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Howard the Duck



Howard the Duck (1986)

Executive Producer: George Lucas
Director: Willard Huyck
Writers: Steve Gerber (Marvel comics character), Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz
Cast: Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, Tim Robbins
Genre: Comic book, comedy, music


A scientific experiment gone awry on Earth accidentally transports a sarcastic but intelligent duck creature from another planet and sets him done in LA. Once on Earth, Howard the duck most help a girl rocker and a nerdy lab worker stop an evil alien creature from destroying the world. CR

Billed as one of the biggest flops of all time, Howard the Duck has been a thorn in the career of a man who's been called a special effects genius, George Lucas. Lucas still contends that one day people will recognize Howard the Duck is a masterpiece....Hmm maybe he was kidding when he said that?

After his critically acclaimed success with THX1138 and American Graffiti, Lucas then turned towards big budget, flashy special effects movies aimed at kids and at kid-at-heart adults. I mean who doesn't know about he phenomenal success of the Star Wars series and Indian Jones movies?

But then there's the embarrassment called Howard the Duck...What could have Lucas been thinking when he decided to produce this movie? A PG movie with adult type jokes, but with a cutesy duck talking duck creature that would seem to be suited to a kid's movie...Throw in more CG special effects and FX stunts then 5 other movies combined and you get one weird movie. I mean one can't watch this movie without thinking did we really need that elaborate car wreck stunts, not to mention the 2 million dollar duck suit in the movie!

Had this been toned way down, it might have came in at 10 million instead of 30 million. Then with a kid audience this might have made a profit....Howard the Duck combines clever adult jokes which are funny at times, but then again what adult wants to watch a talking duck? It's an oxymoron.



The movie does have a cult following and there's some real rock music with actress Lea Thompson actually singing. It's pretty good too. I liked Lea in this, she's likable which is a good thing because Howard is not a likable character. He's an annoying one joke idea that gets stretched out to a 2 hour movie length.



See what I mean! If you think that looks charming then you might like this film, me I thought it was all wet.