28
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 60EmpireKim NewmanEmpireKim NewmanHoward the Duck manages to be two or three types of fun: as a crazy comedy, it has some good risque/sick jokes to go along with its messy slapstick and bland rock music; as a monster movie, it has an outstanding performance from Jeffrey Jones as a scientist-cum-monster and an astonishingly repulsive Dark Overlord of the Universe shows up for the exciting climax.
- 60IGNIGNThere's something kitschy about Howard the Duck that makes it fun to watch. It tried hard and provided you're not a huge stick in the mud, there's something in this movie for everyone.
- 50The New York TimesCaryn JamesThe New York TimesCaryn JamesHoward the Duck' begins as a mild satire about a duck who fell to earth, but midway through, the star is upstaged by horrifying demons and dazzling light shows.
- 40Pic lapses into formulaic predictability with nearly an hour of frenetic chase scenes and technically perfect explosions from Industrial Light & Magic. Action comes sporadically alive in scenes with scientist Jones, who becomes possessed by the spirit of an evil Dark Warlord that entered his body during the same fateful mishap that brought Howard to Earth. There is an abundant amount of special effects wizardry that emanates mostly from Jones as he transforms into a monster, but it is not spectacularly unique enough to distinguish this film from other, more entertaining, sci-fi thrillers.
- 25The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe film resembles one of those Saturday Night Live sketches that has one joke and keeps going, and going, and going.
- The problem was that it was supposed to be animated, but contractual obligations forced it to become a live-action movie — specifically, an unfunny, effects-driven, story-deprived live-action film about a talking duck.
- 25TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThere are a couple of mildly amusing moments, but overall Howard the Duck is a monumental waste of time.
- 25The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinHoward The Duck has several jokes, really, they're all just desperately unfunny.
- 20Howard the Duck, the movie, is as bad as you've heard. Actually, it's worse. But its failings as a film have overshadowed the frequently brilliant 1970s comic book that inspired it. Using only the most superficial elements of its source material while discarding most of what made the comic interesting, the film serves as a textbook example of how to turn something into nothing.
- 20Time Out LondonTime Out LondonHoward T Duck, of Marvel Comics, might well have a beef against Lucasfilm for transforming his magnetic comic strip personality into a zipperless polyester duck-suit (filled interchangeably by eight different actors, each apparently under four feet in height) in this aimless movie.