I like all the movies listed in the poll to some extent or another, though for me the most aggravating is
Pretty in Pink. Just HATE the ending to that flick. I think
Some Kind of Wonderful outclasses it...
and gets the ending right!
But for me, ultimately it was a toss-up between
Ferris Bueller's Day Off and
Planes, Trains & Automobiles. Again it was for me a subpar ending of
PT&A that gives
Ferris the slight edge. That Paul Young song and everything about the way its filmed is just
too saccharine and easy for me after everything that came before. It's more like a Hallmark commercial instead of finding the same kind of character-based material that propelled the movie all along. If the last shot was the two of them walking toward the house carrying the trunk, maybe the looks on their faces just as they get to the front door, THAT is the proper ending. For my taste, anyway.
But
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is just such a fun fantasy, I can't resist it. It surely didn't hurt that I was sixteen the summer it was released, and that three of my buddies and I went to see it the afternoon of the last day of school (our sophomore year). But I suspect even if I was turning sixteen
this year I'd find it far too much fun to resist. It doesn't address some of the more serious issues Hughes often tackled at least as subtexts in his work, but the fantasy is so fantastic, even though more plausible than
Weird Science certainly, I have to say (and save)
Ferris.
Apart from the cop-out ending of
Pretty in Pink, I like that one fine, especially Jon Cryer as Duckie (which should tell you why I hate the ending so much). For me the least of the ones on the poll is
Weird Science. It's fun in spots, but overall I never got into it the way some of the other fifteen-year-olds I knew did (and probably still do).
Sixteen Candles is probably my second-least favorite, which isn't to say I haven't seen it over ten times because I definitely have, but I would have liked to see a whole movie (or at least more of it) about Farmer Ted and his geek friends (which should tell you what kind of stud I was growing up). But that's what
Superbad is for, I reckon (possible new thread: Is Judd Apatow the new John Hughes?). The
National Lampoon's Vacation movies are great, and the third one has rightfully become a Holiday classic and required December viewing (best to forget the fourth Griswold entry). I still love
Mr. Mom (hopefully they'll release a decent DVD version someday).
Uncle Buck has some of the flat-out funniest moments and scenes in any Hughes film, but it's a bit uneven and the oldest kid Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly) is not a very well-written character, and the whole drama of the film hinges on her.
Home Alone is maybe not quite as fun as the phenomenon and it's hard to forget what an overexposed freak Macaulay Culkin became, but it is pretty irresistible and even though I was twenty when that one came out I definitely enjoyed it. Though when the Holiday season rolls around, I'll watch
PT&A and
Christmas Vacation two or three times each before I'll reach for
Home Alone. I like
The Breakfast Club a lot, but I was never a rabid fan the way some people are.
I think
Some Kind of Wonderful is the best of the ones not in the poll. And I agree that
She's Having a Baby is a good flick, too. I'd say both of those are Hughes' most underrated, though neither is in the class of
Ferris or
PT&A. I must say
Career Opportunities is a guilty pleasure, if only to ogle the twenty-one-year-old
Jennifer Connelly (Yes, they're real and they're spectacular!).
Dutch and
Curly Sue are pretty embarrassing. They're like John Hughes trying to write a "John Hughes movie". Very tired, very forced, just churning out what had become a formula.
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so had to go with Ferris 
