4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS
Comedian John Candy plays Uncle Buck Russell, who’s called into action to take care of his two nieces and nephew while his brother Bob and sister-in-law Cindy rush to Indianapolis to see her ailing father.
(Click an image to scroll the larger versions)
“UNCLE BUCK”
4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray; 1989; PG for some profanity
Best extra: “Going on Seventeen” new interview with actress Jean Louis Kelly
DURING THE 1980s, writer/director/producer John Hughes became the master of the modern teenager movie. Most were filmed near Hughes’ old high school stomping grounds in suburban Chicago. Undeniably, the films became instant classics: “Sixteen Candles” (1984), “The Breakfast Club” (1985), “Weird Science” (1985), “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), “Pretty in Pink” (1986), and “Some Kind of Wonderful” (1987).
He also explored the twists and turns of adulthood with “Mr. Mom” (1983), “Vacation” (1983), “National Lampoon’s European Vacation” (1985), “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” (1987), “She’s Having a Baby” (1988), “The Great Outdoors” (1988), “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (1989), and “Uncle Buck,” now released from Kino Lorber/Universal Studios on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray.
“Uncle Buck” was an opportunity for Hughes and good friend John Candy to reunite. They first collaborated on “Vacation” and then “Planes, Trains & Automobiles.” Here Candy plays the clumsy and carefree Buck Russell, recruited in the middle of the night to watch his two nieces and nephew when his brother Bob (Garrett M. Brown) and sister-in-law Cindy (Elaine Bromka) must rush to Indianapolis to see her ailing father.
The heartwarming story has plenty of good intentions, but received mixed reviews during its original Universal theatrical release in late summer of 1989. New York Times critic Vincent Canby said, “Uncle Buck is the sort of character that no American suburb should be without. Everything about him offends middle-class manners, fashion, and aspirations. Though his ancient automobile needs a muffler and travels around in its own permanent cloud of exhaust smoke, Uncle Buck is a breath of fresh air.”
Chicago Sun-Times and “At the Movies” critic Roger Ebert was less forgiving. “Hughes is usually the master of the right note, the right line of dialogue, and this time there’s an uncomfortable undercurrent in the material.”
Hughes’ fans and moviegoers still gave it a solid box office performance, holding the No.1 domestic spot for four weeks in late August and early September. It finished the year with a $66 million gross, landing No. 13 between the Tom Hanks cop/dog comedy “Turner & Hooch” and the baseball classic “Field of Dreams.” “Batman” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” topped the 1989 box office.
EXTRAS
During a 19-minute interview, actress Jean Louis Kelly remembers her first theatrical role as the 16-year-old niece Tia. “‘Uncle Buck’ came to me like a little magical gift from the heavens.” She had become a huge fan of Hughes and of Molly Ringwald (“Pretty in Pink,” “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club”).
For the character Tia, Kelly had enormous “compassion.” At the time, both were ‘pissed’ teenagers, she said. Her parents had just moved to Maryland during her junior year of high school, after lived in New York City, where Kelly was an original Broadway cast member of “Into the Woods.”
Her working relationship with co-star Candy was “great,” she said. “Most of my time I spent with him was giggling. He was just lovely.” The tension between Tia and Buck was all in Hughes’ script, she says. “I just had to show up, and Candy’s performance was so wonderful and nuanced.”
The 4K disc and Blu-ray include two commentaries: First, strangely, with Australian film historians Alexandra Heller-Nicolas and Josh Nelson, who compare the similarities between “Uncle Buck” and “Home Alone.” First, both hired the adorable child actor Macaulay Culkin as nephew Miles Russell, who became eight-year-old Kevin McCallister the following year. Both family homes were filmed in the same northern suburb area of Chicago, while the two-story interiors were constructed inside the New Trier High School gym. It’s the same school where Buck drops Tia off for school, with his smoking 1977 “The Beast” Mercury Marquis Brougham.
The second track is with film historian Joe Ramoni, who also says Hughes wrote “Home Alone” with Culkin in mine. Director Chris Columbus (“Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”) still auditioned hundreds of young boys, but eventually came back to the charming Macaulay. The Blu-ray also includes Macaulay audition tape for “Uncle Buck.”
VIDEO
Universal and Kino Lorber scanned the original 35mm camera negative (1.85:1 aspect ratio) in 4K, and the results are first-rate. The film grain is tight and structured, with excellent clarity from close-ups to wide shots. HDR10 and Dolby Vision grading provide a natural color palette, with saturated colors and a slightly darker tone than the 1080p disc, which was also sourced from the new 4K master.
Everything was encoded onto a 100 GB disc, with the video bitrate running mostly over 70 Megabits per second. The HDR10 peak brightness hits 1902 nits and averages 259 nits.
AUDIO
Universal provides a new six-channel DTS HD soundtrack as well as the original 2.0 stereo track in lossless DTS HD. Since this is a dialogue-driven comedy, I found the two-channel track more natural, with a wide front soundstage. The bass response is very good when Buck’s Mercury backfires.
Overall, it’s a striking 4K restoration, a heartfelt and fun watch down memory lane with John Candy and company. Even so, parents be warned – some of Hughes’ humor is inappropriate for younger children.
— Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer
