• Laying a (Cinematic) Egg: Remembering =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=93Howard=5Fthe=5F

    From Ubiquitous@21:1/5 to All on Mon Nov 7 07:03:51 2016
    XPost: rec.arts.comics.other-media, rec.arts.movies.past-films

    “It’s hard to tell who the movie is for. It’s too childish for
    adults and too provocative and snarky for kids.” — Film
    historian/author Caseen Gaines

    The History, Legacy & Showmanship column here at The Digital Bits
    typically celebrates popular and significant motion pictures and TV
    series. Periodically, though, we will look back at unpopular or
    maligned productions to examine if the passage of time warrants a
    reevaluation. So with this in mind, The Digital Bits and History,
    Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this retrospective for
    Howard the Duck on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.

    Howard the Duck, based upon the 1970s Marvel comic book series,
    starred Lea Thompson (Back to the Future, All the Right Moves), Tim
    Robbins (Bull Durham, The Shawshank Redemption) and Jeffrey Jones
    (Amadeus, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and featured a talking, cigar-
    chomping duck from another planet that is zapped across the galaxy
    to Cleveland where he meets a musician who attempts to help him
    return home.

    The infamous feature film was directed by Willard Huyck (Best
    Defense), executive produced by George Lucas (Star Wars) and written
    by Huyck and Gloria Katz who (with Lucas) also wrote the screenplays
    for American Graffiti, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and
    Radioland Murders. Howard the Duck was a high profile failure upon
    its release and spearheaded an uncharacteristically poor and
    unmemorable year for Lucas and his company, Lucasfilm Ltd. Both of
    his productions, Labyrinth and Howard the Duck, which were released
    only five weeks apart from one another, performed dismally at the
    box office with each failing to recoup its enormous cost. (The year
    1986 also saw the termination of Marvel’s original Star Wars comic
    series and the cancelation of the animated Droids and Ewoks
    television series. And Howard the Duck snapped Industrial Light &
    Magic’s six-year streak of Visual Effects Oscars. About the only
    bright spots for Lucas that year were the home-video release of
    Return of the Jedi, cable television premiere of The Empire Strikes
    Back and premiere of Captain EO at Disneyland.)

    The Bits’ retrospective on Howard the Duck features passages from
    vintage film reviews, a listing of the movie’s “showcase”
    presentations, a compilation of box office data that places the
    movie’s performance in context, and an interview segment with a
    group of authors, historians and film industry analysts.

    So, was Howard the Duck justifiably blasted by critics? Did Howard
    the Duck understandably bomb at the box office? Does Howard the Duck
    deserve to be reevaluated several decades later? Well, you decide….



    HOWARD NUMBER$
    ?0 = Number of weeks nation’s top-grossing movie
    ?3 = Rank among top-earning movies during opening weekend
    ?4 = Number of Golden Raspberry (“Razzie”) awards
    ?5 = Number of months between theatrical release and home video
    release
    ?8 = Number of Golden Raspberry (“Razzie”) nominations
    ?20 = Rank among top-earning movies of 1986 (summer season)
    ?28 = Number of 70mm prints
    ?43 = Rank among top box-office rentals of 1986 (calendar year)
    ?53 = Rank among top-grossing movies of 1986 (legacy)
    ?1,554 = Number of opening-week engagements
    ?$34.98 = Suggested retail price of initial home video release
    (LaserDisc)
    ?$79.95 = Suggested retail price of initial home video release (VHS
    and Beta)
    ?$3,262 = Opening-weekend per-screen average
    ?$5.1 million = Opening-weekend box-office gross
    ?$9.8 million = Box-office rental (domestic)
    ?$11.2 million = Opening-weekend box-office gross (adjusted for
    inflation)
    ?$16.3 million = Box-office gross (domestic)
    ?$21.6 million = Box-office rental (domestic, adjusted for
    inflation)
    ?$21.7 million = Box-office gross (international)
    ?$34.5 million = Production cost
    ?$35.9 million = Box-office gross (domestic, adjusted for inflation)
    ?$38.0 million = Box-office gross (worldwide)
    ?$47.8 million = Box-office gross (international, adjusted for
    inflation)
    ?$76.0 million = Production cost (adjusted for inflation)
    ?$83.7 million = Box-office gross (worldwide, adjusted for
    inflation)

