Jan142008
Truly fowl
Filed under Uncategorized by jennifer o'callaghan at 10:49 am
A bizarre chain of events led me, on Friday night, to watch "Howard the Duck" with my ex-boyfriend.
What really is there to be said about "Howard the Duck" that hasn’t already been said? Some say it is the worst movie ever, synonymous with box-office bomb. Some are not so kind.
I am surprised that after "Howard the Duck" hit theaters, George Lucas, Jeffrey Jones, Lea Thompson and Tim freakin’ Robbins still have careers.
From the opening, you just know it’s going to lay an egg. Howard arrives home from work in his parallel universe, a nearly exact replica of Earth in almost every way - down to his Bloominduck’s credit card in his wallet - but inhabited by midget ducks. Our intrepid hero innocently sits down in his easy chair for a cigar and then some unknown vortex rips him through the walls of his apartment building, hurtles him through space and dumps him in an alley in Cleveland.
Still with me?
It’s riddled with awful duck puns. Howard is a master of Quack Fu, and it isn’t funny the first time he says it and doesn’t get any funnier when it’s trotted out again. And it gets downright icky when Lea Thompson goes all goo-goo eyes for our fine feathered friend.
I wish I had been in the room when this project got the greenlight. I am not sure who got excited by the story line, or even worse, who thought it would work as a live action. (I don’t know that it would have been better animated, but I can’t believe it could have been worse. At least we would have been spared the cheesy special effects. And since Howard started life in a comic book, I can’t help think it would have made a difference.)
But there was one bright spot in the picture - the woman from the employment office who is determined to get Howard a job, no matter how weird he looks.
There’s a reason this film took home the 1990 Razzie Award for worst picture of the decade. Actually, there’s 111 minutes of reasons it was the worst picture of the decade. But is it the worst film ever? I’d like to know if there is some piece of celluloid out there that makes "Howard the Duck" look genius.
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