I have waited a long, long time to finally be able to check out Don't You Forget About Me, a documentary about John Hughes. I actually knew about this documentaries existence before the official trailer had dropped. So I think I have been waiting since 2008 to see this. Now the reason why it has taken this long to see it is because the movie was never released here in my neck of the woods. I highly doubt it ever got any kind of nationwide release. Another reason why it's taken so long to arrive here is that DVD houses, be it Blockbuster Video or Mom & Pop shops were all gone. So I had nowhere else to turn to other than eBay. Most sellers were asking too much for what I was willing to pay. Last week I scored a Brand New copy for $1.25 plus shipping. Best deal ever.

So, was the wait worth it? It's a decent documentary that plays like a love letter to his best films: The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixten Candles, Pretty In Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful. The whole intent of the four film makers working on this doc is to track down the elusive John Hughes and somehow get the holy grail: an interview with the man himself. Along the way, we get a bunch of talking heads from those that worked with him over the course of his Hollywood career. We get the likes of Judd Nelson, Alan Ruck, Ally Sheedy, Kevin Smith and other notable players in which they recount what it was like working on the films or how they films directly affected them personally. But there are 4 major talents missing: Anthony Michael Hall, Matthew Broderick, Emilio Estevez and Molly Ringwald. Throw in the fact that they never find or get that interview with John himself and you have a doc that feels unfinished. It was well documented that they never could have the ending they wanted given that John chose to remain out of the public eye and would later pass away during the making of the doc. So, the ending wasn't surprising here. It's worth a Rent for those that are serious fans of his movies. I do like the talking heads stuff as they break down why his movies resonate so well and why today's teen flicks suck. These alone make it worth checking out.

With all that out of the way, I have to comment on the 4 film makers. 3 of them seemed really sincere for their affection for John's films, but the guy with the broken leg is a douche nozzle. Total dick that acted as if the doc was really about him and not the man he professes to idolize. He said and did sh*t that was very off-putting at times because he wanted to be the star for whatever reason. Even the other film makers were having to put him in his place at times because of his acting out. Now I said the others came off as sincere, but I do have issues of how they were planning to "ambush" John to get their interview. Maybe ambush isn't the right word, but the idea of 4 no-name film makers hunting him down is very stalker-ish and unprofessional and left me feeling very uncomfortable at times while watching this play out. It's no wonder why he didn't accept their letter and CD explaining their reason behind the doc and had it mailed back to them at the end of the film.