Howard the Duck (1986)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

HOWARD THE DUCK is undoubtedly the oddest Marvel film in existence and the weirdest thing that George Lucas ever put his name to (as producer). It's a bizarre, comic book-style adventure in which the eponymous hero is transported to Earth and involved in a madcap plot involving evil gods from outer space, science boffins and a beautiful young singer. It's tonally bizarre, with adult jokes and wisecracks at times, but it looks and feels like a kid's movie. Go figure. I always found Howard a rather creepy creation - it's the eyes - and the film does nothing to dispel that feeling, although with Jeffrey Jones in the cast it's pretty creepy overall. It's dated, it has poor effects and lame gags at times, but it's not one of the worst films out there; it does have a kind of madcap '80s charm which sees it through on occasion.

One of George Lucas's tech demos. A disgusting piece of cinema!

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.

My wife, bless her heart, has occasionally heard me comment about Howard the Duck. So when the DVD came available in a $5 bin she picked up a copy. Hoping that the film's apparent cult status meant there was some redeeming value I had missed as a teenager, we started to watch it.We lasted 30 minutes. What a pile of tripe. I kid you not, we actually found greater entertainment reading the reviews from Rotten Tomatoes than we did watching the film --- by a considerable degree.The script is slow and boring, the acting is bad, after 30 minutes there still wasn't a plot (I suppose one would have materialized after the bad guy appeared, but he hadn't in 30 minutes...), the sets were bad, the editing was bad. Honestly, it's like Ed Wood had risen from the grave to make one last clunker of a movie.Finally, I'd like to echo the words of the eternal Gene Siskel... "Who was this stupid film made for?" It's too brain-dead stupid for adults, it's too coarse for children (even by today's standards). My wife and I literally couldn't figure out the intended audience. It's all over the map. Ten-year-old cuddly one moment, condom-vulgar the next. Sheesh! So, save your money and watch anything else. Even Youtube videos of kittens are a more valuable use of your time than Howard the Duck.