    A SAMPLING OF MOVIE REVIEWER QUOTES

    “After the movie was released everybody said that it was insane to
    make a movie about a duck from outer space. But, I don’t know, I
    think it would have been possible for Howard to maybe have worked if
    only they had started with a funny, likable duck in a comedy.
    Instead they made a grim, worried duck in a special effects
    adventure. And then they filled the soundtrack with bittersweet and
    even downbeat music to be sure that we didn’t get to feeling too
    good. What a miscalculation!” — Roger Ebert, Siskel & Ebert & the
    Movies

    “Donald, Huey, Louie, Dewey, and even Daffy can rest easy; Howard is
    no threat to the duck pecking order on this planet. And that’s no
    wise quack…. Cartoon characters frequently make good cartoon films;
    this one didn’t. Howard the Duck has plenty of cheek, but no tongue
    to put in it.” — Dick Wolff, The Seattle Times

    “A hopeless mess. A gargantuan production which produces a
    gargantuan headache.” — Leonard Maltin, Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide

    “The second half of the movie is devoted to truly magnificent visual
    tricks, created by George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic company
    and equal to anything in that director’s Star Wars.” — Caryn James,
    The New York Times

    “Daffy Duck will be pleased to hear he didn’t miss any career
    opportunities when he wasn’t chosen to star in Howard the Duck,
    although producers certainly could have benefited from his talents.”
    — Jane Galbraith, Variety

    “Jeffrey Jones, who played the unlucky scientist, made a deep
    impression as the emperor in Amadeus. Since then, he has fallen on
    tough times. In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, he had the year’s most
    humiliating role as a crazed principal willing to go to any lengths
    to catch Ferris in the act of playing hooky. His role in Howard the
    Duck requires him to do a massive amount of eye rolling as the Dark
    Overlord takes control of his body. You feel sorry for Jones, going
    through undignified screechings and contortions. His predicament
    makes you wonder if acting is a suitable profession for a grown
    man.” — Scott Cain, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    “Lucas’ redoubtable Industrial Light and Magic Co. was behind all
    this sturm und drang, so you can believe that it is the very top-
    of-the-line magic, but did this summer, or this year, or this
    decade, for that matter, need one more impeccably turned-out giant
    monster — tentacled, suction-cupped or chest-bursting? The
    sickening, rolling-over-and-over crash of this many more cars? One
    more threat of a nuclear-powered meltdown? The imagination of the
    opening is a hint of what the movie might have been: a view of our
    world that made kids consider it from another angle — as well as a
    spoof of the superhero. But what are all the pleasant duck effects
    in the face of any of this numbing waste? In this respect, the
    movie’s PG rating is a joke. And the movie itself is a pretty base
    canard.” — Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times

    “The most inventive creature to hit the screen since E.T. A good-
    natured adventure with a terrific cast and nifty special effects.” —
    Tom Green, USA Today

    “Willard Huyck, the director, and Gloria Katz, the producer,
    collaborated on the screenplay, as they did on American Graffiti and
    Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Their touch is not as sure
    this time. There’s good stuff around the edges of the film — all
    that word play and all those visual gags demand that you pay
    attention lest you miss something even in the slow scenes. But at
    the center, no magic.” — Bill Cosford, The Miami Herald

    “Has George Lucas lost his way? He’s specializing in black holes
    this summer. The master of the Skywalker Ranch, godfather of Jim
    Henson’s Labyrinth, was apparently also the godfather to the new
    film Howard the Duck, written by his colleagues Willard Huyck and
    Gloria Katz, produced by Katz and directed by Huyck. What I’d like
    to know is when did any of them think this witless and overblown
    fantasy was worthy of such time and expense?” — David Foil, (Baton
    Rouge) State Times

    “The cinematography is crisp and lush as one might expect from a
    Lucas production, but director Willard Huyck has his hands so full
    trying to convince people the dwarf in the duck suit is real that he
    has little time for subtleties that might have made Howard take
    flight.” — Paul Johnson, (Little Rock) Arkansas Gazette

    “As a mild-mannered scientist possessed by a demon from outer space,
    Jeffrey Jones is amazing. H-bomb explosions in his eyes, a ghastly
    critter unreeling from his mouth, his chassis outlined in
    electricity, Jones’s performance makes the picture worth seeing.” —
    Catharine Rambeau, Detroit Free Press

