Uncle Buck
★★★
I probably hadn't seen Uncle Buck since it was originally released when I was eight. I remembered two things about it. One, John Candy is amazing. Two, a huge ass pancake.
Watching it now, I can see how it's on the lower tier of the John Hughes cannon. What he undoubtedly creates are memorable and relatable characters. He brings a microscope to suburban life and is able to always find a hook that you can relate with. At some point in your own life, you have to turn to a relative that doesn't quite have it together, and Candy plays this outcast perfectly, although his severe antics have not aged well.
Maybe Buck's kidnapping of a sleazy boyfriend played differently back in 1989, but there are a lot of scenes that are supposed to be really funny but don't elicit a lot of laughs. I hadn't remembered that the bulk of this plot involved Buck winning over his teenage niece, Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly), and honestly, I thought Tia was such a brat, I didn't care if she won her uncle's affection. Uncle Buck moves along just fine, but it almost would be played out better as an episode of television. Without Candy, this film would have been a bust because there isn't a lot more to grasp onto.
