4k-UHD/Movie Review: Career Opportunities

 

Career Opportunities is a 1991 coming-of-age romantic comedy. It was written by prolific 80s writer and director John Hughes and directed by Bryan Gordon in his first major directing role. The film starred Frank Whaley, Jennifer Connelly, Dermot Mulroney, and Kieran Mulroney in the leading roles. The supporting cast included John M Jackson, Jenny O'Hara, Noble Willingham, Barry Corbin, William Forsythe, and John Candy (in an uncredited cameo role). The movie was filmed in 1989, but because of post-production issues and reshoots, it was not released until 1991. 

In the film, Whaley plays Jim Dodge, a 21-year-old slacker with little to no ambition and a reputation as the "town liar" in his small Illinois town. His only friends are a group of pre-teen kids who are the only ones who believe his lies about how wonderful his life is. In reality, Jim gets fired from every job he manages to get, and is content to live at home forever. His father gives him an ultimatum to get (and keep) the job he lined up at the local Target as a night janitor, or he will ship him off to St. Louis to work as a gardener. Connelly plays Josie McClellan, the daughter of the town's rich real-estate developer. She has the reputation of a spoiled rich girl and a tease, but the film reveals her life is not as idyllic as it seems. During Jim's first shift, he is locked in the store (seemingly alone) but discovers that Josie is locked in with him and the two bond until they are taken hostage by two criminals (played by Dermot and Kieran Mulroney) who are on a crime spree throughout the state.

The 4k set is a two-disc set released by Kino Lorber containing a UHD disc and a regular blu-ray disc. The A/V quality is outstanding, and the film looks and sounds wonderful in the UHD format. It is a considerable upgrade over the DVD release. The film has two commentary tracks (both recorded around 2023). One of the commentary tracks is by director Bryan Gordon, and the other is by the Chicago Critics' Film Festival producer, Erik Childress. Both tracks are good and provide a lot of information about the film. Gordon's commentary talks about the production, things he liked and did not like about the movie, and things he would have done differently if he made the film now. Childress' track focuses much more on the overall story, and the lost potential for the film to delve into Josie's storyline more. The other bonus content, available on the regular blu-ray disc, includes an interview with Dermot and Kieran Mulroney where they discuss how they got into acting and their work on the film (that runs about 15 minutes),  an interview with the director of photography (that runs about 11 minutes), and the trailer (along with trailers for Uncle Buck, The Hot Spot, and Some Girls). 

The movie is good, but uneven. It has a mix of comedy and drama, and the drama gets a bit dark when Josie reveals that she is being physically abused by her father and her motivations for wanting to get caught shoplifting. The movie is only an hour and 22 minutes long (including credits), and a lot was cut out (which you can tell from things in the trailer that did not make it into the film). It was revealed in the commentary tracks that neither Gordon nor Hughes liked the final product. Hughes even wanted his name taken off the film (which the studio refused to do). It was also revealed that Connelly was pissed off at how the movie was marketed, over sexualizing her character. Given that teenage boys were the film's target market, it is not surprising that it was marketed around Connelly's looks and assets (which got me to go see the film when it was released), but she was never told that would be the case. The movie is well-acted (all the actors did a good job with their characters), but the writing is uneven. There are definitely some funny moments in the film and some good dramatic moments, but it feels disjointed (probably because of the reshoots that the studio required). Ultimately, it is an okay movie that does take some suspension of disbelief to buy what is going on (such as why a department store would only have one employee on the overnight shift to clean when in reality there would be people stocking shelves, more than one person cleaning, and there would at least be security cameras being monitored).  It is not nearly as good as Hughes' big hits like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Home Alone, etc. That said, it is still worth checking out as long as you do not try to overanalyze it too much.

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.