National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is the perhaps best of the Vacation sequels, and, somehow, the one that feels the most different from the others, probably because it doesn’t actually involve the Griswold family actually traveling anywhere. You...
by Vincent Leo · Published December 15, 2012 · Last modified November 22, 2019
It’s the day before Samantha Baker’s (Ringwald) older sister’s wedding. It’s also Samantha’s birthday. While her family all fuss and fret over the nuptials, they forget entirely Sam on her ‘Sweet 16’. The embarrassing grandparents...
1980s / Comedy / Fantasy / Science Fiction
by Vincent Leo · Published April 27, 2010 · Last modified November 17, 2020
In April of 1984, on the strength of his yet-to-be-released debut feature as director, Sixteen Candles, and his scripts for The Breakfast Club and Weird Science, the prolific John Hughes entered into a $30...
1980s / Comedy / Drama / Romance
by Vincent Leo · Published March 15, 2009 · Last modified August 6, 2018
The 1980s were full of “wrong side of the tracks” romances, from Valley Girl to Say Anything, and in Pretty in Pink, screenwriter John Hughes (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Mr. Mom) tells the story from the perspective of a lower-class...
1990s / Comedy / Family / Thriller
by Vincent Leo · Published April 24, 2007 · Last modified April 17, 2019
The gang is back, and once again, the youngest of the McCallister family, Kevin (Culkin, Uncle Buck), is separated when his family goes on vacation in Miami (how does one lose the only member of...
The last of writer-director John Hughes’ teen films, though it probably is more remembered as one for younger kids, Uncle Buck once again casts John Candy as another troublesome adult who stumbles his way through life, causing...
In the mid-1980s, it seemed that writer-director John Hughes (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles) could no no wrong. That’s certainly the case with The Breakfast Club, the most adult of his teen pictures, and certainly...
After breadwinner Jack Butler (Keaton) gets laid off from his job, his wife Caroline (Garr) heads out to make a living while he stays home with the three kids. Jack immediately finds out that being a...
Perhaps the biggest surprise about Home Alone is not that it is liked by many people, especially as a movie to watch around Christmas — it’s that it would become a mega-blockbuster, shooting straight up...
JUST VISITING is one of those remakes that will make you say “Why did they bother?” After all, this is an American remake of a French film that only came out eight years before,...
Reviews from film writer Vince Leo, covering all eras and genres of films from classics to the latest releases.
Film reviews from Vince Leo, from classics to new releases, since 1996.
