***SPOILERS*** The very sight of the drop dead gorgeous and ultra sexy 20 year old Jennefer Connelly, as spoiled little rich girl Josie McClellan, riding and rolling on a electronic pony was more then worth the price of admission then the duration of the entire movie. Josie gets herself locked up in the Target's ladies dressing room trying to shoplift a $20.00 pair of ladies underpants even though she had as much as $52,000.00 of cash on her to pay for it and ends up having the run of the place. That's until two crooks Nester & Gil, Demont & Kieran Mulroney who are obviously brothers, show up-after hiding and smoking pot in the store men's room- to rip the place off.The good for nothing $4.40 cent an hour night clean-up boy Jim Dodge, Frank Whaley, on his first day or night on the job ends up getting stuck-lucky guy-with Josie for the entire night that's a lot more then he ever bargained for. And in the end goes off with her to sunny California to start a new life as well as career opportunity in the up and coming multi-billion dollar industry of Silicon Valley. The fact that Josie comes from the richest family in the state of Georgia is nothing compared in what she got from hooking up with the cute clean-up boy Frank who showed her just what a good time, in running for her life and safety from the two Mulroney brothers as well as the local police, rally is.Jenniffer Connelly who just was seen in the movie "The Racketeer" who soon rocketed to the top as the hottest actress in Hollywood in this so-so movie about America's youth. As for actor Frank Whaley with the exception of playing accused but not proved JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in movies like "JFK" & "Fatal Deception Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald" he never had a part in a film as good or satisfying with a co-star as Connelly as the lowly Target night time clean-up boy Jim Dodge in "Career Opportunities".

Career Opportunities is a film worth a watch for a few key reasons. One reason is because the film is one of the last major projects of the great John Hughes. I wanted to take time out to watch this film recently because I never saw it when it was released back in 1991. I do not think I was ever aware of the film back then. As I watched the film, I asked myself why John Hughes chose to write and produce it. I think John wanted movie goers to explore the question, "How would his teenage characters, from films like "Pretty in Pink," "Sixteen Candles," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and "The Breakfast Club" feel about their lives and their prospects for their future after their high school years are behind them?" The Jim Dodge character is like many memorable characters created by John Hughes: A handsome, witty, fast-talking, and extroverted charlatan. Unlike The popular and successful Ferris Bueller character, Jim Dodge doesn't fool most of the people in his life. People see through his charlatan antics and regard him as a disingenuous liar. Jim Dodge is also from a modest working class family. The Jim Dodge character is as engaging as the Ferris Bueller character, but he is not as funny or as entertaining to watch because his charlatan behavior is unsuccessful. Jim Dodge was not cool in high school, he doesn't have any friends his age, and he doesn't have a gorgeous girlfriend like the Sloane Peterson character from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." I think Hughes wrote the Jim Dodge character to represent the slacker stereotype of Generation X. The Jim Dodge character is in his early 20s, he lives at home, he has few job prospects, and he lacks tangible goals other than a general wish to be credible and successful. The Josie McClellan character is strong-willed female lead who is similar to a lot of other John Hughes characters. Josie is an effortlessly beautiful young woman with a bad attitude. She believes her ideal high school experience means that her best days are behind her. She and Jim Dodge share a tremendous uncertainty about their futures, and they are both loners. Despite Josie's beauty and wealth, she feels as alone as Jim Dodge and she is also a slacker without clear goals. Jim and Josie find each other and bond within strange circumstances in "Career Opportunities." I think the film is really about how these two characters connect as fellow struggling Gen-Xers. I think this movie failed to be a big hit because Hughes offers no clear answers for the Jim and Josie characters other than the idea that falling in love offers hope for both of their futures. The laughs are not frequent enough in the film and the music sequences are too numerous. The title of the film is also misleading. Regardless, this film is definitely worth a watch if you were born between 1966 and 1974.

I have always been a big Jennifer Connelly fan, starting with "The Rocketeer". This lightweight romantic comedy was made between that movie, and "The Hot Spot" where young Jennifer showed off several of her own hot spots. She is still lovely at 40+ but was just delicious-looking at around 20, not so thin and a somewhat rounder face.Frank Whaley is Jim Dodge , a janitor at Target (filmed in a Target store in Monroe, Georgia) and is locked in for his first night on the job. Also locked in is Jennifer Connelly as Josie McClellan, daughter of the richest guy in town. Josie is being a bit rebellious, and dad is looking for her.Old faithful Barry Corbin is Officer Don who is helping dad try to find her. While Jim and Josie are getting to know each other ... they actually were high school classmates but ran in different circles ... two fugitives with guns break in, Dermot Mulroney as Nestor Pyle and Kieran Mulroney as Gil Kinney. This creates even more silly situations. This is not a good movie, but it is entertaining if you like Jennifer Connelly, as she spends most of the movie's running time looking pretty, and there are ample close-up shots of her pretty, smiling face. And that white tank-top. Saw it on the MoMax channel.

I really love the ending to "Career Opportunities." A great, feel-good ending. When we're young, most of us don't realize how lucky we are just to be young and with possibilities of adventures ahead of us. But this ending shows the two characters very much realizing how lucky they are. The big band swing music just makes everything seem groovy, Frank Whaley and Jennifer Connelly pulling up in the limousine, stepping out to bask in their moment of triumph (to the amazement of the kids), Jennifer's GREAT bend at the knees/twirl and pulling him back in to the limo, the kid saying "He is so cool," as they drive off and finally - Frank and Jennifer's self-aware cool, sitting by a swimming pool in Hollywood. How does it get better than that? It doesn't. That's it. But IMDb requires me to write ten lines of text or they won't allow my review. What's that all about? What about those 7 years I spent in college learning the craft of journalism (well, yeah, I did party a lot), training my mind to condense my thoughts efficiently, to hone my words to the barest minimum for maximum effect? Were all those books I studied by Ernest Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson for naught? Now I'm being told to fluff the word count so that I can submit AN ONLINE REVIEW?! Well, I'm willing to do it for Career Opportunities. Many of the movies I see being made nowadays are downbeat, focusing on cruelty and the brutal nature of the modern world. It's so nice to take a trip back to the 80's when the message was "Anything's possible if you've got the balls to try and a silver tongue like Frank Whaley or Bill Murray." And one thing this movie has that Ferris didn't, is that Frank has to come to grips with his major flaw, and it's only when he does that, that he become a winner. Oh, and RIP John Hughes. You gave us some great, great movies, dude.