5 Answers »

1. Mary A. Schell on December 7th, 2009 at 3:17 am:

   This movie was not entertaining at all, bad script, etc.
   Rating: 1 / 5

2. Anonymous on December 7th, 2009 at 3:54 am:

   Family movies are supposed to be fun. This movie is far from it. I never liked John Candy movies, or what I saw of them. This is the stupidest of them all. With a goofy plot, a stupid script, and horrible acting, this is a movie I wish I missed. True, it has some heart, some wit, but it’s all washed away in a garble of trashy scenes, mixed up dialogue, and foolish one-liners. Not only that,the music is horrible. John Candy says something creepy, and suddenly there is this creepy sounding mesh of music–noise–that makes me want to cover my ears. It would be better off with no music–in fact, it would be better off if it didn’t exist.
   Rating: 1 / 5

3. Anonymous on December 7th, 2009 at 5:03 am:

   The movie that effectively finished John Hughes as an A-list director. Looking at the mostly positive reviews below mine makes me ponder how weird you all must be. *Uncle Buck* rightly tanked at the box office back in 1989; there’s certainly no reason to apply a revisionist brush now, unless maybe you’re an uptight moralist who would enjoy watching an uncle spend an entire movie’s duration serving as a wet blanket to his teenaged niece’s dirty, dirty lust. And that’s what the movie’s about. Needless to say, this essentially creepy plot device clashes mightily with the film’s sitcom trappings. One hates to spend time on a synopsis, but this movie’s so bad that a set-up seems required to do it justice in a review. . . . A well-to-do family has a crisis. The parents are called away, leaving the 3 kids at the mercy of Uncle Buck (John Candy), whose slatternly, slobby presentation is a flimsy cover for the self-righteous prig within. He finds himself immediately at odds with the oldest child, a sullen 15-year-old girl who has apparently spent her life getting away with murder under the noses of her ineffectual parents. Well, not so under the new regime of Uncle Buck: he watches over her like a hawk, taking her to and picking her up from school, setting curfews, demanding to know where the parties are and who she’s going with, and all in all “ruining her life”. This sounds like quite admirable guardianship, but the way that it’s presented is awfully disturbing. I’ll pass by the many details that savor of violence (axes and other sharp objects are brandished). It culminates in Uncle Buck fetching the girl from a party where her boyfriend nearly rapes her. The crazy uncle then binds and gags the jerk boyfriend and throws him in the trunk of a car. One is inclined to speculate that John Hughes was having problems with a teenage daughter of his own, and *Uncle Buck* was his way of venting his frustrations. It’s puzzling. Hughes had always LIKED teenagers. They were always purer than the corrupted, compromised adults in his earlier movies. Something obviously changed his outlook — I suspect it was personal. The movie is a 100-minute moralizing screed, hectoring, baleful, ugly, creepy in its obsession with the teenaged heroine’s maidenhead (whenever she gets close to 2nd base, up pops Uncle Buck, wielding a letter-opener or something like it), and finally unendurable… Speaking of…, John Candy was grievously overweight here: it’s hardly surprising that the poor guy passed away not long after this. Also sad is that the self-righteous script doesn’t permit him to earn any substantial laughs. There’s a funny bit when he can’t a word in edgewise with his angry girlfriend on the phone, but that’s it.
   Rating: 1 / 5

4. Anonymous on December 7th, 2009 at 6:17 am:

   I don’t like this silly ole movie,even though I think Candy is a good comedian.And they play dorky music in it as well.
   Rating: 2 / 5

5. Sandra H. Balla on December 7th, 2009 at 6:48 am:

   The movie is fine, but……………
   
   There is no mention in the description that this is a widescreen format. I use full screen. When I contacted amazon to find if it was available in full screen, the response was send it back if you don’t want it. I kept it, but was not happy with customer service.
   Rating: 2 / 5