The Great Buck Howard

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The Great Buck Howard

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The Great Buck Howard

John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks, Emily Blunt, Adam Scott

A young man, much to the chagrin of his father, becomes the new assistant to an illusionist in decline..

Id: 10988577

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The Great Buck Howard Recent Reviews
  • QueenCityFilms
    August 18, 2009
    QueenCityFilms
    The Great John Malkovich, The Great Tom Hanks, and the great Colin Hanks (not really) all take a break from making great, enthralling movies to deliver....THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD for your entertainment!

    Straight up, Hollywood .500 club. No doubt.
  • allan913
    August 9, 2009
    allan913
    I love this guy and i love this movie even more. A wickedly hilarious and very smart comedy that delivers plenty of great laughs and smarts, John Malkovich is absolutely brillliant, giving a wonderful and very funny performance. Colin Hanks is fantastic. This is a great film. So ...( read more)many great laughs that you have to see it twice.
  • 366weirdmovies
    May 14, 2009
    366weirdmovies
    John Malkovich as a once popular mentalist (based on the Amazing Creskin) playing half-filled venues on the downside of his career. Pleasant enough comedy/drama full of familiar faces (Tom Hanks and a large number of cameo appearances by George Takei, Jay Leno, and so on).
  • mrpopcorn
    May 6, 2009
    mrpopcorn
    "Get ready for the comeback of a lifetime."

    A young man, much to the chagrin of his father, becomes the new assistant to an illusionist in decline.

    REVIEW

    John Malkovich is the heart of T...( read more)he Great Buck Howard, and he's the principal reason for seeing this slight but very enjoyable film. An entertainer whose "mentalist" act has grown stale, Buck Howard is playing to half-filled houses in small cities, far out of the show-biz mainstream. Desperate to revive the fame he enjoyed when he was a fixture on The Tonight Show -- "that's 'The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson'", as he constantly reminds everyone -- Buck concocts a new "effect" that he hopes will get him some new fans, a shot with Jay Leno, and perhaps a booking in Vegas.

    Buck's comeback story is told through the observances of Troy Gable (Colin Hanks), a young man looking for a calling, who in the meantime takes a job as Buck's traveling road manager/valet/whipping boy. Troy is both fascinated and repelled by Buck's temperamental behavior and his "cheesy" act.

    The movie is entirely conventional, including Troy's liaison with Buck's publicity agent (Emily Blunt), but Malkovich's take on "Buck" make this worth a look or two.
  • her69eyes
    February 28, 2009
    her69eyes
    You make recognize Troy Gabel (Colin Hanks) from "The Great Buck Howard". He's an aspiring writer who plays a straight man to his eccentric partner, and much of the film is told through voiceover narration. Colin Hanks, although possessing a likable screen presence, hasn't shown ...( read more)much in the way of variety in his young career - in this case, he's rehashing the same college student from "Orange County". It's unfair to be too harsh on the uninspired and tedious character progression of Colin's character, however, as the fault of "The Great Buck Howard" is the flat script. Much like another film from 2008's Sundance film festival, "What Just Happened", "The Great Buck Howard", despite good performances, relies on too many conventions and ends up being something you'll forget a week after seeing it.

    Troy Gabel is a student at law school discovering that law school may, in fact, not be for him. He's too worried to express his disinterest to his tuition-paying father (Tom Hanks), however, and instead he ends up taking up an offer to be a celebrity's personal assistant. Buck Howard (John Malkovich) was famous for appearing on Johnny Caron's "Tonight Show" 61 times, however since Leno has taken over he's vanished into obscurity. Much like Randy the Ram in "The Wrestler", Howard finds himself working in small half-full venues, still absorbed into thinking he's a bigger deal than he is. He walks on stage with his goofy smile, and delivers trademark lines like "I love this town!" in towns no one has ever heard of.

