Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Career Opportunities

 

Career Opportunities is a movie that was written by the great John Hughes, who wrote and directed some of the most iconic movies from the 80s and early 90s The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Home Alone but was not nearly as good as any of those. The movie starred Frank Whaley, who has become a pretty decent character actor in his later career, as a slacker named Jim Dodge, a recent high-school graduate with no job but definitely has delusions of grandeur. His only talent seems to be impressing the local 12-year-olds. His dad gives him an ultimatum to get a job (and not get fired) or move out of the house. The problem is that nobody in town will hire him, knowing what a con artist he is. So, he is forced to take a job as the night janitor at the newly opened Target store. He ends up getting locked in with the local hot, but seemingly unattainable girl Josie, played by Jennifer Connelly. Then we get this mish-mash of a rom-com plot mixed with knockoff versions of Ferris Bueller (Whaley's character) and the home-alone burglars, played by Dermot Kieran Mulroney, who are bank robbers also looking to knock off the Target store.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the A/V quality is good, but not great. It is a slight step up from the quality of the DVD release, but it definitely did not get a great remaster. The extras are fairly sparse. The main one is a commentary track on the movie by a film critic, and some trailers for the movie as well as other Kino Lorber releases.

Overall, the movie is fun, but kind of dumb. Connelly was just at the point of her career where she was about to become a bigger star, having transitioned from child actor to more adult roles in this movie and The Hot Spot. This was pretty much the last movie she made in which she would be there mostly for eye candy, which the cover of the Blu-Ray pretty much establishes that she was. In fact, I saw an interview with Whaley years later in which he said that they never actually took that picture, but that it was photoshopped for the movie poster to capitalize on her sex appeal. For many of us who were teenagers back in the early 90s, it worked because Connelly in a tight tank top was definitely the main attraction. But, Whaley did a good job as a wisecracking Ferris-lite type character. The plot was totally unrealistic if, for no other reason, there is no way a single janitor is the only employee in the store overnight, and could never really figure out exactly what kind of movie it wanted to be. But, if you turn off your brain and don't over-analyze it, the movie is pretty fun and a nostalgic blast from the past.