed me.” “Fortune and Glory, kid.” “I’ll be back.” “Don’t get him wet. Keep him out of bright light. And never feed him after midnight.”

It’s hard to believe that a quarter century has passed since that magical movie summer of 1984. The calender year of George Orwell’s dire dystopian nightmares had arrived, but instead of a nation writhing in servitude to Big Brother, America was delighting in the prosperity engineered by Big Gipper. Throughout the summer of ‘84, the greatest president of the twentieth century was cruising to the single largest electoral total ever amassed by a presidential candidate in our history, and “It’s Morning Again in America” commercials were playing on TV’s across the land to widespread approval. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 1984 (book), American Graffiti (1973), American Pie (1999), Anthony Michael Hall, Apple Macintosh
Posted May 5th 2009 at 8:07 am in Entertainment | 125742One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2009/05/05/remembering-a-sweet-little-birthday/Remembering+a+%27Sweet%27+Little+Birthday2009-05-05+15%3A07%3A03Leo+Grin

The Secret Life of the American Teenager Is Boring as Hell

With the possible exception of Roman Polanski, I suspect I might have been the only adult male over the age of 40 who watched the second-season opener of the ABC Family dramedy The Secret Life of the American Teenager earlier this week. I watched not because I am the heterosexual version of intern-trolling former Rep. Mark Foley (Maf54, where are you?), but to have some quality time with my 15 year-old son, who likes the show but can’t explain why (I suspect it might have to do with the idea that kids his age are having sex).

The show, which follows the (mis)adventures of a high schooler Amy who hooked up with a classmate at band camp and got preggers as a result, was a mini-hit last year and a mini-scandal. It’s most horrifying depredation to contemporary mores? The memento mori that is a puffy and still-largely talentless Molly “Sixteen Candles” Ringwald, who plays the lead character’s divorced mom. Like a boob-tube Ozymandias, look upon her visage and despair.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Molly Ringwald, Secret Life of American Teenager, teen pregnancy
Posted Jan 9th 2009 at 10:48 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics | 1294548 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ngillespie/2009/01/09/the-secret-life-of-an-american-teenager-is-boring-as-hell/The+Secret+Life+of+the+American+Teenager+Is+Boring+as+Hell2009-01-09+18%3A48%3A15Nick+Gillespie