Review of Uncle Buck

Introduction

In this 1989 movie, the late John Candy plays the idle, happy-go-lucky bachelor Buck Russell. Unemployed, his only income comes from betting on the horses, and it soon becomes apparent that he loses more money than he wins. Asked to care for his two nieces and nephew after his sister-in-law’s father falls ill, Buck subsequently travels to their expensive house in Chicago to begin a week`s house sitting. We can all guess what happens next as Uncle Buck takes to the kitchen, tries his hand at some laundry and attempts to care for the kids in his own inimitable style.

This bittersweet comedy from John Hughes is another in a long line of productions starring the larger-than-life John Candy. Hughes apparently loved Candy`s individual style of slapstick humour and the two worked together in other productions such as "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" and "The Great Outdoors". There is a general formula applied to each of these movies; most notably the bumbling, overweight character played by Candy. His various self-inflicted disasters are the source of the film`s frequent comic moments and just about give enough material to keep the movie flowing at a reasonable pace.

Video

Presented in an anamorphic 1.85 transfer, it is apparent that some judicious cutting was carried out to letterbox this movie from its original full-screen 1.33 aspect. At several points in the movie, Candy’s hand actions are lost as they fall into the area of the letterbox borders. Quite why Universal thought it necessary to butcher the print in this way is anyone’s guess – perhaps they were trying to give the movie a more modern appearance.

Visually, the image is good with only the occasional dust mark and speckle. There is a touch of grain visible, but the colour saturation is good and there are no signs of artifacting or other compression problems, other than some slight moiré effects on Candy’s multicoloured woolen jumpers!

Audio

The Dolby Surround audio is clear and accurate, but unfortunately there is no DD5.1 track. The music soundtrack comes over well, with the vocals easily distinguishable. There are a few ambient surround effects that are well executed and the loud backfiring from Buck’s car is transferred nicely.

Features

Sadly, the only extras are some production notes and biographies of the key cast members. Entirely text based they are of limited value. The menu is non-animated and frankly a bit dull.

Conclusion

Slightly darker in approach than Hughes’ normal family fare, Uncle Buck is a fun movie that has stood the test of time, except for some very dodgy looking clothes. The younger niece and nephew are played well and are suitably cute, but the eldest niece Tia (Jean Kelly) is as rebellious and angry as any of today’s 15 year olds. She is initially hostile to Buck and sets out to annoy and humiliate him. She fails to see Buck’s reasoning behind his house rules and is quite devious in her attempts to ruin Buck’s relationship with his long-suffering girlfriend Chanice (played nicely by Amy Madigan). Some of the funniest moments come as Buck enters psychopath mode to scare away Tia’s creepy boyfriend, Bug, whose intentions are purely dishonorable.

One thing that I have noticed is that John Candy seems much more at ease when accompanied a capable co-star. As the single leading man, he seems a bit lost and no amount of grinning and smirking at the camera can fill in for the likes of a competent co-star such as Steve Martin. This doesn’t detract too much from this movie though, and is in fact less noticeable than in some of his other performances such as “Only the Lonely” and “Who’s Harry Crumb?”

An enjoyable movie then and recommended for fans of Candy or the films of John Hughes.