The Great Buck Howard (2008/Magnolia Blu-ray + DVD)

 

Picture: B/C-     Sound: B/B-     Extras: C+     Film: C+

 

 

Loosely based on the life of The Amazing Kreskin, a magic act/mentalist for decades who tries to read minds and make objects reappear in odd places, Sean McGinly’s The Great Buck Howard (2008) starts John Malkovich as the title character.  It is many years into his success and he is starting to go into decline when he finds a new personal assistant to turn his fortunes around and find ones (Colin Hanks) who lands up with a behind-the-scenes view of the man and his life he will never forget.

 

Usually, films (and other attempts) to tell such a story become too comfortable, enamored with the main character or become too self-amused, but it is actually one of the better versions of this kind of backstage story we have seen lately.  Hanks is gaining his own identity as an actor, Malkovich is a force of nature and supporting actors like Emily Blunt, Ricky Jay, Steve Zahn and even Tom Hanks are all a plus.

 

I liked seeing this, but sadly, we have seen this story told too often before.  The reason it is watchable in part is because everyone has energy in doing it and they do it well enough, not because it is groundbreaking or challenging.  Tom Hanks co-produced and it is A-quality work, but you never expect anything too challenging from his company and that is the kind of product he makes.  In this case, I liked it enough to say it is worth a look, so see it if you are interested.

 

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image may be a little soft in the finest detail, but this is a good-looking Blu-ray for the most part, if not usually demo material.  Tak Fujimoto, A.S.C., delivers some of his most interesting work in a while that visually deals with the idea (without being silly about it) of this life of making money on the surreal.  The anamorphically enhanced DVD is poorer than expected and no match for the Blu-ray.

 

The DTS-HD Master Audio (MA) lossless 5.1 mix is dialogue-based and just fine for such a mix, with some prominent music and occasional sound effects.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is weaker, but not by a great margin.  Extras include a McGinty/Hanks feature length audio commentary, outtakes, deleted scenes, behind the scenes featurette, piece on Kreskin and HDNET look at the film.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo