CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

This tiresome comedy from the pen of John Hughes finds a 21-year-old department store custodian locked in on his first night on the job, along with the most beautiful girl in town and two inept thieves.

Jim Dodge is the town liar, a lazy, lying extrovert who has made getting fired from jobs a way of life. Ordered by his Dad to pay rent by way of a job or else, Jim manages to get hired as an all-night cleanup boy for a Target neighborhood department store. On his first night at work, the night foreman locks Jim in and tells him to clean the place by morning.

After Jim finishes his janitorial duties, he wastes no time in entertaining himself with the store’s merchandise. Before long, Josie McClellan, the beautiful, but rebellious daughter of a wealthy town citizen, pops up in one of the aisles. Josie had evidently fallen asleep in one of the dressing rooms while contemplating whether or not to let herself get arrested for shoplifting as a way to get back at her overbearing father.

The two drifting, aimless youngsters amuse themselves with merchandise taken from the store’s shelves, which causes the viewer’s patience to wear thin and almost makes the arrival of two inept store thieves seem like a welcome relief. The two hoods take Jim and Josie captive, but Jim outsmarts them by using his skill at lying to orchestrate an escape, only to be taken captive again when his own standard of measure is used against him.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES is just another shabby film that continues the not-so-subtle attack on the family. Jim’s father, for instance, portrayed unflatteringly as a loutish cement-mixer, takes more time to pile peanut butter atop a bologna sandwich than to mutter a half-hearted concern over his son’s future. Also poisoning the family climate is the way that Jim and Josie profess to know what’s best for them.

Josie, in fact, is out in no uncertain terms to seduce Jim and fills most of her screen time by acting lewdly, which should delight all those wanting to engage in adolescent sexual fantasies. In another scene, Jim roller skates around the store in his underwear while wearing a wedding veil. Don’t expect any of the shoplifting or stealing of store merchandise scenes to be rebuked. They aren’t.

Why Target department stores would want their name tarnished by association with such anti-traditional values is baffling to say the least. Writer/Producer John Hughes’ comedic touch herein is about as sensitive as a blacksmith’s and as amusing as an oil spill, but certainly nowhere as slick.

It is interesting to note from Revelation 21:8 that liars are included among those whose “place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.” Therefore, to role model a liar as hero is nothing short of alarming and indicative of a society gone off the deep end.