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The Great Buck Howard

Play trailer Poster for The Great Buck Howard PG 2009 1h 30m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
70% Tomatometer 94 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

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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Leo Goldsmith IndieWire 08/08/2009
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, Go to Full Review Jonathan F. Richards Film.com 04/09/2009
This is not a rare movie, but it does have a warm red center. It's likable, and its appeal grows as it recovers from a shaky start and finds its footing. Go to Full Review Amy Biancolli Houston Chronicle 04/03/2009
3/4
A modest snapshot of a performer. Go to Full Review Kathy Fennessy Seattle Film Blog 07/20/2024
3/4
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. Go to Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review 12/02/2023
2.5/4
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. Go to Full Review Felicia Feaster Charleston City Paper 01/27/2020
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. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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David S. @dstreusand Apr 5 Malkovich was great! Good movie about the entertainment business and the struggle to be successful. See more Steve D @RT35616104 10/07/2023 The cast is all it has. See more Gareth v @geewah 06/21/2023 Feel good dramedy that is carried by the performance of Malkovich and the underrated Blunt. See more 01/08/2022 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. See more dave s @RT68722908 07/17/2021 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. See more farah r @Farah 10/13/2019 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. See more Read all reviews
The Great Buck Howard

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Cast & Crew

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Sean McGinly

Director

John Malkovich

Buck Howard

Colin Hanks

Troy Gabel

Emily Blunt

Valerie Brennan

Steve Zahn

Kenny

Tom Hanks

Mr. Gable

Movie Clips

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The Great Buck Howard

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The Great Buck Howard

The Great Buck Howard (2008) The Great Buck Howard (2008) The Great Buck Howard (2008) (L-R) Colin Hanks as Troy and Steve Zahn as Kenny in "The Great Buck Howard." (L-R) Colin Hanks as Troy and Griffin Dunne as Johnathan Finerman in "The Great Buck Howard." View more photos

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