Wonderful Movie

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Absolutely Brilliant!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

A sarcastic humanoid duck is pulled from his homeworld to Earth where he must stop a hellish alien invasion with the help of a nerdy scientist and a cute struggling female rock singer who fancies him. Based on Marvel Comics Howard the Duck character this old 1986 film starring Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones and Tim Robbins is actually quite the fun. It's silly for sure but it's charming too, it's not a film to be taken seriously and even the actors who signed in knows it especially Robbins was wacky as hell, Jones looks and sounds like a Ghostbusters villain, the special effects for their time are quite good and besides some "sexual" references with Thompson's character this was a pretty good film. (8/10)

This movie seems to be tragically underrated here. It's definitely not the best movie out there, nor is it the worst. It worth seeing at least once for sure. I've seen it a lot more.The movie has some great lead actors (Jeff Jones, Lea Thompson, Tim Robbins)and keeps your attention from the first scene to the last. Howard is a great character. He's not only a "duck out of water", but also a "reluctant hero" that the average person can identify with. It is not boring and combines sci-fi / fantasy with comedy, action and monster elements all rolled into one. As with many 80s movies like Back to the Future, Teen Wolf, Goonies, etc - it is great for kids, but also has jokes or situations that grown-ups can appreciate too. One of the great 80s movies that used lots of "practical" special effects. Very young kids might be frightened by some of the monster elements near the end, but it should be fine for ages 8 and over. Like I said, it is definitely worth one watch - for Lea Thompson in her underwear - if nothing else, which caused what I believe was my first boner.

I remember hearing about this movie from my dad who said it was the worst superhero movie ever made. Well, he didn't use those exact words, but that's what he was heavily implying. It seems like most people agree with him. Well, maybe not the worst but certainly one of the worst. Maybe it's not technically a superhero movie, but at least a movie based on a Marvel comic book and part of the Marvel Universe, so I think it counts. Anyway, this is probably George Lucas' worst movie, although I don't know if he directly worked on the Star Wars Holiday Special.The worst thing about this movie is how predictable it is. I remember a scene where the police are talking about a manhunt for a duck and I knew that they'd make a joke about a duck hunt. Also, there's a scene where a police officer calls the guy Jack, and I knew he'd say not to call him Jack. Worse, I knew they'd show Howard faking being possessed. Well, the first time it looked like he died they didn't so I was glad they didn't use that cliché. Then it looked like he died again and they used it that time. The pacing is this film is terrible. It really is dreadfully boring. The fact that the first five minutes show a duck's naked breasts in a PG rated film makes you know it will be unwatchable.This happened to be the first theatrically released movie based on a Marvel comic and dang, has Marvel gone to infinity and back since then. There's a scene where Howard and his friend somehow know how to build a plane and fly it in this drawn out fifteen minute sequence that goes on forever. I'm surprised the Nostalgia Critic didn't make a joke about that. Speaking of which, I love his review of that and it has one of my favorite jokes from him. People in the movie say, "Dat's a duck!", "What is dat thing?", "Dat's a duck man!". This causes the Critic to say, "Dat's a duck!" (points to tie) "Dat's a tie!" (points to desk) "Dat's a desk!" (points to movie) "Dat's a dupid, dupid movie!". *

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.