Just a year before Home Alone, its child star and writer/director John Hughes made this enjoyable family comedy, this was the start of Hughes first film focusing on childhood rather than adolescence (Ferris Bueller and The Breakfast Club). Anyway, basically Cindy (Elaine Bromka) and Bob Russell (Garrett M. Brown) and their family have recently moved from Indianapolis to Chicago, but the kids were happy where they were. One night Cindy receives a phone call from her aunt that her father has had a heart attack, and they immediately make plans to visit him. But they urgently need someone to babysit the younger kids, since teenager Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly) refuses to be responsible, and even though Cindy doesn't like, Bob thinks his brother Buck (John Candy, in one of his only great leading roles) can do it. When they are gone, Buck is doing the best he can to please and help the younger kids, Maizy Russell (Gaby Hoffmann) and Miles (Macaulay Culkin, leading towards to stardom), same for the despising Tia. Buck's sloppy but lovable personality and presence have the kids bonding, but he still struggles to please Tia, who he knows has a boyfriend Bug (Jay Underwood) only using her to get sex. Also starring Amy Madigan as Chanice Kobolowski, Scream 2's Laurie Metcalf as Marcie Dahlgren-Frost, Brian Tarantina as E. Roger Coswell, Dumb and Dumber's Mike Starr as Pooter-the-Clown and Suzanne Shepherd as Mrs. Anita Hogarth. It is impossible to hate Candy (character or actor), even with his sloppy nature, Culkin is cute and the perfect choice for Home Alone, and there are plenty of one-liners and near-gross jokes to please everyone. Good!
Review of Uncle Buck
