The Great Buck Howard

Starring: John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn, Tom Hanks, Tom Arnold, David Blaine, George Takei
Directed by: Sean McGinly
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama
2008

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A law school dropout (Colin Hanks) goes to work for the Great Buck Howard (John Malkovich), a passed his prime mentalist, much to the chagrin of his father (Tom Hanks).

Review:

Tim: The Great Buck Howard works as a movie mainly because of the performance of John Malkovich. His inspired performance makes the rest of the movie go. While this isn't a perfect movie, I really did enjoy this movie. It operates at a different pace than most movies out of Hollywood these days. It has an interesting story, fun characters, and is a fairly good movie.

As mentioned, John Malkovich deserves praise for his portrayal of Buck Howard. On one hand, he is a ridiculous, impossible to like, egotistical, corny, spoiled has-been. Malkovich portrays this perfectly and you wonder why anyone would like him. And yet, like his character, Malkovich throws a switch and suddenly, he becomes an experienced, charismatic, flashy, interesting man who is desperately trying to cling onto the past glory that he once had. This makes him a fascinating, multidimensional character. I really liked the complex performance of Malkovich in this film.

The rest of the cast does surprisingly good work as well. I don't know if Colin Hanks will ever be viewed as a great actor, but he works well here. He has some legitimate screen presence and his everyman persona works for this movie. He worked very well with the rest of the entire cast. He was really the straight man and the one character who held the entire movie together. I liked Emily Blunt in this movie as well. She has a certain amount of on screen charm, and I enjoyed the scenes she shared with Hanks. I would be lying if I said I wasn't incredibly excited about the small role Tom Hanks had in his son's movie. Playing Colin Hanks' on screen dad was a great move. While the elder Hanks isn't on screen enough to make a huge impact, his presence does help the movie and I enjoyed the Hanks-Hanks scenes immensely. I will also mention that I was a bit disappointed in Steve Zahn. I generally like him quite a bit, but I felt like his presence was completely wasted in this movie. I wish he had something more exciting to do.

Part of the reason I like this movie is because it is a simple, straightforward movie that sets out to tell an interesting story. I like that families can enjoy this movie because it doesn't go for the cheat, vulgar laughs. It reminds me of those older movies that they don't seem to make much anymore. While The Great Buck Howard won't win any awards, it is an enjoyable little movie that features a great performance by one of the greatest actors. I would recommend this film.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7


If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Orange County, The Prestige, The Illusionist, Being John Malkovich, The Devil Wears Prada