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The Great Buck Howard

Play trailer Poster for The Great Buck Howard PG Released Mar 20, 2009 1h 30m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
71% Tomatometer 95 Reviews 49% Popcornmeter 25,000+ Ratings
Defying his father and dropping out of law school, aspiring writer Troy Gable (Colin Hanks) looks for a way to gain some meaningful life experience. Troy gets that and more when he takes a job with Buck Howard (John Malkovich), a vainglorious mentalist who hopes to reinvigorate his fading career by staging a big comeback.
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The Great Buck Howard

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Critics Consensus

By turns fluffy and biting, this show biz comedy is given girth by comic heavyweight John Malkovich and made all the more charming by Emily Blunt.

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Critics Reviews

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Nell Minow Movie Mom Rated: B Feb 18, 2012 Full Review Hank Sartin Time Out Rated: 2/5 Nov 17, 2011 Full Review Leo Goldsmith indieWire Malkovich's titular mentalist is the primary focus of attention%u2014and sadly the source of many of the film's unique problems. In a career of strange performances, Malkovich turns in a true curiosity here%u2014and maybe it's because he is not, for once, Aug 8, 2009 Full Review Kathy Fennessy Seattle Film Blog Produced by Tom Hanks's Playtone banner, The Great Buck Howard follows the rise, fall, and rise template of many Hanks productions (see Starter for Ten and his own That Thing You Do!), but [Sean] McGinly handles a large cast with ease. Rated: 3/4 Jul 20, 2024 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review The film’s light comedy is very light, inspiring chuckles right through without ever making us weep for the characters or bust a gut from laughter. Rated: 2.5/4 Dec 2, 2023 Full Review Felicia Feaster Charleston City Paper The Great Buck Howard has a pleasantly rueful approach. Instead of the scatological humor in raucous bromances like I Love You, Man, The Great Buck Howard offers a more low-key thoughtfulness about how success is defined. Jan 27, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Steve D The cast is all it has. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 10/07/23 Full Review Gareth v Feel good dramedy that is carried by the performance of Malkovich and the underrated Blunt. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 06/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Truly one of the most pointless and boring films I've ever seen. I've seen more pointless, and I've seen more boring but this one propels further away from entertaining or compelling than most films I've seen. It relies almost entirely on sappy sentimentalism, which in itself isn't very profound, unique, or lasting. It also seems a bit disingenuous. It's the kind of sentimentality you see from high ranking officials mourning a dead comrade in old Soviet times when you know damn well they had the person killed to begin with and never liked the person. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review dave s In The Great Buck Howard, Troy Gable (Colin Hanks) is a law school student who, in a bout of existential angst, quits school and lands a job as the road manager for the washed-up mentalist Buck Howard (John Malkovich) and winds up falling in love with a publicist (Emily Blunt) brought in to bolster Buck's flailing career. The premise is great, but the movie flounders by putting the focus on Hanks' drab character and his seemingly pointless romance instead of centering everything around Buck Howard, the only truly interesting character in the film. There are some laughs, but the flaccid script misses the mark more often than not. Malkovich's enthusiastic performance as the delusional and self-centered egomaniac is probably reason enough to watch, but the lasting memory that the film will have is probably the wooden acting performance of Hanks, who proves that acting talent is not hereditary. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review farah r This is not the movie I expected it would be with such a cast. The Great Buck Howard is far from great, in fact t's awful. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review william k Slightly entertaining tale is mainly watchable for Malkovich's smooth performance. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Great Buck Howard

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Cast & Crew

The Great Buck Howard

The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - It's Over The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - It's Over 1:47 The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - Buck's Quirks The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - Buck's Quirks 2:29 The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - You Do Know Who I Am, Don't You? The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - You Do Know Who I Am, Don't You? 2:10 The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - I Thought He Was In Law School The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - I Thought He Was In Law School 2:04 The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - The Hidden Money Trick The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - The Hidden Money Trick 2:12 The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - Drop the Coin The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - Drop the Coin 1:50 The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - Buck is Hip Now The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - Buck is Hip Now 2:28 The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - How About Entertainment Law? The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - How About Entertainment Law? 1:50 The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - Mass-Hypnosis The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - Mass-Hypnosis 2:09 The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - Jay Leno is Satan The Great Buck Howard: Official Clip - Jay Leno is Satan 1:29 View more videos
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Movie Info

Synopsis Defying his father and dropping out of law school, aspiring writer Troy Gable (Colin Hanks) looks for a way to gain some meaningful life experience. Troy gets that and more when he takes a job with Buck Howard (John Malkovich), a vainglorious mentalist who hopes to reinvigorate his fading career by staging a big comeback.
Director
Sean McGinly
Producer
Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman
Screenwriter
Sean McGinly
Distributor
Magnolia Pictures
Production Co
Playtone Productions
Rating
PG (Suggestive Remarks|Some Language|A Drug Reference)
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 20, 2009, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jul 22, 2010
Box Office (Gross USA)
$748.4K
Runtime
1h 30m
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