Got an e-mail from Mike France, owner of the Beach Theatre, with a coincidence that it may interest you.

I'll let Mike tell you about it:

"Ahhh....I assume you'll be writing something pretty soon about John Hughes.
Treading lightly here and trying my best not to be crass, but we have FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF as a free showing at Beach Theatre at 10 am this Saturday. Not crass, I hope, since it's a free show...

"I actually hope a lot of people come out for the second showing in the wake of the news, because we ran it two weeks ago, and I saw it for the first time on the big screen with a very enthusiastic audience of about 100. I have no idea how this one got away from me, and I wasn't expecting to like it. I think I skipped it on initial release because I'd long since outgrown high school movies.

"Turned out that as a fortysomething, I loved it. The characters were note perfect; dialogue was fantastic; over the top slapstick (tormenting Jeffrey Jones as the principal) was hilarious; I loved that Bueller wasn't a cartoon clown who just wanted to mock the adults in the story, but that he genuinely wanted to get the most out of his day, including things like a visit to the Sears Tower or an art museum, which might be legitimate school field trips themselves. I loved it and was wondering why no one makes movies like this any more.

"Anyway, as a very belated fan of the film, in the wake of this s----y news, consider letting people know we're doing this on Saturday. Clearly the film had a lot of fans who were out the first time, and the big screen with an amped crowd is the best way to see this."