There's a certain kind of hype and logrolling for movies both good and bad. You have to learn to think for yourself.
HOWARD THE DUCK is not a successful movie. It's also not "the worst movie ever made" -- by a long, LONG way.
Mainly, it's just disappointing. I came to it as a fan of Steve Gerber's original HOWARD THE DUCK comic book -- which itself was sometimes guilty of excesses. The movie was so disappointing to me because in some ways they came close to getting it right. But everything good in the picture is more than torpedoed by what's bad about it.
First of all -- the Duck himself. Howard should have been an animatronic puppet of the sort that the Henson Studio specialized in. He should have been voiced by Frank Oz. Instead, he's a series of midgets in a really crappy, ugly costume, voiced by the wrong actor for the job.
Second, its attempts at "adult" humor are actually sophomoric, adolescent and tasteless.
Third -- all the social and cultural and topical satire is Gone.
The SHAPE of the story is right, the characters are close enough to being right, but the devil is in the details, and the details are all wrong. It's a misfire that didn't have to be a misfire.
But to call it the worst movie ever made? That's just an exaggeration and reverse hype. You HAVE seen other movies, right?
HOWARD THE DUCK is not a successful movie. It's also not "the worst movie ever made" -- by a long, LONG way.
Mainly, it's just disappointing. I came to it as a fan of Steve Gerber's original HOWARD THE DUCK comic book -- which itself was sometimes guilty of excesses. The movie was so disappointing to me because in some ways they came close to getting it right. But everything good in the picture is more than torpedoed by what's bad about it.
First of all -- the Duck himself. Howard should have been an animatronic puppet of the sort that the Henson Studio specialized in. He should have been voiced by Frank Oz. Instead, he's a series of midgets in a really crappy, ugly costume, voiced by the wrong actor for the job.
Second, its attempts at "adult" humor are actually sophomoric, adolescent and tasteless.
Third -- all the social and cultural and topical satire is Gone.
The SHAPE of the story is right, the characters are close enough to being right, but the devil is in the details, and the details are all wrong. It's a misfire that didn't have to be a misfire.
But to call it the worst movie ever made? That's just an exaggeration and reverse hype. You HAVE seen other movies, right?