    “A lot of things get blown up in this movie — or crashed, or
    smashed, or sometimes atomized. For sheer destructiveness, the film
    calls to mind Steven Spielberg’s legendary failure 1941, though
    Howard the Duck displays little of the malicious joy or stylistic
    grace that Spielberg showed off when he was smashing his toys. But
    the destructiveness of Howard the Duck springs from simple
    desperation. In the absence of anything resembling structure,
    character, point of view or sense of purpose, there is no place else
    for this empty project to go.” — Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune

    “Put the blame on Huyck and Katz. To be sure, they’re credited with
    the screenplay for American Graffiti. But, lest we forget, they are
    also responsible for French Postcards, the film about American
    college kids in Europe that succeeded only in giving small movies a
    bad name. They are also responsible for the script of Indiana Jones
    and the Temple of Doom, the Raiders sequel that succeeded only in
    giving big movies a bad name. With Howard, they have the triple
    crown: They’ve succeeded in giving medium-size movies a bad name.” —
    Carrie Rickey, The Philadelphia Inquirer

    “Howard the Duck is about as cute as Earl the Dead Cat. He is a
    symbol of the general lack of charm of this picture. What we end up
    with, after a rambling first half, is a fairly interesting adventure
    story about monsters from outer space, with a really intriguing
    performance by Jeffrey Jones as a sleazy, fire-breathing ’overlord.’
    The last 20 minutes or so, when Lucas and director Willard Huyck
    pull out all the stops with bizarre special effects, are OK, but not
    good or original enough to save a movie that, on the whole, is
    mediocre and lacking in the one thing we thought Lucas had —
    imagination.” — Harper Barnes, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

    “Howard the Duck is a movie for bored 9-year-olds who have run out
    of ways to pester their mother until school resumes. Once kids see
    this movie, they’ll be anxious to get back to those algebra books,
    which may seem more lively than this plastic space toy devised by
    George Lucas with his left hand as if he, too, was trying to kill
    time and didn’t have an idea in his head…. Howard the Duck has one
    major moment of wonder: Who, you wonder, was it made for? It’s too
    silly for young teenagers, too hip for pre-teens, too dorky for
    older teens and too scary for tots.” — Gerald Nachman, San Francisco
    Chronicle

    “Will Hollywood never relax its fanatical diet of action fantasies?
    There must be other human beings who would like a better balance of
    movies about people whose problems can’t be solved with massive
    weaponry.” — Ed Blank, The Pittsburgh Press

    “Quite frankly, the whole thing gave me a headache. Howard himself
    is supposed to be a cynical but charming fowl, but he’s mostly foul,
    a feathered costume devoid of personality.” — Roxanne T. Mueller,
    The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer

    “Howard the Duck is an example of Hollywood gone loony. For whom has
    this lavish but boring picture intended as a major summer
    entertainment been made? If it’s for children, it’s in atrocious
    taste and steeped in so much special effects violence that parents
    might think twice about taking an impressionable youngster. If it’s
    meant as a comic strip for teen-agers or young adults, the script
    insults the intelligence. Senior citizens straying in might just
    want to take aspirin. Howard the Duck is a presentation of George
    Lucas, which makes the mess all the more astonishing. Lucas, as the
    world knows, is a king of special effects. But is merely piling on
    effects enough anymore?” — William Wolf, Gannett News Service

    “Lucas might consider getting the old team to work on something with
    Indiana or Jedi in the title. Howard is reputed to have cost $52
    million to produce. To make such an investment pay off, the film
    would have to perform like Top Gun or The Karate Kid II. It may, in
    fact, perform more like Return to Oz. Whatever Howard the Duck cost,
    it looks expensive. It is a virtual catalog of special effects, a
    stunning demo reel for Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic effects
    studio. What it lacks is a coherent story, a dependable hero and a
    convincing title character.” — Ted Mahar, The (Portland) Oregonian

    “Howard the Duck may be the most highly publicized, widely
    anticipated movie of the summer — but this special effects
    extravaganza is a major letdown. Oh sure, there are some interesting
    elements here, some funny ideas and a lot of in-jokes for movie
    buffs, and I’m the guy who usually likes off-kilter comedies…
    Buckaroo Banzai included. But Howard the Duck is so self-conscious,
    so frenzied, so overloaded with special effects and duck puns that
    it winds up just being loud and obnoxious.” — Christopher Hicks,
    (Salt Lake City) Deseret News

    “Mr. Lucas knows how to spend money, and he can produce a few
    dazzling sequences, but imagine his impotence if he were forced to
    make a movie about articulate people.” — David Brooks, The
    Washington Times

