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Dom Robinson reviews
Columbia TriStar
- Cert:
- Cat.no: USR 90082
- Running time: 95 minutes
- Year: 1989
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Pro Logic)
- Languages: 5 languages
- Subtitles: 14 languages available
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Production Notes, Filmographies
Director:
- John Hughes
(Breakfast Club, Curly Sue, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes Trains and Automobiles, She’s Having a Baby, Sixteen Candles, Uncle Buck, Weird Science)
Producer:
- John Hughes and Tom Jacobson
Screenplay:
- John Hughes
Music:
- Ira Newborn
Cast:
- Buck Russell: John Candy
Tia Russell: Jean Louisa Kelly
Maisy Russell: Gaby Hoffmann
Miles Russell: Macaulay Culkin
Chanice Kobolowski: Amy Madigan
Cindy Russell: Elaine Bromka
Bob Russell: Garrett M. Brown
Marcie Dahlgren-Frost: Laurie Metcalf
Bug: Jay Underwood
Pooter-the-Clown: Mike Starr
In 1989, Uncle Buckwas one of the last films John Hughes directed that was actually funny,while keeping up the pace we came to expect from him, before he concentratedon mainly writing and producing films that revolved around ‘cute’ kids andless about the comedy.
At the Russell household, parents Cindy (Elaine Bromka) and Bob(Garrett M. Brown) are called away back to their home town ofIndianapolis after Cindy’s father has a heart attack, much to the annoyanceof teenage tyrant Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly) who never wanted to leaveand is so upset it just manifests itself as a silent rage. Her youngersiblings, Maisy (Gaby Hoffmann) and Miles (a pre-Home AloneMacaulay Culkin), are too innocent to be so nasty.
Hired for the job of housemaid is Bob’s brother, hence the title,the effervescent Uncle Buck (the late, great John Candy who died in 1994 while filmingWagons East). He’s got problems of his own with his job – or rather alack of one, his girlfriend Chanice (Amy Madigan), a drunken clownnamed Pooter (Mike Starr), an eccentric neighbour, MarcieDahlgren-Frost (Laurie Metcalf), plus new nemeses in the form ofscowling Tia and her boyfriend Bug (Jay Underwood).
The only slight downer is when all the tension built up during the filmis dissipated by a schmaltzy American ending when everything works out fineand everyone learns to be a better person. All together now… aaah(!)
Presented in an anamorphic widescreen ratio of 1.85:1, this is the first timethe film has been available on a home format in the UK in anything other thana fullscreen ratio. While this is very welcome, there are plenty of UNwelcomeartifacts in all the bright scenes. I presume this was the only masterColumbia TriStar could find. It’s preferable to a fullscreen one, even thoughit would be open-matte.The average bitrate is 5.93Mb/s, briefly peaking above 9Mb/s.
The sound is still only Dolby Pro Logic, as it was made, but there arestill scores of impressive sound FX dropped in such as the bowling ballincident, the dog lick and, last but not least, Buck’s classic car.Dialogue comes in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish flavours.
Extras :
Little going on here. No trailers, just Filmographies forJohn Candy and Amy Madigan and several pages of ProductionNotes.
A Universal-via-Columbia DVD so we have the usual few chapters (16 this time,in keeping with the Region 1 DVD) and subtitles 14 languages :English, French, German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Swedish, Finnish,Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Danish and Bulgarian.
The main menu is static, with a look to it akin to the front cover.
The film is just as funny as I remember, but the lack of extras makes it adifficult recommendation at full price, especially as at least two videotrailers were classified on October 24th, 1989.
Uncle Buck was a 12-certificate in the cinema, for what I’m sure wasas a result of a single f-word being present. The subsequent video versionwas a 15-cert as the 12-cert hadn’t been permitted for video releases at thetime, but when this widescreen version was submitted to the BBFC forclassification on October 2nd, 2000, they allowed it to have a 12-certificateagain without any cuts and it has the same running time as the video release.As I write, however, I can’t find the f-word in the film. Can anyone tell mewhere it is?
DVD Trivia: A short-lived TV series, starring Kevin Meaneyin the titular role, spun-off from this film.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.