It's easy to say that John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, She's Having a Baby, etc.) is a one-man film factory whose assembly line approach to moviemaking would have made Henry Ford proud. It's also easy to say that the gifted young writer/director/producer always has one eye on the audience, and consistently undercuts his material with schmaltzy scenes to please the soap opera lobe of the human brain. No matter. He also makes you laugh out loud over the little day to day inanities we all identify with as part and parcel of humankind's lot. And that's a rare gift. John Candy is in fine form as the slob bachelor Uncle Buck, who's called upon to babysit his brother's kids in an emergency. The two youngest, Miles and Maizy, are predictably too precocious--and Hughes wisely uses them sparingly, and to great effect. The major conflict, however, is reserved for the teenage Tia (Jean Kelly). A rebellious 15, Tia is determined to thwart Uncle Buck's authority and carry on some serious make-out with her boyfriend "The Bug." As uncle and niece lock horns, a few sober reflections on both adolescence and loneliness surface. Everyone winds up happy as a clam, including Buck's long-suffering girlfriend (a nice performance by Amy Madigan). Recommended. (R. Pitman)
Uncle Buck
(1989) 100 min. PG. $89.95. MCA Home Video. Library Journal
Uncle Buck
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