    “While it would not be fair to say that Howard the Duck is a turkey,
    it’s nonetheless true that this live-action adventure comedy about a
    feathered, web-footed visitor from outer space is not well done. In
    fact, this duck is half-baked.” — James Verniere, The Boston Herald

    “Once — and only once — is there any real magic. It occurs in the
    movie’s first 10 minutes when we see Howard in his cosmopolitan
    apartment on Duck World, just before he’s snatched by a cross-
    dimensional laser. Here the puns and parodies come thick and fast —
    a TV commercial in which athletic fowl in football uniforms shill
    feather fungus salve, copies of Rolling Egg and Playduck magazine
    (complete with centerfold), posters for the movies Splashdance and
    My Little Chickadee starring Mae Nest and W.C. Fowls. This is the
    sort of deadpan playfulness that should have dominated the entire
    movie. So we breathe a sigh of regret when, to save the world at
    film’s end, Howard is forced to destroy his only means of returning
    home. A sequel set entirely on Duck World would have been far more
    welcome than Howard’s tiresome antics in the back alleys of
    Cleveland.” — Henry Mietkiewicz, Toronto Star

    THE 70MM ENGAGEMENTS

    On occasion, event and prestige movies (and instances to appease a
    filmmaker’s ego) are given a deluxe release in addition to a
    standard release. This section of the article includes a
    reference/historical listing of the first-run 70mm Six-Track Dolby
    Stereo premium-format presentations of Howard the Duck in the United
    States and Canada. These were arguably the best theaters in which to
    see Howard the Duck and the only way to faithfully hear the movie’s
    discrete multichannel audio mix. Only about two percent of the
    film’s print run were in the 70mm format, which are more time- and labor-intensive to manufacture and cost several times that of
    conventional 35mm prints. Of the 200+ new movies released during
    1986, Howard was among only two from Universal Studios and sixteen
    for the entire industry to have 70mm prints prepared for selected
    engagements.

    For the release of Howard the Duck, Universal employed the services
    of Lucasfilm’s TAP (Theater Alignment Program) to evaluate and
    approve the theaters selected to book a 70mm print. As well, the
    movie was booked into as many THX-certified venues as possible.

    The film’s 70mm prints were blown up from spherical 35mm photography
    and were pillarboxed at approximately 1.85:1. The noise-reduction
    and signal-processing format for the prints was Dolby “A,” and the
    soundtrack was Format 42 (three discrete screen channels + one
    discrete surround channel + “baby boom” low-frequency enhancement).

    Trailers for An American Tail and Brighton Beach Memoirs were sent
    out with the Howard the Duck prints and which the distributor
    recommended be screened with the presentation.

    The listing includes those 70mm engagements that commenced August
    1st, 1986. Not listed are any second run or international
    engagements, nor does the listing include any of the movie’s
    thousands of standard 35mm engagements. The duration of the
    engagements, measured in weeks, has been included in parenthesis.

    So, which North American theaters screened the 70mm version of
    Howard the Duck, and, more importantly, did it help the movie’s
    box-office prospects? (Note the relatively brief duration of most of
    the engagements.)

    BRITISH COLUMBIA
    •Vancouver — Cineplex Odeon’s Oakridge Centre Triplex (6 weeks)
    [THX]

    CALIFORNIA
    •Corte Madera — Marin’s Cinema (3)
    •Costa Mesa — Edwards’ Town Center 4-plex (2)
    •Los Angeles — Mann’s Village (2) [THX]
    •Los Angeles — Pacific’s Cinerama Dome (3)
    •San Diego — Mann’s Cinema 21 (2)
    •San Francisco — Blumenfeld’s Regency I (5*)
    •San Jose — Syufy’s Century 21 (3)


    Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz & George LucasCOLORADO
    •Denver — Mann’s Century 21 (2) [THX]

    DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
    •Washington — Circle’s Uptown (2)

    ILLINOIS
    •Calumet City — Plitt’s River Oaks 8-plex (2)
    •Chicago — Plitt’s Esquire (2)
    •Schaumburg — Plitt’s Woodfield 9-plex (2)
    •Skokie — M&R’s Old Orchard 4-plex (3)

    KANSAS
    •Overland Park — Dickinson’s Glenwood 4-plex (2)

    MASSACHUSETS
    •Boston — USA’s Charles Triplex (2)

