Howard the Duck (1986)

Load of rubbish!!

Best movie ever!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Blistering performances.

I LOVE Howard. Who is Howrard, you ask? Howard is the Duck.In this cult classic, Howard the Duck has to come to earth accientally and then he falls in love with the mom from BTTF. I like it because the mom from BTTF the future is a good funny actress and I like it.Anyway, gotta go! Peace, Howard Nation!

If you don't really care about what happens to a film's title character, there is not much chance the film will succeed. Howard the Duck has less personality than most college mascots, though he offers sarcastic comments. The three-foot protagonist of this film has limited mobility and a head that is fairly inexpressive. His tale of woe is that he has been displaced from his world to Earth and he feels like a small duck in a big pond. But he speaks English (lucky duck!) and there are no differences in customs except those that relate directly to ducks (like duck hunting). So he can cope. But he has to deal with humans who are surprised to see a relatively tall, talking duck. Actually, the reactions to Howard are inconsistent and not credible.One could make the case that HTD, being a comedy of outrageous premises, should not be seriously reviewed. But there are good comedies and bad comedies. HTD is lame at best. Though Lea Thompson and (the great actor) Jeffrey Jones try to breathe life into this turkey, the concept never flies.It is best to watch HTD as an attempt at camp. On that level, some scenes are mildly humorous. The relationship between Howard and Thompson's punk-rock singer is awkward. You have to give her bonus points for really trying to sell the odd chemistry between them. But it's not a situation that works (unlike the relationship between Marty McFly and his mother in "Back to the Future", which really works on a comedy level.)On the other hand, if Lea Thompson had been sucked through an interplanetary portal to a world where ducks were the salient species...nah, it just doesn't work.

It is so cool to hate on this isn't it? So I am giving it a 10, mainly because of all the folks that gave it a 1 to be in the in crowd...and partially because Lucas was right, it stood the test of time.The cult following isn't because it's a bad movie, it's because it's a funny movie. Just because a midget is wearing a duck suit doesn't make it bad. Just because there is duck nudity doesn't make it bad.I mean...we loved it with Team America. It was hysterical then. It's not funny in Howard because you are told not to laugh at it.If you give it a chance it's well worth the admission, for jokes alone.

We took my nephew to see this back in the day. He is a person with virtually no taste. I believe he was thirteen at the time. Afterward, it was hard to get him to open up about it. He was trying to be positive but was having a hard time coming up with much to say. He said that the duck costume was kind of stupid. Yes, you could see the human eyes through the eye sockets. It was no different than a Halloween costume. I won't bother to malign this movie. Others have done an adequate job. All I could think of was all the films that never get made and the talent that is out there, and this is what they come up with. Someone may say, "But it's only a kids' movie." Yes it is. But it is an insult to any kid who thinks for a minute. It's lack of success means that the word of mouth that went out was pretty bad--kids didn't beg their parents to take them. A 1980's low point.