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Uncle Buck [1989]
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| Editorial Reviews: | | |  | | John Candy has one of his finest opportunities in this film by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club) about a perpetual screw-up (Candy) who gets his act together enough to watch over his brother's kids effectively. The late actor scores big points resurrecting elements of his more decadent persona from SCTV days, but he also has some persuasively touching, sentimental moments. Hughes's direction is not as focused as it was only a few years before, but there's no mistaking his touch. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, production notes, biographies, Dolby sound, optional Spanish and French soundtracks. --Tom Keogh | |
| Custom Reviews: | |
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| Another heart-warming title from John Hughes | |
| | I would have to say that John Hughes is perhaps one of the most under-rated directors of his time. Indeed, most of his work was only done around the 80's/early 90's period, but rarely do people associate with his films.
Uncle Buck, to me, bonds so strongly with 1 of Hughes' other films 'Trains Planes and Automobiles' (yet another under-rated classic) in that it captures all the essences of a meaningful film.
The plot is straight-forward - 'Uncle Buck', a real down town bum with a job at a local tyre shop, is given the call to babysit his brothers children after him and his wife need to rush to see an ill family member. The warm hearted Buck instantly bonds with his 2 younger nieces, no older than 5, but struggles to get along with 15 year old Tia; a stuck up brat who only thinks of herself.
Rather smoothly, this has obviously been given a vital role in the film. Anyone can make a film about a babysitter who would be the last person to call! But instead of focusing purely on comedy, the film has been given the 'Hughes' treatment, thus is covers some touching issues, like the growing up of teenagers. And for this, its capture perfectly - Tia just wants her independence, she's cheeky to her parents, and just wants to be with her 'odd' boy-friend. And just like in real-life (at least to my experience..) the end of the film see's her mature and make amends with Buck once she realises he was right all along about what he said...
Macauly Culkin (what a name!) stars in this too as Miles, and what a bright young actor he was for his age, who just doesn't stop giving you laughs with his funny facial expressions. Funniest moment? Bucks impersonation of of Tia's boy-friend when he laughs at his heap-of-a junk car.
This is a fantastic film not to be missed around the Christmas period. John Candy was a legend of his time and is sadly missed today for his warm and simple humour.
| | | Great film with a nice mix of humour and a bit of heart warming.
John Candy is a confirmed bachelor, who earns his living by horse betting and enjoys a beer with the guys and bowling. His brother and sister-in-law are urgently called away for a medical matter, with nobody else available to babysit their three children. Candy is as paternal as a hungry shark and is dropped into a totally alien environment. His nephew and neices barely know him and his arrival is met with mixed emotions.
Gradually he earns their trust and all ends well, but the process is hilarious and touching. Have you dried your socks in a microwave?
| | JOHN CANDY IS BRILLIANT IN THIS | |
| | This is one of my favourite movies. It is only rather hard to say why. Only because it was one of the first good comedies I've seen? What's behind it?
The movie is about a character named Buck, who is played by the late John Candy. You might think this says everything to be said. Not really. I hate most movies with John Candy in a supporting role, because these roles are mostly silly and superfluous. The worst example I have seen is his *role* in "Brewster's millions"(starring Richard Pryor). Not so here, where he takes the lead once again. To my mind, Uncle Buck was the role of John Candy's life.
This character is a man who has more faults and weaknesses than you could ever count, but it's clear that he is very warm-hearted and, *surprise!*, can be a good parent in a very inventive way. Of course this is no movie for real depth, neither is it a movie for masterful performances. This is why I was hesitating to give it 10 out of 10, but why not? It d o e s achieve well and it r e a l l y works.
The teenager and both children all do a good job here and they are the perfect supply to John Candy. It was no-one minor to Roger Ebert who argued that the teenager, played by Jean Louisa Kelly, was too angry and too sharp to be sympathetic. I like reading Ebert's reviews and I wouldn't dare try to prove him wrong, but that doesn't mean I have to agree. Why should she not be too angry and too sharp? Why should she be perfect, why can't she be dark, mean and bad? And learn better in the end of the movie. And does this necessarily mean that we don't still like her character?
