Movie #324 - John Candy Collection: Uncle Buck

Uncle Buck
1989 - Rated PG - 1 hr 40 min
Director: John Hughes
Starring: John Candy, Macaulay Culkin, Jean Louisa Kelly, Gaby Hoffmann, Amy Madigan, Laurie Metcalf, Jay Underwood

A John Hughes movie not centered on teenagers was a rarity, but here it is.  Granted, he can't help himself completely: the teenage daughter Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly) is a particularly tough nut to crack for old Uncle Buck.  She's as bitchy as Jennifer Grey in Ferris Bueller with the snobbery of Molly Ringwald in Breakfast Club. Hooray for 15-year-old girls in John Hughes' world... they're all a piece of work. Honestly, what did he have against them?

Anyway, Uncle Buck is the goofy, bachelor uncle who just can't seem to do anything right.  His total fear of commitment has him wife-less, childless, job-less, and apparently life-less. When his brother needs someone to watch the kids, Buck's a last resort... but they're pretty desperate.  Since this is a feel-good comedy, though, you know the uncle and the kids are both going to grow from the experience of being stuck together while Mom and Dad are gone.  It's predictable, less slap-stick funny than the DVD cover would suggest, and overall very John Hughes-y.  Still, not bad.

And yes, while this movie does indeed begin with a U, it's up in the J's because of how the DVD is packaged.  Billed as the John Candy Collection, it's three movies on two DVDs and in one box, so we've filed it under J for ease.  The other movies, Going Berserk and The Great Outdoors, are up next...

Movie #234 - Gone Baby Gone

Gone Baby Gone
2007 - Rated R - 1 hr 54 min
Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Casey Affleck, Ed Harris, Michelle Monaghan, John Ashton, Amy Ryan, Amy Madigan

Between the Godfather trilogy and this movie, I needed a time out. So many heavy plotlines! I'm begging for a comedy right now, folks.  This isn't it.

I do like this movie though and I got to be reminded of how much.  Nepotism in casting aside, Casey Affleck carries the movie well.  And as always, you gotta love Ed Harris. 

The movie starts out with a missing girl, taken from the home in the middle of the night.  The first hour is spent looking for her. The second hour isn't... but we end up learning so much more about what happened, all the same.  I can't give away much more than that, without ruining the ending.  Disguised as a crime drama, this movie really asks you to consider your own morals.  Is it right? Wrong?  Can you shoot a child molester in the head at point blank range and live with it? And then ending will probably piss you off. Maybe.  It all depends on your own moral code, I guess.