    Howard's show is very much based on what he calls "effects". His big climax is when he'll get the audience to hide his pay for the night. If he doesn't find it, he worked for free. No matter where the audience hides it, in their shoes or hats, Howard, without fails, makes his way to it. The best scenes are late in the film where, for the first time ever, Howard pathetically stumbles around the room, having "lost" his touch.

    Although "The Great Buck Howard" is rather pedestrian, the performance of John Malkovich brings the film some much needed life. Malkovich, playing a very similar primadonna eccentric to his characters in "Being John Malkovich" and "Burn After Reading", inhabits this odd carny character with such enthusiasm and sureness. He's playing a cartoon in every way, from his handshake to his tricks, but somehow Malkovich makes Howard not only believable, but actually likable and sympathetic. The film is comprised of many scenes that don't and few that do, but the few that do are special only for Malkovich's talents. The ending of the film, in particular, is very satisfying.

    "The Great Buck Howard" is currently available on the X-Box 360 Market Place and OnDemand, but i'm not sure i'd quite recommend it. It's nothing offensively bad, but it's so forgettable that you could wait until it's on cable.
  • uberbeard
    December 15, 2009
    uberbeard
    I really liked this. On the usual form, my appreciation was directly linked to how hot Emily Blunt is.
  • LYNNWOODS04
    December 13, 2009
    LYNNWOODS04
    Colin Hanks, John Malkovich, Tom Hanks, Emily Blunt, Adam Scott
    A young man, much to the chagrin of his father, becomes the new assistant to an illusionist in decline..
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Good but not great. I really like Colin Hanks...( read more). He was really good in this movie. Loved seeing him and his father Tom Hanks work together. Would love to see them in another film, but something more of drama maybe. Emily Blunt was good. Liked her character. Just OK for me. Nothing to special besides the performamces. Would watch it just for that.
  • rayld02
    December 9, 2009
    rayld02

    John Malkovich as The Great Buck Howard, "I love this town!"

    "I love this man".

    The Great Buck Howard (John Malkovich), that's what most of the press call him. He is a talented genius ...( read more)with a charisma that is overflowing and a charm so enviable. When you watch his shows, roughly ninety percent of his audience believe in his magic tricks. He is a mentalist, The Great Buck Howard is inspired with the 70's "The Amazing Kreskin" that leads us to the end note saying the makers' build-up of the man.

    The story starts with the narration of Troy Gable (Colin Hanks), a law school dropout who chooses to write but ends up working as road manager for The Great Buck Howard, and later, meeting his partner / love affair Valerie Brennan (Emily Blunt).

    We don't all know if Buck Howard is a true mentalist or just another fraud loser who fantasizes of becoming a world-class act. But we see him appearing in numerous American TV shows like Conan O' Brien and Martha Stewart. This we reason for his "great" mental skills and the ability to put several acts that surely are considered magnificent.

    Troy is visited by his father (Tom Hanks) and is asked to quit his job for Buck Howard and continue his schooling. But that time, he wanted to have a sense of freedom and go on living a life that he wants.

    The film is intentionally filled with cliches. The main character Buck Howard is always as aggressive as he is onstage. But he sometimes get lowly, especially when he talks to people. His incredible love for what he does coherently describes his passion. It is implied in the film that when you love what you're doing, you'll sooner or later find homage. That is a kind of passion that definitely would require patience and time.

    The film is existential in nature, a bit definitive, and it tells a moral value - to have the instinct of knowing what's best for you and to set your priorities. The film employs a very funny screenplay, and portrayal of capable actors.
  • JohnRovi1
    December 8, 2009
    JohnRovi1
    I really like John Malkovich, and he was pretty good in this movie. I miss the day of magicians as entertainers, so I liked it.
  • reddarth
    November 10, 2009
    reddarth
    Malkovich is great. The movie beyond that is fairly pedestrian, but it has some great off-beat humor and is worth seeing just for Malkovich's performance alone.
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