It's kind of comforting to watch a more genuine Macaulay Culkin here, before he had become famous, and Gaby Hoffmann is also very nice to watch. I also like Laurie Metcalf here as neighbour Marci Dahlgreen-Frost, if only because this *role* seems to me like a grotesque exaggeration of her role in "Roseanne".
| | Reason to Watch: John Candy. Simple as That. | |
| | Starring the late John Candy in what would prove to be one of his most sensational comedic roles of his entire career, "Uncle Buck" is a loveable family release that comes with its fair share of flaws. As is, the film is a lighthearted and wholly sentimental family comedy that is both tongue-in-cheek and incisively satirical at the same time. Paying homage, and, indeed, mockery, to the similarly plotted stylings of the majority of family releases elsewhere dominating the 80s, the movie has merits stretching far beyond its numerous one-liners and just plain silly gags. "Uncle Buck" is by no means a visionary, faultless work of cinematic art, but its certainly immensely enjoyable for any film viewer not expecting "Babel" everytime they put a DVD in the player.
Directed and written by John Hughes, "Uncle Buck" is a comedy about one person in particular. That individual being Buck Russell (John Candy), a lazy, gluttonous man posessing little drive or ambition in his adult life called upon suddenly to look after his nieces and nephews when his sister-in-law and his brother shoot off to attend to the former's ill father. Naturally, the kids aren't exactly perfectly behaved for the slob now to charged with babysitting them. First of all there's Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly), a rebellious sixteen-year-old initially resentful of her immediately posessive and interfering uncle before beginning to form a closer bond with him when the two get to talking in a respectful way. After her there's eight-year-old Miles (Macaulay Culkin) and eight-year-old Maizy (Gaby Hoffmann). For just about the entirety, we get to witness the pleasant threesome giving an on-form John Candy the run-around. Hooray for that.
The performances are all good, without standing out as anything particularly brilliant for any cast member involved. The exception being John Candy, brilliant as lay-about Buck, maximising his character's comic potential with excellent timing and line delivery, as well as facial expressions that particularly make hilarious two or three scenes involving Buck, a screwdriver and a hormone-crazed boy hitting on Tia. All in all, Candy is superb, further confirming how it is an utter shame that he would die so young only a few years afterwards. As mentioned earlier in the paragraph, the other performances are pleasing and consistent without being great. Jean Louisa Kelly plays rebellious Tia with humanity and depth, making a character who might have been played as one-dimensional by another instead layered and believable. Macaulay Culkin does his usual child actor routine and Gaby Hoffmann is but an afterthought as Maizy. Elsewhere, Amy Madigan is likable and pleasant as Buck's on/off girlfriend Chanice Kobolowski.
The laugh count is pretty high for "Uncle Buck", something that unfortunately cannot be said for the mainstream family releases of the present day (on average, anyway). Rarely is the humour particularly brilliant but it is instead incisive and witty enough to cause chuckles to arise from viewers of all ages, shapes and sizes. The jokes that aren't immediately funny are improved upon and delivered with expert timing and skill by lead performer John Candy so as to make them successful in elliciting guffaws and giggles amongst the audience. Credit director and screenwriter John Hughes for doing a very good job in both aspects, directing with simplicity and straightforward stylings while scripting his characters' dialogue and one-liners in a way targeted solely at the target demographic of family audiences, hitting the right buttons altogether.
Whether "Uncle Buck" is to go down as something of astonishing value and collective achievement in the annals of family entertainment is another thing. As it stands, there have been better films made with a higher laugh count and more interesting aesthetic appearance. Most films of this one's ilk resort to cheap slapstick and saccharine, preachy climaxes though, so it stands out from the general crowd. Well worth a watch, if not for something of staggering profundity.
| | A sensitive, often touching film that was made for John Candy's talents. | |
| | Candy's best performance ever. As hard as it is to pick a favorite role that John Candy ever portrayed, I'd have to say it was Uncle Buck. Although this wasn't the only title he and Culkin ever shared, it was the only film the two ever shared any time on screen together.
Basic plot: Candy's sister-in-law's father has just had a heart attack in the middle of the night and the two parents rush trying to find someone to watch the kids for them while they hop the next flight to go see her father. In a desperate last resort, they call the husband's brother. Buck. Of course, the concerned uncle comes to the rescue and takes the task with no complaint. However, the oldest of the children doesn't care for her bumbling uncle, and the discipline and protection he places upon her, while her parents are away.
Just watch the scene where Candy tries to use the kiddies toilet...absolutely hilarious.
A great heart-warming comedy that will make you laugh and possibly even cry at times. A classic, and certainly a triumph that wouldn't have happened without John Candy. Hollywood truly lost a great actor.
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