Howard The Duck

Original Movie Poster

Welcome back trusty movie followers! I thought I would take a break from my girly childhood movies and talk about something a little different. See I may be a girl who played with Barbies, My Little Ponies and Care Bears but I also had many male cousins, an older brother and of course my dad so I was subjected to non-female oriented movies and animated shows as well. So besides watching Jem I was also watching Voltron and besides pretending to be a princess I had to be April O'Neill when my cousins or the neighborhood boys played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In fact I believe I was with my cousin Dustin at my aunt and uncle's house being baby-sat when I first saw...Howard The Duck.

Okay for those of you who have never heard of this movie before I discuss the plot you should know that Howard The Duck is considered to be one of the worst movies ever made so bad that George Lucas (yes Star Wars messiah himself) who produced it disowns this movie! Also when I saw this film I believe I was five because I remember watching it on Cinemax so it had been out of theaters for a while and well kids and talking ducks just go hand in hand (remember DuckTales anyone?)

Howard would be Scrooge's disinherited nephew

So...What Is The Plot?
Of course, Howard is a duck but not just any kind of duck...a duck from space! Well actually a planet in another dimension where instead of humans there are walking, talking ducks and they smoke, drink and watch TV... you get the point right? One night an earthquake seems to strike the planet and Howard is ripped out of his apartment by a beam of energy that ends up bringing him to Earth and dumping him in the middle of Cleveland, Ohio (and not the most pleasant part of it either). The first person Howard meets is Beverly Switzler, a young woman who is a member of a female rock band called Cherry Bomb, whom he saves from being attacked by some thugs. She doesn't seem at all freaked out by a talking duck and she helps Howard out by letting him stay at her place telling him she'll find a way to help him get home. Her "help" ends up being lab assistant Phil Blumburtt who isn't much help at all which makes Howard angry since it seems he's stuck on our planet for good.

Tim Robbins as Phil - would you really go to this guy for help?

He tells Beverly off and sets out on his own but Howard soon realizes that if he is going to be here on Earth he may just need at least one friend to turn to and finds Beverly and her band mates playing at some awful bar under the management of the sleazy and disgusting Ritchie. Howard decides to help the girls out which means beating the crap out of Ritchie and becoming the girls' new manager to the amazement of Beverly's friends, one of whom is dating Phil. So our nerdy professor comes back into the picture along with Dr. Walter Jenning who is actually more help because he knows exactly what brought Howard to Earth. Jenning and his colleagues have been working on a dimensional-jumping laser that malfunctioned hence Howard's arrival (Hello Cleveland indeed!) but he believes he send Howard back with one more use. Unfortunately, something else takes Howard's one-way ticket home and descends to Earth taking control of Dr. Jenning and leading, Howard, Beverly and Phil into a whole new world of trouble and wacky hijinks. Will Howard ever get back home or will the new world he calls home be at its end?

The people images were captured from a rumored screening

Believe it or not the plot of the movie doesn't sound that bad if you ask me so I'm not really sure why a lot of people hate this movie or think it's incredibly stupid. Howard The Duck originally was a comic book character that appeared in Marvel (yes those Marvel superheroes shared the limelight with a duck!) Comics and it was a little more mature and political than the movie. I can't really blame the script writers for the adaptation because they did write American Graffiti which is a classic film but trying to make a movie about a talking duck probably isn't easy so I can see where a snag most have come up somewhere...just not sure where exactly...

Jeffrey Jones as Dr. Walter Jenning

Could it be the acting? Well, Jeffrey Jones (famous as Ed Rooney, horrible principal from Ferris Bueller's Day Off) as Dr. Jenning isn't too bad when he is serious but once he (oh hell spoiler!) becomes possessed by our intergalactic villain he does go a little over the top but that's what is great about being the villain- you always get the most ham and cheese on your role (see like a dinner roll?...never mind) to work with and have fun. A young, pre-dating Susan Sarandon Tim Robbins who plays Phil is adorable and hilarious which I enjoy and his career hasn't seemed to suffer for acting jobs since making this movie. The actors who portrayed Howard (yes actors...six of them) had to work in a huge costume that probably got very hot and difficult so you can't blame them and actor Chip Zien who does Howard's voice was cast after shooting to provide voice-over work so he was just reading what had already been written. The only other actor of note in the film is Lea Thompson who plays Beverly and well we all know that she can't be the reason Howard The Duck bombed! Most people today know her as Kathryn Kennish on ABC Family's Switched At Birth which is a good dramatic show or they know her as Marty McFly's mother Lorraine in the Back To The Future films and of course she was awesome in those!

Our main actor and his rockin' leading lady!

If you couldn't guess Lea Thompson is another actress I kinda have idol worship of and why wouldn't I? She's not just a pretty face she truly is talented and when I first saw Howard The Duck I was five in a generation when MTV ruled so playing a rocker almost reminiscent of my number one, true idols Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart was bound to win me over. Thompson has said having her hair styled and crimped like that everyday which took two hours was bad enough to make her wish she had worn a wig but to an impressionable child such as myself I thought she looked so cool! Besides that, Lea Thompson use to dance ballet (something I could and can never do), was acting at age 21 in movies before Howard The Duck and did I mention she can sing? Yes, the soundtrack to Howard The Duck that has songs credited to the fictional band Cherry Bomb...that's Lea on lead vocals? One word: Talented!

Now that I look back I have to take Lea's side on the hair...

Another thing that makes me enjoy Howard The Duck is of course, the music (again I am a late 80s MTV baby so I do enjoy music of this era). While scoring is done by legendary composer John Barry (check out the name on Google and see how many films pop up!) original songs credited to the fictional band "Cherry Bomb" were written and produced by Thomas Dolby. For those of you younger than me did you ever hear the song "She Blinded Me With Science" on like an 80s music channel or oriented radio station? If so, then that's Thomas Dolby and if you haven't, you really should it's quite a good song! As I stated, Lea Thompson's real vocals are on the songs as well as those of the actresses portraying her band mates in the film and the song "Don't Turn Away" is by far my favorite! Thomas Dolby performs his own rendition of the song on the soundtrack too and the harmonica you hear on it? That's Stevie Wonder. Another reason most of us should love (or maybe even hate) Thomas Dolby is he did music for another film that I may discuss in the future...which one? Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (so much childhood nostalgia is just overwhelming my brain with that one!)

Drew Struzan poster art...awesome!!

So is Howard The Duck really the goose egg of a film that people make it out to be? To me the answer is no but it is just my opinion after all. I enjoy the music, Lea Thompson does good with what she is given, Tim Robbins is hilarious, Jeffrey Jones makes a great villain in the fact that he creeped me out as a kid and makes me chuckle as an adult and at times, I find Howard adorable. Now if you have ever seen it, your opinion might be a little more harsh and if you have never had a chance to view Howard The Duck, I'd give it a shot. A little fair warning it is rated PG so it's not really a movie for little kids but how my cousin and I got away with watching it I'll never know...

Howard The Duck Teaser Trailer

NEXT TIME: Not really from my childhood but a good family film regardless. We take our first look into the beautiful world of Japanese animation with...Kiki's Delivery Service

Deadly Friend

In my post of Jerry Maguire, I said that Cameron Crowe was one of three of my favorite directors and the only one who was not a horror director. The second director I can now mention to you is Wes Craven, a modern horror genius! Wes Craven created Freddy Kruger and brought the Scream Franchise to us as well but he has many horror films you may or may not have heard of...some good and bad. The movie I am going to talk about today is what most horror fans consider bad so if it is bad then call it one of my guilty pleasures...Deadly Friend.

She can't live without you...

Again, another film based of a novel that is not widely known. The novel Friend by Diana Henstell differs greatly from the script fashioned and the movie went through a lot of executive meddling to get an 80s style "R" rating but I think the movie is okay good horror fun in an understated sci-fi way with more drama, less effects and a kind of touching story.

What's The Plot?
Teen Paul Conway is a science genius, a college student even though he should only be a sophomore in high school. He and his mother Jeannie move to a new town so Paul can attend classes in neurology at the local university and along with the Conways for the trip is B.B. an artificial intelligence robot built by Paul. This makes them stand out in many good and many bad ways about the neighborhood as it brings about human friends to Paul and makes a few enemies. Local paperboy Tom is fascinated by Paul's genius built robot B.B. and Paul becomes fascinated by good girl next door, Samantha Pringle. Sam however lives with her widower, abusive, alcoholic father and the neighbor across the street, Elvira Parker, is a gun totting old hag who lets no one on her property.

Paul, Samantha, Tom and B.B. are an inseparable group of friends until on Halloween night, Tom urges Paul to use B.B.'s intelligence to bust the lock on Elvira's gate so that Sam can go up and ring her doorbell which no kid in the neighborhood has ever done. The prank goes horribly wrong when it sets off an alarm which brings Old Lady Parker outside to her porch where she shoots B.B. and destroys Paul's autonomic friend. Things only get worse when Thanksgiving arrives and Sam joins the Conways for dinner without her father's knowledge. She returns home and is attacked by her father who ends up pushing her down the stairs, giving her brain damage that leaves Sam close to dead.

Paul's feelings for Samantha bring him down a road of no return to his sanity and he plans to take the only remnant from B.B. to bring Samantha back to life: the robot's A.I. brain chip. With a reluctant Tom's help, the two young men steal Sam's body from the hospital and Paul implants the chip activated by remote control in Sam's dead brain. The chip activated, Sam now becomes part human and part science as she walks around with a blank stare, robotic gait and the pale flesh of a dead girl. Now a combination of B.B. and Sam, their personalities mesh into one cohesive thought: to avenge those who have harmed them. Paul may be a genius but is he smart enough to keep his friend a secret from the world and stop her deadly revenge?

I could give away more plot than described but again I think Deadly Friend needs to be viewed. Now as I've said a lot of people think this film is below Wes Craven's genius but I love it! There is one great horror movie kill involving a basketball that I think every horror fan should view and even though I am kind of turned off by the ending, Deadly Friend is one of those movies I enjoy viewing over and over again. Like April Fools' Day, I caught this movie in one of those early morning time slots when they play obscure movie titles and fell in love with its simple horror story. Being an 80s child, I am use to the cheesy factor and have become immune to it to discover the gem of a film within.

Some people are just better off dead...

Matthew Laborteaux is great for Paul as he is cute and for a genius character, he is still naive. He has a lot of raw teenage emotion to instill in Paul even though Matthew was twenty when he made this movie and it shows that screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin kept a few aspects of the younger Paul from the original source material. Anne Ramsay was the go to actress to play a crotchety, ugly woman in the 80s and she is perfect as Elvira Parker with her grating voice and twisted up face and you can tell by the smirk her character gives that maybe she enjoyed playing mean old lady characters. Charles Fleischer needs a mention for being the voice of B.B. and giving the character life three years before he brought Roger Rabbit to  adults and children everywhere and you wouldn't believe actually  how horrifying that voice can be after you see this movie! Then of course, there is Kristy Swanson.

I'll admit that I love Kristy Swanson and a younger me wanted to be her after I saw her in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. She's most popularly remembered as playing Cathy in Flowers In The Attic but she has roles in a lot of films that people hate such as the cinema Buffy film, the sequel to Mannequin and of course, Deadly Friend. I mention these films because I love them of course and own them proudly with no guilt and no shame to admit I am a Kristy fangirl! I mean she made me love Buffy The Vampire Slayer and made me become a fan of V.C. Andrews because of these roles so I can't say anything bad about her. Okay back from the Kristy worship wagon to her role as Samantha Pringle, which I enjoy immensely. She may just take up the film doing a bad robot/zombie impersonation but earlier in the film you can't help but enjoy her cute girl next door. You want Paul to save her and have a happy ending for her after living with her father's abuse but of course, horror movies don't happen that way.

Direction wise, I don't think Wes Craven did a bad job with this film I'm thinking it was all that executive meddling that makes this a piece of 80s cinema most horror fans want to forget. There isn't a lot of gore compared to the horror of today but there is enough to make you a tad bit queasy but the underlying plot has drama and there is some comedy if unintentional. Taste is a matter of opinion and only when you can view Deadly Friend for yourself will you have your own opinion.

 Deadly Friend Theatrical Trailer

Next Blog: The werewolves are back with an 80s classic...The Howling