Howard the Duck

Howard the Duck; Science-Fiction comedy, USA, 1986; D: Willard Huyck, S: Ed Gale, Chip Zien (voice), Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, Tim Robbins

Howard is a humanoid duck living in "Duck World", a planet inhabited by intelligent birds. One evening, just as he was about to sit on a sofa and drink beer, he was hit by a laser ray, catapulted into space and brought to Earth. He finds out he was brought by an accident in the laboratory, but manages to make friends with Beverly, a rock musician. But the laser ray also summoned evil, giant aliens from another planet who want to take over the world. Howard manages to stop their invasion by destroying the ray, remaining trapped on Earth.

"Howard the Duck" is a bizarre mess of a mutated film, an unworthy contribution to the seventh art that will annoy many even today: already after the exposition, where Howard is pulled out in outer space by a laser ray, passing by a naked female humanoid duck with nipples taking a bath, does the movie make the viewer want to throw up. As much as some of the gags seem solid, mostly based on the term "Duck" getting replaced by the term "Man", the story as a whole stinks thanks to the unbearably tasteless design of the humanoid duck and a bizarre, phobic mood. Many of the scenes simply irritate (in one of them, Howard is in a restaurant and gets fried eggs on a plate, which cause him to panic from such "cannibalism") while the "tragic" ending (equipped with trashy, disgusting monster) also doesn't fit into anything, despite showing something new. De facto, there are only two good things here: the poster tagline: "Trapped in a world he never made" and Tim Robbins. Despite obvious fight against all odds, Robbins did his humiliating job with stoic grace and showed what a real good actor is, always giving his best despite everything. "Howard the Duck" is one of those films where everything went unbelievably wrong, a campy madness, but a one that enjoys cult status thanks to the fact that there is still 1 % of world's population that finds it actually amusing.

Grade:-