    NEW YORK
    •New York — Loews’ 34th Street Showplace Triplex (2)
    •New York — Loews’ 84th Street 6-plex (2)
    •New York — Loews’ Astor Plaza (3)
    •New York — Loews’ New York Twin (2)

    OHIO
    •Cleveland Heights — National’s Severance Center 8-plex (2) [THX]

    ONTARIO
    •Toronto — Cineplex Odeon’s Hyland Twin (4)

    PENNSYLVANIA
    •Philadelphia — SamEric’s Sam’s Place Twin (3)

    QUEBEC
    •Montreal — Cineplex Odeon’s Alexis Nihon Plaza Triplex (5)

    TEXAS
    •Dallas — General Cinema’s Northpark West Twin (4)
    •Houston — General Cinema’s Meyerland Plaza Triplex (4)

    UTAH
    •Salt Lake City — Plitt’s Trolley Corners Triplex (2)

    VIRGINIA
    •Springfield — General Cinema’s Springfield Mall 6-plex (3) [THX]



    *The final week of the San Francisco run was double-billed with Back
    to the Future.

    70mm Howard the Duck

    THE Q&A

    Caseen Gaines is the author of Howard the Duck: The Oral History,
    published by decider.com earlier this year. He is a high school
    English teacher and co-founder of the Hackensack Theatre Company.
    His books include We Don’t Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the
    Future Trilogy (2015, Plume), A Christmas Story: Behind the Scenes
    of a Holiday Classic (2013, ECW Press) and Inside Pee-wee’s
    Playhouse: The Untold, Unauthorized, and Unpredictable Story of a
    Pop Phenomenon (2011, ECW Press).

    Caseen Gaines

    Scott Mendelson is a box office analyst and film critic for Forbes
    magazine. He has also written for Film Threat, The Huffington Post
    and Salon.

    Scott Mendelson

    John Wilson is the co-founder of the Golden Raspberry (“Razzie”)
    Awards and author of The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the
    Best of Hollywood’s Worst (2005, Grand Central). Says Wilson: “The
    Razzies, which people often misunderstand, actually come from a
    place of loving a well-made movie. We consider ourselves more of a
    banana peel on the floor than a slap in the face. We’re not saying,
    ’How dare you.’ We’re saying, ’Look at what you had to work with —
    credentials, opportunity and money — and look at what you came up
    with.’”

    John Wilson

    The interviews were conducted separately and have been edited into a “roundtable” conversation format.

    Michael Coate (The Digital Bits): In what way should Howard the Duck
    be remembered on its 30th anniversary?

    Caseen Gaines: Howard the Duck is a reminder that sometimes a great
    team can come together to make a flawed product. There are some
    elements of the movie that stand out as being pretty enjoyable, like
    Lea Thompson’s performance and Thomas Dolby’s great songs, but all
    of those things are clouded in the confusion that is the overall
    movie. It’s still hard to believe that Howard was the first Marvel
    comic character to hit the big screen.

    Scott Mendelson: Well, in its own way, it was a clear example of a
    preordained blockbuster that wasn’t.

    John Wilson: It is a touchstone of what happens when Hollywood does
    everything wrong. All these years later almost nobody is going to
    defend that movie. I know that it’s being claimed that it has
    achieved some kind of cultural status, but I’m not aware that it has
    ever been reevaluated from when it got only a 15 percent rating on
    Rotten Tomatoes and co-won the Razzie for Worst Picture. It won the
    Worst Screenplay award and was nominated for multiple other Razzie
    awards. And then a few years later it was one of the nominees for
    our Worst Picture of the Decade award. I think part of the problem
    the film had is that it came along at a point when if they had
    waited just a couple more years, they could’ve done something with
    CGI for the duck, but instead they had someone in a not very
    convincing duck costume… and it just did not work.

    Howard the Duck film elementCoate: Can you describe what it was like
    seeing Howard the Duck for the first time?

    Gaines: I can’t remember the first time, but I’m certain it was on a
    VHS tape that had been recorded on HBO. There was a period of time
    in my life when I watched the movie daily; I’m not exaggerating. As
    a kid, you don’t have any sense of whether or not a movie was
    critically or commercially successful. You just sort of enjoy it if
    you find it fun. That was my experience with Howard the Duck. The
    movie was kind of adult, yet sort of kid-friendly, and I think I
    found a lot of the duck puns really funny at the time. It probably
    did more to inform my sense of humor than I’d like to admit.

