Ferris Bueller’s Day Off appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The Dolby Vision presentation worked exceedingly well.
Sharpness seemed solid. A few slightly soft shots materialized due to the source, but the majority of the film became tight and well-defined.
No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt natural, and print flaws failed to manifest.
Colors seemed lively. With a natural palette, we got a nice array of hues, and HDR made them vivid and full.
Blacks were dark and tight, and shadows looked concise. HDR added range and impact to whites and colors.
Although nothing mind-blowing, the movie's Dolby Atmos soundfield was fairly involving and engaging. Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the forward spectrum dominated and showed some decent stereo imaging.
The music spread cleanly across the front speakers, and I also heard occasional use of discrete effects. These panned relatively well across the channels, and the forward audio seemed cleanly integrated.
The surrounds contributed some solid sound as well. None of the effects from the surrounds were terribly impressive, but they seemed good for this kind of movie. Mostly it was the film’s music that was reinforced in the rear.
Clearly the soundfield didn’t compete with something from a more recent action spectacular, but I thought it seemed pretty good nonetheless, and it added a fine sense of place and involvement to the package.
Also positive was the quality of the audio. Speech appeared distinct and natural, with no issues related to intelligibility or edginess. Effects were clean and realistic and showed no signs of distortion.
The music seemed clear and bright and displayed good low-end. As a whole, the track lacked much deep bass, but I found the dynamics to seem fairly satisfying, with most of the low-end stemming from the flick’s pop songs. The soundtrack of Ferris worked well for the film it served.
How did the 4K UHD compare with the last Blu-ray from 2021? The Atmos mix might’ve become a bit more involving than its 5.1 counterpart, but given the movie’s limited scope, the two seemed pretty similar.
The 4K’s Dolby Vision image offered obvious improvements, as it seemed better defined, cleaner and more dynamic. This turned into a clear upgrade over the less than stellar BD.
Note that the 2021 Blu-ray literally duplicated the original original 2009 BD. The 4K represented the movie’s first remastering in years.
Absent from all Blu-ray versions of the film, the 4K finally restores the DVD’s audio commentary with writer/director John Hughes. He offers a running, screen-specific chat that looks at cast and performances, sets, locations and production design, story and character choices, music, and a few other topics.
Given his usual reluctance to participate in DVD extras, I feared Hughes wouldn’t tell us much here. Instead, he generates a lot of good info about the movie, and he proves quite insightful along the way.
Hughes clearly put a lot of thought into characters and story subjects, and he takes us inside his choices with many notes that flesh out the personalities and situations. This becomes a consistently interesting track.
From there we head to featurettes found on the Blu-rays, where we open with Getting the Class Together: The Cast of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. This program runs 27 minutes, 45 seconds as it brings notes from Hughes (circa 1986), casting directors Jane Jenkins and Janet Hirshenson, and actors Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara (1986), Jennifer Grey (1985 and today), Lyman Ward, Cindy Pickett, Jeffrey Jones, Edie McClurg, Ben Stein, Richard Edson, Kristy Swanson, and Jonathan Schmock.
“Class” looks at how the various actors got their roles, aspects of their characters, and experiences during the shoot. It moves briskly and covers its subject well. I’m happy to see Broderick and most of the other main actors here, and I like that we learn a little about the smaller parts as well. This turns out to be a fun piece.
For the next featurette, we find The Making of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It goes for 15 minutes, 29 seconds and features remarks from Stein, Broderick, Jones, Hughes (circa 1986), McClurg, Ruck, Grey, and producer Tom Jacobson.
We find out how quickly Hughes tossed off the script, Hughes’ direction and other aspects of the filming, editing, the film’s 1961 Ferrari, the parade sequence, and reactions to the flick.
“Making” doesn’t provide a concise, beginning-to-end look at the film’s creation. However, it does give us a nice impression of the flick. We get a mix of good details and a few fine insights. I especially like McClurg’s comments about her work with Jones. All that and plenty of archival shots that show Hughes’ absurd 1986 mullet!
In Who Is Ferris Bueller?, we get a nine-minute, 12-second featurette. We hear from Hughes (circa 1987), Jones (1985), Broderick (1986 and 2006), Grey, Jones, Ruck, Pickett, Stein, and Sara (1986). The show discusses the Ferris character as well as Broderick. A few decent notes about both elements appear, but mostly we find a lot of praise and fluff.
A take on one of the movie’s more popular supporting actors comes from The World According to Ben Stein. This piece fills 10 minutes, 51 seconds as it offers details from Stein.
He chats about his life and career as well as reflections on Ferris. How many featurettes include the phrase “self-pitying bipeds”? Stein gives us that and also compares Ferris to Jesus. Add to that a few nice insights and some fun stories to get a solid little clip.
After this we find Vintage Ferris Bueller: Lost Tapes, a featurette that lasts 10 minutes, 16 seconds. “Lost” provides comments from the movie set, where we hear from Broderick, Jones, Ruck and Sara.
They chat about the shoot, the story and the characters. These can be fun, and we also get to see a short deleted clip. Obviously “Lost” lacks the perspective of modern comments, but it makes up for that in immediacy.
The 4K drops a collection of publicity stills from the Blu-ray. I don’t miss them.
Perhaps the fact I’m not wild about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off makes me a traitor to my generation, and the film certainly has maintained a big audience over the last 35 years. I just never really enjoyed it, as I find it to provide sporadic entertainment and not much more.
The 4K UHD delivered excellent visuals as well as good audio and an appealing collection of bonus materials. I may not love the movie, but the 4K brought it home well.
To rate this film visit the DVD review of FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF
