Uncle Buck (1989)

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

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.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Uncle Buck! He's loud, he's obnoxious, he's quirky, and he drives a car that matches that criteria. What happens when he has to babysit a teenager that hates his guts, along with two bratty little children. The answer: A whole lot of responsibility kicks into gear. That's right, don't let his looks fool you, he's got rules, and he is overly protective of the kids. So don't try any nonsense around Uncle Buck, he's kind of on the old fashioned side, if you know what I mean. At the core of it all, the movie has plenty of heart...and tons of laughs, thanks to writer John Hughes. An added bonus goes to a great performance from the late John Candy. A great, underrated film the whole family can enjoy. Can't say that about a lot of the new releases these days. 7 out of 10!

And "Uncle Buck" used to be one of my favorite as a kid although I only saw it two times, but it left some nice memories. So, I thought after reading Ebert's review, and listening to his negative comments (approved by Siskel), I would look at the film with more perplex eyes, but no, I think there's a lot to like and well, the stuff to dislike has aged better than many seemingly irreproachable movies.Still, having watched it again, after 25 years, I think there's a sort of darkness and sadness about the whole material that I failed to notice as a kid. I realize it deals with leaving your hometown, which I can relate to, or difficult relationships, which I also can relate to. I realized that there's a real dead-end as far as communication goes between the mother and her girl, and it's not like there's any breach where you can get some air. Jean Louisa Kelly really creates some tension in what should have been your quiet little suburban house life.But again, I didn't notice that, as a kid. Maybe because the main character is played by the lovable John Candy and it's just impossible to see anything dark behind that big, huggable, teddy-bear of a man. I feel like reducing the actor to a specific range of characters he used to play but to put it simply, that's what made any of his movies enjoyable on the simple basis of his presence, he really illuminated the screen.He had already graced the screen in John Hughes' classic "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" but after being Del Griffith, I think Candy needed a character as rough and rugged and somewhat twisted as Buck, to explore a much darker side albeit not on an ethical level. Sure, he's the 'lovable uncle' and outsider of the family but he could speak for himself, use some subtle threats and even engage in a battle of wits and wills with the troubled niece.In fact the film is driven by two opposite dynamics, funny and touching interactions with the two good kids played by Macaulay Culkin (in his pre-Home Alone) and Gaby Hoffman and the more serious rivalry between with Kelly, played the bitter adolescent. One thing about Culkin, he's really a scene-stealer and I'm pretty sure the film convinced the producers to hire him for "Home Alone". But there's just something about Culkin as a secondary character, like in the movie "My Girl". He's present enough to make himself memorable (I just loved that rapid-fire exchange of random questions) and not too much to be a sort of 'gimmick'. There wasn't much interactions with Gaby Hoffman's character though and she was barely noticeable.Retrospectively, I think the bitterness of Tia while being a plot driver was overplayed, not overacted but sometimes, she was so angry and bitter, she was like Daria, you know the animated perpetual malcontent. I couldn't really accept her defiance toward Buck because she felt the same toward everything, there wasn't something to make him the target of her insults. So yes, the film is a comedy but it does have some mean-spiritedness about it. The way the arc of their relationship closes is also problematic because it only depended on Buck being right about the kid she hanged out with, but there was nothing in his behavior that indicated he could be a potential rapist.So there's a sort of hidden truth that Buck is the 'right man' because unlike Tia's father, he doesn't live in the comfortable suburban life but he's a street-smart guy who knows the rope and is capable to be a good father figure. Ultimately Buck is another facet of Del Griffith with more assurance and more fitting with the reality of the world. But his personality does indicate a change in Hughes' tone. After that, the iconic 80's director went on writing the "Home Alone" series which feels more like a cartoon version of the heart-warming youth stories he made.Maybe he's less interested in Tia's existential troubles than the idea that an adult knows life better and she should trust him, in fact, even the romantic subplot with Amy Madigan's character says that Buck should value the adult in him before trying to be the "big kid". "Uncle Buck" marks a real departure from Hughes' usual messages, kind of an end of an era for the ending decade.The film is enjoyable while not being in the Top 10 comedies of the 80's. And it's also the last, or one of the last memorable shining performances of John Candy who could never really prove his magnitude as an actor, but showed in "Uncle Buck" that he truly had the potential to be something else. I'll cherish this film as the first that made me familiar with his face until I would say in a good dozen of movies in the early 90's. I still remember that the day my father told me he died he said "Uncle Buck" died. That says it all.

Bob and Cindy Russell have a dilemma: Cindy's father, who lives far away, is sick and they need to go see him. However, who will look after their three children for the several days while they are away? Out of desperation they turn to someone whom they have grave reservations about in terms of his suitability for the job - Bob's single, layabout brother, Buck.Sweet, funny movie, written directed by the master of the poignant- yet-funny 80s comedy-drama, John Hughes. I didn't have high hopes for it initially, suspecting it would be a slapsticky adults vs anarchic children caper. However, while it threatens to go in that direction every now and again, the movie manages to stay focused. Very engaging, and much more than just a comedy. The transformation of Uncle Buck, played superbly by John Candy, from a single slacker to a responsible adult with better parenting skills than most is quite heart-warming and makes the movie into a great drama.Some quite hilarious scenes too, so a good combination of comedy and drama.Unfortunately, probably thanks to some scenes in this movie and Macaulay Culkin's role in it, John Hughes did go down the silly adults-vs-kid (with the kid as the hero) slapstick route soon after this. Within a year, he wrote Home Alone...

Uncle Buck is a heartwarming film about a man child who spends a week at his brother's house to help out during a family crises. He grows along the way as a person as he bonds with the kids and makes them into a tight nit family they once were.An added subplot that really brought out the white knight in Buck is his girlfriend who brought out the family man he tried to be put away years ago.It was different from John Huges other well known films by focusing more on the family element and where parents are trying to be in their kids life.In many ways the film was a head of it's time by including fashion, deep meaning and the soundtrack that would ride the 90s waves.John Candy always play the lovable goof ball bringing his sarcastic humor and winning personality.Now parents before you take your kids to see it It does have some language, drinking and two sexual situations that is shocking for a family film. It isn't prevalent or graphic though.Every family will wish for an uncle at Christmas time. Pick up a copy today.