    Mendelson: I saw it on VHS as a rental after it left theaters. I was
    six or seven years old (depending on when it dropped on video), and
    I enjoyed it in that way that kids of a certain age enjoy
    everything. I thought Howard was an amusing character, I thought Lea
    Thompson’s rocker character was “hot,” and I liked that it seemed
    just violent/scary enough to make me feel like I was getting away
    with something.

    Wilson: I remember being shocked to note it was only 110 minutes. It
    felt like it was 110 years. I just remember it being really slow and
    all of the jokes fell flat. I don’t remember anything about the
    movie that actually worked including the fact that although at this
    point the character of Howard the Duck may have been a cultural
    touchstone, I don’t think the public had any idea what the hell
    Howard the Duck was when they made the movie. It wasn’t really clear
    what audience they were trying to reach when they spent all that
    money making the film. And the clip that we chose to show at that
    year’s Razzie awards ceremony was the bedroom scene between Lea
    Thompson and the duck, which wasn’t funny, wasn’t romantic, and was
    kind of creepy.

    Coate: Howard the Duck went over budget, had terrible buzz, and
    ultimately tanked at the box office. What do you think went wrong?

    Gaines: Very little went right on Howard. I’ll zero in on two
    elements that sunk the film. The script was pretty cheesy but, more importantly, struck a very odd tone. It’s hard to tell who the movie
    is for, which is a phrase I know the screenwriters hated hearing at
    the time, but it’s true. It’s too childish for adults and too
    provocative and snarky for kids. That makes it very hard to find an
    audience. Additionally, I don’t know if Howard was ever a believable
    character — and it seemed like the film knew it. Some characters in
    the movie think he’s a guy in a duck costume, others think he’s an
    actual anthropomorphic duck. There’s a lack of coherence to the
    entire project.

    Mendelson: Well, the movie is far too risqué for kids, with a
    certain upfront eroticism/sexuality (never mind bestiality) that
    would be out of place in all but the most R-rated dramas today. It
    also has a rather terrifying monster in its action finale. Now you
    can argue whether those things would have been a problem (or a draw)
    to kids, but it’s parents that buy the ticket to a so-called kids
    movie. And parents didn’t bite. And since the movie isn’t as kid-
    friendly as perhaps hoped, and it certainly wasn’t something that
    would appeal to adults (this was back when there were plenty of
    “adult” movies in the multiplex), the film ended up with a relative
    demographic of none.

    Wilson: I don’t really remember anything in the movie that was
    compelling, involving or emotionally resonant. I sat there watching
    it with my jaw hanging open wondering, why did they do this? What
    were they thinking??? It’s also significant this was 1986 before you
    would get instant word-of-mouth trashing on the Internet. For
    something to have bad buzz thirty years ago before it was released
    the buzz has to have been pretty stinky. I think what shocked
    everybody is that this was George Lucas and comic book material
    which generally speaking even that long ago was successful. You had
    reputable actors and reputable writers. Huyck was nominated for the
    Razzie for Worst Director… which he lost to Prince. I don’t think
    anybody was going to beat Prince doing Under the Cherry Moon that
    year! There are a handful of Razzie movies that I will occasionally
    go back and watch because they’re funny bad. Howard the Duck is not
    one of those. This is pretty excruciating, and I think everyone
    involved was embarrassed, and if it were up to them we would not be
    recalling that this is the 30th anniversary of Howard the Duck.

    Howard the Duck

    Howard the Duck (Blu-ray Disc)Coate: Is it surprising that Howard
    the Duck failed to connect with moviegoers considering George
    Lucas’s level of success and with Lea Thompson coming off a
    memorable role in the extremely popular Back to the Future?

    Gaines: As I alluded to before, a lot of very successful and
    talented people worked on the movie, but the end result wasn’t very
    good. Given the end product, I’m not surprised the movie failed to
    hit. There’s no denying that the box office returns were
    disappointing for all involved, but I think that had to do more with
    the fact that critics loved to hate it. The movie isn’t very good,
    but it wasn’t really deserving of all the hazing they received by
    the press.

    Mendelson: No, because Lucas’s post-Star Wars movies (save Indy)
    weren’t terribly successful. Even Labyrinth was something of a bomb
    in the same year as Howard. And while Thompson was a familiar face,
    she wasn’t a “get butts into the seats” movie star.

