HOWARD THE DUCK (1986)

HOWARD THE DUCK (1986)

Tagline: More adventure than humanly possible.

(Action, Comedy, Box Office Legend) [PG]

Hey, are we like all in the same discussion here?

Based on the Marvel comic “Howard The Duck”, a scientific experiment goes south and Howard gets sucked from his duck planet to Earth. Upon arriving he runs into Cherry Bomb’s lead singer Beverly Switzler who he helps fend off some dude making advances on her after a show. It isn’t long before Howard becomes disillusioned with Earth and decides to part from Beverly to try and make it on his own. He soon discovers life alone as a humanoid duck in a big city is miserable. As it turns out Howard isn’t the only thing the scientists brought back from space and now the fate of the world is at stake. 

First off, when I was kid, I pretty much hated this thing and a lot of that had to do with Howard himself. I just can’t relate to his character at all and I don’t see the appeal. I am guessing that is part of why this movie completely bombed when it came out. I also think a lot of people misinterpreted a specific scene mistaking it for being “pro-bestiality”. That simply isn’t the case in and never was. In one scene Beverly is teasing Howard acting like she is coming on to him, but it’s clearly meant to just be silly, not some perverted message. The kiss between the two is the equivalent of kissing your dog on the snout. This is not to say that there are not some risky jokes in the movie, but in the 80s that was really basic standard stuff. 

This was also a movie that you would think would appeal to kids, but almost all the themes in the film are aimed at adults. The fact that it really wasn’t for kids in spite of a toned-down PG rating probably turned off a lot of people that the movie might have attracted. Over the years I kind of started to embrace this movie a bit more each time I watched it. There are actually a lot of great lines in this. Some of the theories Tim Robbins character Phil comes up with are almost as bat s—t crazy as trusting the government during a pandemic. 

When we start talking about the good in this film, I have to go to the soundtrack first. Lea Thompson (BACK TO THE FUTURE) plays the lead singer of a band called “Cherry Bomb”. As it turns out, she actually sings in the movie and the other actresses in the band actually play their instruments as well. They apparently thought about dubbing Lea’s voice, but she was actually really good. Cherry Bomb’s songs are actually on a few of my streaming music playlists just as a guilty pleasure. Lea is fantastic in this role. I think if you ask most people her heyday was back in the 80s in films like SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL and SPACE CAMP and more, but she is still acting to this day and has direction on 15 different projects including 5 episodes of “Stargirl”. When it comes to the “Cherry Bomb” bandmates, Liz Sagal (GREASE 2) plays Ronette. She appears to have stopped acting back in 2002. K.C. was played by Holly Robinson Peete, she is still acting mostly in TV movies and is married to former NFL quarterback Rodney Peete. She is probably most famous for a long stint on 21 Jump Street. Dominique Davalos played Cal and still does act here and there. Most of her credits are revolved around music which makes sense. Jeffrey Jones also shows up in this as one of the scientists Dr. Walter Jenning. In every movie I have seen this dude in he’s always playing a major jerk (seems fitting given his real-life issues), so seeing him in a duplicitous role here wasn’t all that shocking.  

I think my favorite parts of the movie are all in the second half when George Lucas decided to take this movie full sci-fi and we finally got to see Thog the Nether-Spawn, Overmaster of Sominus. The stop-motion effects are really janky, but it’s not the worst effort I have ever seen. I think my favorite character in the movie was Chrystal from the diner scene played by Jorli McLain. She was literally wearing a Japanese headband. Awesome 80's stuff right there. 

There are a few scenes that were slow, but the injection of humor pushed this thing along and I think trying to tell this story warranted the 1 hour and 50 minute run time. I get that this isn’t a popular take, but I have grown fond of this thing and actually watch it about once a year. Is it for everyone? Nope. To a lot of people, this is one of the princes of poor cinema. Some consider it an unimaginable travesty and an assault on the film going public. Universal Executives reportedly even got in a fistfight over whom green-lit it. So that’s probably why I like it.

HOWARD THE DUCK is about as bonkers as it sounds and I actually recommend people give it a shot. For me, this is a 5 out of 7. I know, there is something wrong with me, people online tell me that all the time. I do wish that Howard was actually a better part of his own movie.

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