THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD

'The Great Buck Howard' is a movie that showcases the life and times of an aging, over the hill mentalist/magician named Buck Howard (John Malkovich).  Buck was once the star of late night TV, appearing 61 times on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but now plays to the senior citizen crowd in rundown theaters in podunk towns (Hello Wahoo, Nebraska!).

While Buck's days are long past him, Troy Gable's (Colin Hanks) best days are ahead of him.  Fed up and disillusioned with the possibility as a career as a lawyer, Troy drops out of college and law school, and answers a classified ad in the newspaper to become Buck's new road manager.  Troy has no choice but to learn quickly, and proceeds to travel the country as Buck's right hand man.  Playing small town after small town, we come to see Buck's many idiosyncrasies and oddities. 

Buck's got a heck of a handshake, a penchant for spring water (not distilled!) and a love for every town he visits.  The movie's comedy comes in Buck's quirkiness, and Malkovich does a great job of making you both laugh at him and feel for him at the same time.  Emily Blunt shows up half way through the movie as a publicist and becomes Troy's love interest, albeit for no apparent reason. 

When Buck declares that he'll perform his greatest trick ever, he finally gets some press and everyone shows up for his big show.  Buck gets the press he hoped for, even if it's not as he expected it to happen.  Suddenly, the once run down, past his prime Buck Howard is hip again, running the late night circuit, appearing on Regis and Kelly, Martha Stewart and MTV.   Buck's return to prominence is short lived however, allowing us to see the fall, resurgence, and re-fall of the Great Buck Howard.

While I liked the movie enough, it almost came across as a vehicle to let John Malkovich act eccentric for 90 minutes.  I did enjoy Buck's complete apathy for anything that's happened after 1970 though, clearly living in the past, where he truly was, The Great Buck Howard.  Even Tom Hanks seemed disinterested in his 2 cameo's however, and he produced the film! 

There's very little substance here, and you certainly don't come away from this movie having learned anything whatsoever.  Having said that, it's a pretty good comedy that won't make you feel like you wasted your time, but you won't be raving about it afterwards either.  3 out of 5 stars.