    Wilson: I’m not sure that Lea Thompson was that big of a deal. Yes,
    she had just played the mom in Back to the Future, but when people
    think of that movie they tend to think of Michael Fox and
    Christopher Lloyd. I think part of the problem was that it was
    George Lucas, and at that point he had at least as impressive a box
    office track record as Steven Spielberg. This was the first chink in
    his armor… prior to the three Star Wars prequels. And he seems to
    have been at least the financial giant behind the movie. Huyck and
    Katz had worked with him on his first huge success, American
    Graffiti — and they were Oscar nominees for that — so it’s not like
    the people who worked on it had no credentials. Looking at the cast
    and credit list you would have expected at least a competent film. I
    would argue this wasn’t even a competent film.

    Coate: What did you think of the performances of the leads?

    Gaines: I’m a big fan of Lea Thompson and am fortunate enough to
    have met her a few times and chatted her up a bit about her work.
    She mentioned to me that she thinks she did her hardest work to date
    in Howard the Duck because she was singing, dancing, jumping around
    in a mini skirt, and helping to make the audience believe this duck
    was real. To that end, I think her performance is great…. Tim
    Robbins’s role in the film is a bit all over the place, but I still
    love to watch it. He’s such a serious actor in so many of his
    movies, so we get to see a different side of him here…. Jeffrey
    Jones does a great job in Howard, by my count. The problem with the
    film really isn’t in too many of the performances.

    Mendelson: I think all of the acting is fine, frankly. The amusing
    thing is that Tim Robbins is a lot more comfortable here than he was
    in Green Lantern, a 2011 comic book superhero movie that is actually
    shockingly similar to Howard the Duck in terms of plot and
    structure. I don’t think anyone puts this at the top of their
    achievement reel, but I think they all nailed the tone and served
    the movie, for better or worse.

    Wilson: I think it’s significant that Lea Thompson was not nominated
    for a Razzie. Tim Robbins was, and obviously he went on to do much
    better things. And Jeffrey Jones basically was just doing what he
    had already done in five previous films and would then do in ten
    more.

    Coate: Where do you think Howard ranks among George Lucas’s body of
    work?

    Gaines: George Lucas wasn’t really intimately involved in the
    filmmaking of Howard the Duck, so I’m a bit reluctant to answer the
    question on that front. It became kind of fun for the critics to
    blame him for the movie’s failure and, if we’re being fair,
    Universal did heavily promote his involvement with the movie, which
    probably set up unattainable expectations. Let’s just say, I think
    we can all agree that Howard is no Star Wars.

    Mendelson: Well, again, save for the Indiana Jones stuff, most of
    what Lucas tried after Return of the Jedi struck out, which is
    partially why he ended up returning to Star Wars. Willow is fine, as
    is Tucker, while I’m actually partial to Red Tails. But given the
    choice between watching Howard the Duck and Radioland Murders or
    More American Graffiti, I’ll take Howard the Duck for its sheer
    gonzo entertainment value. It’s not remotely a good movie, and I
    kinda knew that when I was a kid, but it’s not boring.

    Howard the Duck comic bookCoate: Considering how incredibly
    successful and popular comic-book-themed movies are today, do you
    think maybe Howard was simply produced at the wrong time? Should it
    be remade?

    Gaines: I have pretty strong feelings on this. If you read my oral
    history of Howard the Duck, you’ll see there were lots of technical
    aspirations for this film that were just too expensive to realize at
    the time. There were also lots of problems with Howard’s suit, in
    terms of making it look believable to an audience. When you look at
    the sardonic tone of a movie like Deadpool, it’s not that different
    from the tone of the original Howard comics. Were the movie remade
    today, I think it would have a better chance of succeeding, but I
    don’t know if it could ever shake the reputation of the 1986 film.

    Mendelson: I think the issue was more with the final product than
    the concept. Sure, stuff like Howard the Duck would be taken more
    seriously today than in the 1980s, but the same movie, with a bigger
    budget and what-have-you, would likely face similar obstacles. I
    severely doubt a Disney-produced Marvel Cinematic Universe movie is
    going to have, as its centerpiece relationship, a human female and
    an anthropomorphic duck flirting with each other like they are
    Natalie Portman and Jean Reno in The Professional. No, I don’t think
    it should be remade, because I don’t think every remotely familiar
    property should be arbitrarily brought back to life.

    Wilson: One of my favorite Hollywood quotes is from the director I
    most admire, Billy Wilder, the man who did Sunset Boulevard and Some
    Like it Hot and The Apartment. He once said, “They should stop
    remaking the movies they already did right and remake the ones they

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