Gene Siskel on FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF

Back in 1986, I saw FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF at a sneak preview. I loved it. I was already going around telling everyone it was the funniest movie of the year before it came out.

Then, I saw this review:



Gene Siskel didn't like it, and I was shocked. How can he not love this film?

In the years since, my opinion of the film has changed. Every time I watched it, Siskel's complaint that Bueller had nothing to say when he looked in the camera stayed with me.

The final straw came when I watched the film on DVD, where John Hughes gives one of the dullest, driest commentaries you are likely to hear. By that time, I was now on the side of Gene Siskel.

Now, I no longer love FERRIS BUELLER. The character and the situations bother me.

It has taken me twenty plus years, but Gene Siskel was right.

NOTE: This post contains a YouTube clip. If you are reading from an outside site, click through to view.

GREAT MOVIE SONGS: "Young Hearts" from KARATE KID

THE KARATE KID will always be one of my favorite movies. Released in the summer of 1984, I saw it several times theatrically. When I wasn't in the theatre, I was wishing I could be back there watching it again.

You don't have that same reaction to movies as you get older.

When I wasn't watching it, I was listening to the soundtrack. One song especially.



"Young Hearts" by a band called Commuter (who I had never heard of before or since). It was played in the film when Ralph Macchio and Elisabeth Shue are at the arcade.

Even though the lyrics of the song are a bit silly (what is that "rubber plastic metal glass" line about?), the song worked in the film and when hearing it now, makes you think of the film.

The film had several other songs, but this would always be my favorite. In fact, it is even on my iPod.

80's TV: Connect Four Commercials

Who didn't have a Connect Four game in the 70's and 80's? I had one but the legs broke so it was kind of useless after that.

One of the reasons they were so popular was because of their TV commercials.



Even today, you still hear references to "Pretty sneaky, sis" on sitcoms.

While that ad played for years, it was later replaced with this one:



No "pretty sneaky, sis" line, but that song is now stuck in my head again, after not having heard it for 20 years or so.

And in case you were wondering, they still sell Connect Four. Just noticed they were on Amazon.

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO: Robert MacNaughton

E.T. was one of the biggest films of the 1980’s.

But what happened to Robert MacNaughton who played the older brother? Where did he go?

E.T. wasn’t MacNaughton’s first role. He began in a few TV movies. The most notable of these was the excellent 1980 migrant worker drama, ANGEL CITY. This was also one of the first major roles of Jennifer Jason Leigh.

He starred in a couple more TV movies, 1981’s BIG BEND COUNTRY and the Ray Bradbury adaptation THE ELECTRIC GRANDMOTHER in 1982.


Then, there was E.T. It was an instant classic both with critics and audiences. MacNaughton was very good as the older brother of Elliot and Gertie.

Drew Barrymore is now a megastar. Henry Thomas is still acting and appears regularly in films. Their mom, Dee Wallace Stone, is in a lot of commercials. Even C. Thomas Howell was an 80’s icon and just turned up on 24.



His follow up film in 1983 was playing the lead in an adaptation of the Robert Cormier novel I AM THE CHEESE. The book was republished with MacNaughton’s picture on the cover (my 5th grade classroom had a copy), but I never once saw the film play in theatres, or even on VHS. It is now on DVD.

He starred in an Afterschool Special as well as a couple TV movies. In 1987 he starred in VISITORS, a Dennis Potter scripted drama for the BBC.

His final acting role was an episode of NEWHART in 1987.

So, what ever happened to him?

MacNaughton never really saw himself as an actor. He moved to Phoenix, tried to do theatre, but moved away from that.


Today, he is a mail handler in Phoenix. Just think, for those living in the Southwest, your mail is being sorted by a film star!

Married, he has a son.

In interviews, he sounds happy with his life, and his family, far away from the Hollywood spotlight.