The Great Buck Howard 2008
I heard mixed reviews about this movie when it first came out. I was willing to take a chance because I like John Malkovich (who plays the title character). It is enjoyable, but merely an average movie. It mostly concerns an aimless law school dropout who takes a job as a road manager for a mentalist (not a “magician”) who is past his prime and now spends all of his time touring partially full small venues across America. The stage show (not the person, as pointed out in the DVD extras) is based completely on The Amazing Kreskin for whom the writer/director was once a road manager. But Buck Howard is a less likable character, prone to frequent temper tantrums and verbal abuse of the people around him and he is an amazing tightwad. It’s a good character and it is interesting getting to know him through the new road manager’s eyes. However, a fairly short movie already, there is a lot of padding in the form of a romance with the road manager, a number of staged appearances on current talk shows (Regis and Kelly, etc., only this has been done to death and just seems really fake), and an ending that goes on a little too long. Perhaps the problem is that Buck Howard isn’t a terribly likable guy, nor is he a monster. Also, the writer/director struggles with some of the side characters whose acting is terrible (Ricky Jay as a booking agent). Some people will really like the main character, who is played by Colin Hanks, son of Tom Hanks (who is in the movie briefly as his father), and the movie is generally pretty sweet and harmless. So it is enjoyable, but entirely forgettable. B.
Written: 08 Aug 2009