Not A Lame Duck
Widely considered to be one of the worst films ever made, Howard the Duck frequently gets mocked and derided as well as George Lucas' greatest missteps; but I personally thought it wasn't as horrible as some of the critics made it out to be. Yes it is stupid, but that's what made me chuckle at it. Perhaps it remains as one of the on-going jokes of the entertainment industry so that even to this day; they can poke fun of Lucas' bomb so that they can forget the stunning success that his Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises have produced.
Overall, the movie is not Oscar worthy material but for the 1980s, it's rather well done. It's goofy, the special effects were fairly limited and the duck suit could definitely been improved as the facial expressions were on the limited side and it did look kinda fake. Instead of sticking somebody inside that thing, I think they should have gone for some sort of muppet as CGI was still in it's infancy I think.
The humor was definitely on the crude side, but considering some of the terrible spoofs and monstrosities that I've seen made since then, Howard the Duck wasn't even in their league. I think that might have been what hurt the film because parents went in with their kids expecting to have a family friendly, kiddie movie and instead they got a swearing, beer swilling, cigar smoking duck who bore very little resemblance to Daffy or Donald. I think some of them were also offended by the hints of zoophilia between Howard and Beverly (Lea Thompson).
I found myself enjoying the movie and was able to suspend my disbelief for it and seeing a duck kick butt with his skills in 'Quack Fu' was just too silly not to laugh at. Otherwise, it had Lea Thompson (Beverly Switzler), Tim Robbins (the sidekick Phil) and Jeffrey Jones (Dr. Jennings), three great supporting cast members who had some fairly side-splitting dialogue at times which they fired off with great timing. Basically, Howard the Duck is so incredibly cheesy but not as lame as people claim and shines as one of Marvel's boldest attempts to bring one of their zaniest creations to the silver screen and definitely a cult classic in my opinion.
RATING: 3 and 1/2 STARS.