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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Universal Studios
Salesrank: 1563
Released: March 10, 2009 |
| Our Price: $7.17 |
| Used Price: $8.00 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
One of the most talked-about movies of all time, Howard the Duck, lands on DVD for the first time ever in an all-new Special Edition! From executive producer George Lucas and the pages of Marvel Comics comes this unbelievably funny comedy about a fast-talking, cigar-chomping, beer-loving duck from a parallel universe who crashes to Earth. Featuring brand-new bonus features, a digitally remastered picture and new 5.1 surround sound, Howard the Duck Special Edition is a hidden treasure the whole family can enjoy.
Description of Howard the Duck:
If you concentrate on the fact that Howard the Duck was a notorious box office dud (still brought up today) and considered one of the worst films of the '80s, it's entirely possible to enjoy this special effects piffle. Howard, played by a special effect puppet, lives on a planet where ducks evolved instead of apes, but one day he's sucked into a vortex and deposited on Earth. There he befriends Beverly Switzler (Lea Thompson), lead singer for the Cherry Bombs, becomes their manager, and, oh yeah, saves the Earth from the Dark Overlords. Jeffrey Jones is the villain and Tim Robbins (!) is there for comic relief. And who can resist the culmination of synthesizer pop, the Howard the Duck theme song, as realized by the Cherry Bombs? A midnight movie that your kids might watch more than you. --Keith Simanton
Howard the Duck Reviews:
Howard the LAME Duck. 
2009-12-23 - I bought this movie since I had not seen it in perhaps twenty years. I thought that TIME would surely improve what I remembered as, well actually I barely had memories of the movie. The reason I did not have vivid memories of this movie is simply because it is rather FORGETABLE. I'm sorry I didn't really enjoy the movie. I like a lot of Tim Robbin's work. Lea Thompson was the delight of the movie. She is very, very sexy, and very, very pretty and so seemingly sweet. She was a delightful young woman back in the 80's. I enjoy her in movies from this time period. Anyway, the problem for me was that Howard, or Mr. Duck was not endearing, barely cute, the voice of Mr. Duck also didn't do much for me. I probably enjoyed the special features, or the RETROSPECT, of Howard The Duck more than the movie. I'm not SORRY that I purchased this DVD. On the level of sentiment I am glad to have a copy of the movie. However, as a fan of quality in films the script seemed to LACK quite a lot. The movie simply isn't FUNNY to me. I think Lea Thompson is quite a beauty. I also greatly appreciate the LABOR and SKILL involved in putting this project together. The idea of a little person in a duck outfit is novel. The idea of a duck person falling in love with a young woman/girl is novel. The idea of a super evil menace coming down in a laser beam though is just a bit too convenient and DUMB. I didn't care for the actor's portayal of the evil VILLIAN. I thought his EVIL "VOICE" was just DUMB. For me this movie was just LEANED more to the side of BORING and DUMB as opoossed to ENTERTAINING, FUNNY and SCAREY. I do think, however, that the BAND that Lea was in was quite an ACHIEVEMENT. I think it is really GREAT to KNOW that that is LEA THOMPSON SINGING. And I liked Howard's Guitar Solo. That was pretty GREAT as was the HOWARD the DUCK Song. Now if the rest of the film had only moved along with some sort of comedic or dramatic TENSION. The movie simply doesn't hold together well. There seems to be a problem with the FLOW of the PLOT. I guess MOST of the problem lies in how the characters were never ACTUALLY talking to the DUCK character. Howard's VOICE was OVERDUBBED and it really SHOWS in how the movie PLOT lacks COHESION and dramatic or comedic tension. There is a real lack of PRESENCE in the film.
Still, nice try and great to have the movie out on DVD.
Weird but FUN. A great adventure for sci-fi/fantasy fans! 
2009-12-11 -
I really like the idea of a love story between a tough-yet-gentle earth girl, Beverly, and an alien who just happens to look like an Earth duck but who is just a regular guy on his planet. You can sympathize with Howard's character--in one scene, Beverly hides him in a TRASH BAG- "I just don't want people freaking out all over the place." Howard-"What about me? I'm gonna be in therapy for the rest of my life." (I love all his smart-aleck remarks.) Despite this treatment, he comes to love her and when a new alien that really qualifies as a monster kidnaps her, he gets their friend Phil to help him rescue her, despite not having any way to fight other than knowing a bit of "quack-fu". My personal favorite scene is where Howard and Philsie (as Howard dubs him) steal a tiny motor-powered hang-glider type airplane and have this hilariously wild flight with the cops shooting at them, despite neither of them knowing how to fly a plane!
I saw HTD at age 13, and liked it so much I went and bought the comic book series (even though I don't read comics), the bubblegum cards and then, years later, I discovered that the story had been continued (or had an alternate story; I can't remember now) in a set of 7 magazine-sized graphic-novel type issues, in black-and-white art. I still have them. In one, Beverly ends up going to Howard's world, where she is seen as the freak.
Bad reviews aside, HTD has always been, for me, a great combination of wacky humor, funky music, intriguing romance, creepy alien bad guys, and some of the best one-liners ever!
George Lucas did not lay an egg
2009-11-15 - Long have I waited for this movie to come out on DVD and with extras to boot. I am not a big George Lucas fan and have never really cared for his Star Wars movies. Never was able to swollow that a Kansas farm boy is the long lost brother of British princess and the son of Ghengis Khan. When Howard came out I remembered a review with the heading 'George Lucas has laid an egg'. After a few promises from a friend who was a George Lucas fan, I watched it with him and was pleasantly surprised. It was an exceptional film, that was well paced, acted, and scripted. Don't be put off by the negative reviews of this film. George Lucas is the one of the most successful independant filmmakers of all time and the studios waited to pounce on something of his that was different enough to make a point. Still, after all this time, especially on YAHOO, critics like to beat up on this movie because they want to say that Lucas did make a bad movie. Even though I don't care for most of his stuff, Lucas has never made a bad film and like Speilburg, he won't. In the featurette, it is explained that they originally wanted to animate it, but Universal Studios had other ideas. Even though they had no choice but to put a man in a very elaborate duck suit, the effects hold up just as good or even better than anything else released at the time. Check it out.
Some People Just DON'T Get It. 
2009-10-18 - Loosely based upon the Marvel Comics' character created by Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik, the film was directed by Willard Huyck and produced by George Lucas. Despite all the negative reviews this movie garnered back in the "80's (mostly from the people whom were unconvinced to the look of the live-action puppet). I really thoroughly enjoyed watching this film on cable TV because; it had notable actors (Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones and Tim Robbins), pretty good special effects (the stop-motion animation), and some GREAT gags in my opinion (the scene from the diner is CLASSIC!). Yet despite the film's flaws I do think it does suspend some belief to a point, what do you think? What the movie had similar to the comic book series for me was the overall absurdity of predicaments Howard & Beverly's exploits would land them in, the eccentric characters, and the lampooning of 1980's pop-cultured society. It's just too bad that back then CGI wasn't fully developed and at the advanced stage as it is today for films. Maybe Howard the Duck would have achieved perhaps to say the least "popular cult status"?
Howard The Duck
2009-10-03 - Great classic movie. Watched as a kid & hope my kids can enjoy it as well.
