Uncle Buck

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) | Release Date: August 16, 1989

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

51	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Vincent Canby

Sometimes funny and, in the way of small-screen entertainment, so perfectly predictable that one could mail in the laughs. Read full review

Rita Kempley

Uncle Buck is competent comedy, a bit simplistic, a bit stale, no gremlins, no gushiness, no surprises. A Hughes movie offers the kind of reliability you expect from major household appliances or a good set of radials. Read full review

CHRIS WILLMAN

Uncle Buck has a medium-level Hughes script, only about half as good as "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," about 50 times as good as "The Great Outdoors." Read full review

Ted Mahar

For all the film's patness and lame predictability, Candy gives it a strange charm. He seems to be inherently funny, and his subtle weirdness, so useful on SCTV, is handy here as well. It helps make seeing Uncle Buck marginally worthwhile. [18 Aug 1989, p.E13]

Mike Clark

A John Hughes movie is 15 minutes of material stretched into a 90-minute feature by a rec-room rack from the Karloff estate; the only question is whether the 15 have their comic compensations. Uncle Buck has a few, though they're typically compromised by the cut-and-paste nature of the rest. [16 Aug 1989, p.4D]

Staff [Not Credited]

John Hughes unsuccessfully tries to mix a serious generation gap message between the belly laughs in Uncle Buck, a warm-weather John Candy vehicle. Read full review

Clark Perry

This movie misses its mark, never becoming the suburban satire promised on the poster. It doesn't offend, it bores. Most people, even diehard John Candy fans, will want to wait for the video release. It shouldn't be a very long wait at all. [18 Aug 1989, p.12]