This entry is dedicated to Dyke, who for a long time told me that I must see the movie Howard the Duck, simply because it was one of the classic cheesy science fiction action adventures of the 80's, along with Back to the Future and the like.
Well, Dyke, it was no Back to the Future...at least from what I could tell, because I was tired and fell asleep before I saw the ending.
However, I must say that I was happy to find out that this wasn't some randomly created script about a duck from outer space, but rather was a result of a comic book that started the original ridiculous idea. Why George Lucas decided to put so much money into a film such as this, I don't know (Eric, I'd love to hear your opinion of the movie.)
I really didn't loathe it. In fact, I love a good pun every now and then, and you can imagine how many times I "quacked up" at a few of them. I do love that Howard was a horny son of a bird, and I also like that the Principal from Ferris Bueller's Day Off turned into a nasty bug monster.
So now I've seen it, or at least I've seen most of it. My rating: eh. That's what I say to it. Eh.
I guess I'm more of an early 90's kid. The Mighty Ducks blows the feathers off this one. (though, some will always differ in opinion).
Quack. Quack. QUACK. QUACK! QUACK!!!
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3 comments:
It had been many years since I'd seen Howard the Duck. I remembered the plot in broad strokes, but the only specifics I could recall were that it had the always hot Lea Thompson in it and that it was terrible. So before I accepted your invitation to tell you my thoughts on it, I dug up an old VHS copy and popped it in to refresh my memory.
A movie that opens with a joke about itchy testicles and shots of naked female ducks with mammalian breasts is a movie that cannot close soon enough. The first two minutes have enough duck puns for TEN movies about space ducks, and yet somehow the puns continue for 109 minutes more.
Every moment of this picture-- every last inch of celluloid--oozes absolute awfulness. It's not a campy, fun badness, either; it's a badness that leaps aggressively off the screen and punches you in the stomach until you cry uncle, then it goes on punching you because it cares nothing for the suffering of others.
It was after the first scene featuring Tim Robbins' unbearable scientist--intended to be comically goofy but in fact repulsively loathsome, as is everything intended to be comical about this abomination--that I had an epiphany. It came shortly after this man, allegedly attending a university and engaged in some sort of scientific field of study, described humans as having evolved from monkeys. I realized that life is a very precious thing, and far, far too finite to spend watching Howard the Duck even one time, much less two.
The movie does have some value: it serves as one of the many pieces of evidence that George Lucas was improbably lucky with Luke and Indy because, in fact, he does not have the first clue about what kind of story would make a good movie.
Also: How can anyone put this movie in the same class as Back the Future? Beyond the superficial fact that they both have sci-fi or fantastic elements, there is no similarity. Back to the Future is a brilliantly conceived story well told. It holds up because, at heart, it's a simple story about a man learning to stand up for himself. (George McFly is really who the first Back to the Future film is about. Marty is more like Mary Poppins or Ferris Bueller, a semi-mystical character who merely comes in and leads the true focus of the story--in those examples, Mr. Banks and Cameron--on their voyages of discovery.) While it's too soon to know if Back to the Future can really be called a classic, I'm betting that when enough time has passed it will be so regarded.
Howard the Duck, on the other hand, is a ridiculous mishmash about nothing, already largely forgotten and, with any luck, one day it will be erased from our cultural memory entirely.
I'm just glad you didn't make a typo in the title....and Eric...
whether I agree with you or not, now then or ever, you are so smart...do something with it.
Love,
Mamma "There's Pie in the Fridge" Hannon
I've never watched it - but I'm a bit apprehensious.
I gave you an award, btw.
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