Paradigm Shift

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2019)

Movie audiences didn't realize at the time Ferris Bueller was released but it represented a huge paradigm shift. That movie had a lead actor that all but winked at the camera, breaking the 4th wall helpfully explaining things, and taking a perverse pleasure in the joy of conning the other characters.
Bruce Willis is everything for this film, and he all but re-invented the modern day blockbuster. I have to give him a lot of credit because the director didn't really go on to distinguish himself. At the time, Arnold and Stallone and Chuck Norris and Steven Seagel, all the action mainstays - they took themselves very seriously. Their movies were rarely about fun.
Bruce is all but looking at the camera and saying "whoopee!". He comes pretty close with the yippee kay yay line. He makes it fun, and the fun is what we remember the most.
This is still holding up pretty well. "Speed" and all the other derivatives are not.