The Final Cut (2004) or, Alan 'the Cutter' Hakman

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Robin Williams looks lost and uncomfortable on this inauspicious poster for Omar Naim's The Final Cut

In a future where devices record people's entire lives, Alan is a 'cutter' whose job it is to make uncritical edits of deceased people's lives. But his new, unsavory client gets him into danger.

A team of talented people are involved in this little-seen b-movie. Robin Williams (What Dreams May Come True (1998)) is good in the lead, and the set design, photography (by Tak Fujimoto (Gods Behaving Badly (2013))) and score (by Brian Tyler (Brake (2012))) are all professionally done.
The idea behind The Final Cut is interesting, but unfortunately it results in a rather banal story here. The film is written and directed by Omar Naim (When Simon Sleeps (1999)). It comes off as a somewhat sexless sci-fi thriller, which attempts to raise some issues that it can't quite handle persuasively in the end.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 3.6 mil. $
= Uncertain - but likely a huge flop
[The Final Cut premiered 11 September (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. Shooting took place in British Colombia, Canada and in Berlin, Germany from June - August 2003. The film opened and peaked at #27 to a weak 227k $ first weekend in 117 theaters in North America, where it grossed 548k $ (15.2 % of the total gross). The biggest market was Italy with 1.1 mil. $ (30.5 %). 2nd biggest was Spain with 586k $ (16.3 %). North America was the 3rd biggest. - If the film was made for a very modest 5 mil. $, it should be counted as a huge flop. - It could easily have been higher, in which case it may have actually been a mega-flop. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this one. Williams returned in House of D (2004). Naim only returned six years hence as co-director of the PBS documentary Stand Up: Muslim-American Comics Come of Age (2009) and then theatrically with Dead Awake (2010). The Final Cut is rotten at 37 % with a 5.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Final Cut?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) - Hughes' perfect movie of youth

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Matthew Broderick sports his boyish charms on this simple poster for John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller is a high school senior rebel who is about to take a wild day off in Chicago. He takes his introverted, anxious friend Cameron and attractive girlfriend Sloane into joining him on an adventure in Cameron's father's prized 1961 Ferrari.

For thousands upon thousands of people the world over, Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a sweetly nostalgic treasure that won't ever lose its magic. It is the perfect movie about youth, made by the great auteur of teenage portrayals, 1980s champion, Michigander master filmmaker John Hughes (Curly Sue (1991)), who wrote and directed the film.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off strikes a rare balance between being funny and serious, but in the first place it is hugely entertaining throughout.
Matthew Broderick (The Last Shot (2004)) is Ferris, and the supporting parts are also all brilliantly cast. Among the most memorable are Alan Ruck (Hot in Cleveland (2013), TV-series) as Cameron, who undergoes the great change in the film, effectively getting saved by Ferris into seeing the life and promises of the world all around him; Jeffrey Jones (Sleepy Hollow (1999)) as the sadistic principal and Charlie Sheen (Postmortem (1998)) in a prophetic role as a junkie. Although carpe diem is closely associated with Peter Weir's Dead Poets' Society (1989), - also a good film, - the film that truly earns the title as the seize-the-day movie of all time is Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off. - Simply a blast of a film.

Related post:

John Hughes: The Breakfast Club (1985) - John Hughes' detention classic

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 5.8 mil. $
Box office: 70.1 mil. $ (North America only)
= Mega-hit
[Ferris Bueller's Day Off was released 11 June (USA) and runs 103 minutes. Hughes wrote the script in less than a week and shot his first draft. He intended the film to be more about characters than plot. The first cut was 2 hours and 45 minutes. Broderick and Ruck were friends and had acted together before in Biloxi Blues on Broadway. Shooting took place from September - November 1985 in Illinois, including in Chicago, and in California, including in Los Angeles. Hughes made a point of getting as much of his beloved Chicago in the film as he could. The '61 Ferrari (today one of the most expensive cars ever sold) in the film was the real deal in insert shots and reproductions in wide shots SPOILER and for the destruction scene in the end. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Back to School, to a 6.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#5) and scored a triumphant 70.1 mil. $, becoming the year's 10th highest-grossing title in North America. Unfortunately, its world gross is not listed. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to two notches harder than this review. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe (for Broderick). Hughes returned with Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987). Broderick returned in Project X (1987). An NBC Ferris Bueller TV-series (without Hughes or Broderick - but with Jennifer Aniston) ran a single season in 1986. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is certified fresh at 79 % with a 7.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ferris Bueller's Day Off?