THE MOVIE

When it was first released in the cinemas back in 1989 I couldnt have cared less, especially given the poor reviews it had in most of the popular press, but through innumerable re-runs on tv I came to love this fun, yet flawed John Hughes/John Candy tale of a loveable misfit uncle and his journey into the burbs and of self discovery. Buck is called in the middle of the night to babysit his brother's three children due to a family crisis, much to the disdain of his brothers wife. Simple day to day things become an adventure for the two younger kids whilst the teenage daughter treats Buck like the uncle from hell and attempts to get away with as much as she can.

John Hughes stuck strictly to a PG rating for the film so that it would score brownies with family viewing. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing the sentimental things towards the end drag the comedy down somewhat. But there are enough comic episodes to keep things light. Uncle Buck was also Macaulay Culkin's film debut and probably went a long way in him scoring the main role in "Home Alone" a year later.

The scene in the deputy prinipals office had me rolling on the floor and it is in scenes like this peppered throughout that John Candy's comic talent really shines. It's a shame really that we will have no more from the great Canadian with his passing at an early age. Uncle Buck doesnt have the poignant message or tight script that Planes, Trains and Automobiles has but it does make a point or two in a humorous and touching way.

This review has been edited by the editor on 18/8/01

THE TRANSFER

Video:

I was dissapointed. Although there are not too many distracting film artefacts, they are present. The film has also been cropped to a 1.85:1 presentation which in this case impacts on the visual comedy onscreen: a few moments in particular block out hand gestures that normally would be visible underneath the black letterboxing borders which are however present on the full-frame VHS version. The colours for the most part are clean and well presented but this film suffers from consistent and often distracting grain especially in the lighter scenes and when peoples faces are in close up.

It looks as though this is transfer related and not the film itself, I can only hope that Columbia Tristar see fit in the future to bring us a John Hughes Box Set with all his most popular films re-mastered.

Audio:

Audio in English, French, Italian and Spanish Dolby Surround, and a German track in stereo.The dolby surround is also less than startling and the dialogue seems a little muffled sometimes.

Director John Hughes is a big fan of using kooky sound effects to punctuate and accentuate the physical and visual comedy onscreen. Most of these are mixed nicely and complement the onscreen comedy nicely.

The audio isn't really problematic it just lacks anything special to bring it above a passable audio track.

THE EXTRAS

Extras are minimal and consist of production notes and Cast and Filmakers biographies, none of which are too exciting.

Given that this film isn't a classic by any stretch of the imagination the lack of extras isn't going to upset too many people.

SUMMARY

This is a movie that many will enjoy despite its flaws, both filmic and transfer-wise, in fact after I had moved on from my initial dissapointment I once again thoroughly enjoyed the film. There is enough cute stuff for the kids and the right amount of adult humour to keep the grownups from leaving the room to do the washing up.

The DVD is passable given the film and if you are a fan of the mighty John Candy or of this film then do consider it for your collection.