Review of Career Opportunities (1991) by Timothy S — 27 Jan 2014

Writer/director John Hughes did his best work in the '80's, having his hand in some of the best cult classics of the decade, but unfortunately the '90's were not so kind to him. He seemed to simply recycle his best hits over and over again, and "Career Opportunities" was a combination of two of his biggest and best.

It imagines the teens of "The Breakfast Club" a few years later, out of school but aimless and unhappy with life and sticks them in yet another confined space and forces them to get to know each over all over again. That's actually the best part of the film. As a writer, Hughes knows young people far better than screenwriters half his age, and the developing relationship between Frank Whaley and Jennifer Connolly is sweet and convincing.

It's basically every guy's fantasy; being locked up in a place with unlimited resources along with someone as beautiful as Connolly. Where the problem lies is when Hughes' monster hit "Home Alone" rears its ugly head as it did with so many of his films of the decade, once again in the form of bungling burglars. It doesn't even make any sense within the context of this film, and it feels so ridiculously out of place. It would have been just as nonsensical has the Mulroney brothers broken into Shermer High School in 1985.

But until that glaring distraction, "Career Opportunities" has some nice moments and frank, honest dialogue that was the writer's trademark. He may have gone to the well one too many times with this one, however.