Uncle Buck
| Uncle Buck | |
|---|---|
 The movie poster for Uncle Buck. | |
| Directed by | John Hughes |
| Written by | John Hughes |
| Produced by | John Hughes Tom Jacobson |
| Starring | John Candy |
| Music by | Ira Newborn |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date | August 16 1989 |
Running time | 100 min. |
| Language | English |
Uncle Buck is a 1989 film starring John Candy, Amy Madigan, Jean Louisa Kelly, Gaby Hoffmann, and Macaulay Culkin. Jay Underwood and Laurie Metcalf co-star, and William Windom, Mike Starr, and Anna Chlumsky have cameo roles. The movie was written and directed by John Hughes, and received a PG rating from the MPAA.
Plot
Template:Spoiler Cindy and Bob Russell are raising a family in an upper middle-class Chicago suburb. Their children are Miles (Culkin), Maizy (Hoffman), and Tia (Kelly). They had recently moved to Chicago from Indianapolis. This has caused much resentment on the part of Tia.
Late one night, Cindy and Bob receive a phone call from Indianapolis. Cindy's father had just suffered a heart attack. Cindy and Bob make plans to leave immediately. However the children had school, which made taking them along not possible.
Bob suggests they ask his brother Buck (Candy) to watch the kids, which Cindy rejects because she doesn't feel comfortable with him. Buck drinks, smokes, and is a general slob. Cindy also does not approve of his girlfriend (Madigan). However it turns out that no one else is available to help them, so they have no choice but to turn to Buck. Buck agrees to come out to their home and watch them. Buck doesn't even remember the names of the two younger children. After some confusion over what house Bob's family lives in, he finally gets to Bob and Cindy's home. The couple soon leave to go to her father.
Buck immediately hits it off with both Miles and Maizy. However Tia does not like Buck. When taking her to school, Buck meets Tia's boyfriend Bug. Buck sees right through him, Bug's only interest in Tia is for sex.
Over the next several days, Buck has to deal with a number of interesting situations involving his girlfriend, Miles, Maizy, and Tia. These situations included taking the kids to Buck's favorite bowling alley, Buck talking to a school principal over her concerns about Maizy, cooking gigantic pancakes, and dealing with a drunk clown. In these situations Buck is shown to be a man with a heart of gold who adores his brother's children.
At the end, Tia realizes that Buck is right in his theory about Bug. Although Tia walks away from unwanted sex with him, Buck decides to get revenge on Bug for his crime. He drills a hole through the door knob of his room, walking in on him with another girl, and ties him up and throws him in his old car. In the final scenes, Tia forgets her earlier resentment to her mother, and both get along. Template:Endspoiler
Trivia
- John Hughes claims that the scene wherein Macaulay Culkin speaks with Amy Madigan through the mail slot in the front door was what gave him the idea for Home Alone.
- A short biography about Macaulay Culkin claims that, upon the film's release, a child asked Culkin if he really lived with actor John Candy, to which Culkin replied, "Yes I do. He's upstairs microwaving my socks right now."
- The movie theme is "The Rhythm Of Life" by Hugh Harris. It is played as a piano instrumental at the start and the entire song plays at the end of the movie over the rolling credits. It can be found on his album "Words For Our Years".
- For the scene in which Miles rapidly interrogates Buck about the fine details of his life, John Candy had the prompter set up on his back so that Macaulay Culkin could maintain the scene's breakneck pace.
- This movie is still Macaulay Culkin's highest grossing film outside of the Home Alone series.
- The instrumental song playing during the nighttime scene when Bug asks Tia to go out to his car with him is "Small Time Hustler" by The Dismasters. It does not appear on the soundtrack nor is listed during the end credits.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| John Candy | Buck Russell |
| Jean Louisa Kelly | Tia Russell |
| Gaby Hoffmann | Maizy Russell |
| Macaulay Culkin | Miles Russell |
| Amy Madigan | Buck Russell's Girlfriend |
| Elaine Bromka | Cindy Russell |
| Garrett M. Brown | Bob Russell |
| Laurie Metcalf | Marcie Dahlgren-Frost |
| Jay Underwood | Bug |
Quotes
Bug - "Ever hear of a tune-up? Ha ha."
Buck (mocking Bug's laugh) - "Hee hee hee. Ever hear of a ritual killing? Hee hee hee."
Bug - "I don't get it."
Buck - "You gnaw on her face in public like that again and you'll be one. Hee hee hee hee!"
Buck (speaking to the drunk clown who arrived in a Volkswagen modified to look like a mouse) - "Get in your mouse, and get out of here."
(Buck is about to take the children bowling)
Maizy - "They have rent-a-shoes."
Tia - "And rent-a-foot-disease."
Principal - "And who are you?"
Buck (after noticing that the school principal has a large mole on her face) - "Buck Melanoma, Moley Russell's wart."
Buck (after yelling at the principal for selling Maizy short) - "Here's a quarter. Go downtown, and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face!"
E. Roger Cogswell - (to Buck) "You gotta let somebody know where you are. I've been checking car trunks for your corpse."
Miles (watching Buck make breakfast) - "Holy smokes! He's cookin' our garbage!"
Buck-"Who Let The Cat Out?"
Maizy-"We Dont Have A Cat"
Buck-"Get Out Here...shoo shoo"
Buck- "I use this hatchet--not to kill, just to maim."
The TV Show
In 1990, a television show named Uncle Buck was broadcast on CBS. It starred Kevin Meaney as Buck, a slob who drinks and smokes. When his brother and sister-and-law die in an automobile accident, Buck is named as the guardian of Tia, Miles, and Maizy. The show was not well received by either critics or the viewing public, and it was quickly cancelled.
External links
- Uncle Buck at the Internet Movie Database.