Common Sense Media Review
By Charles Cassady Jr. , based on child development research. How do we rate?
age 13+
'80s comedy about a bachelor babysitter has profanity, sex.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
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Drinking, Drugs & Smoking
some
Teens drink and smoke cigarettes. Drinking shown in a packed teen house party. Cigar smoking. Beer drinking at bars and bowling alleys. A clown hired to be the entertainment for a young boy's birthday party arrives drunk.
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Language
some
A teen girl and her younger brother and sister say "s--t," "crap," and "goddammit." Later, the young boy asks his teen sister if she's "waiting for your sex?" Adults use occasional profanity: "son of a bitch," "a--hole," "pissant." While leaving a lengthy phone message on his girlfriend's answering machine, Buck talks about the pet names for her breasts and buttocks before talking about "Felix," and he's about to say what it is before the scene cuts to the sound of a meowing cat. A neighbor who sneaks into the house where Uncle Buck is babysitting, not realizing he's there, overhears him trying to unjam a packed washing machine, confusing his comments and violent thrusting for something sexual. An intoxicated man dressed as a clown talks about all the "dild* jokes" he made the night before at a bachelorette party.
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Sex, Romance & Nudity
some
See AlsoUncle Buck - Two Crumbs UpWhen Buck swears and wrestles with an uncooperative washing machine, an eavesdropper thinks he's having rough sex. Talk of teen pregnancy in the case of Tia and her boyfriend, who clearly wants to go all the way with her. Buck has pet names for his girlfriend's private parts, culminating in "Felix," and as he goes over the pet names on her answering machine, the scene is abruptly cut by the sound of a meowing cat before he gets to say what "Felix" represents.
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Violence & Scariness
some
Buck punches a drunk man dressed as a clown. He threatens and implies violence toward his niece's boyfriend and later kidnaps him, puts him in his trunk, and tapes his wrists and ankles with duct tape. In a bedroom at a teen party, a boy makes sexual advances toward a girl with no real consent.
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Positive Role Models
a little
Despite his deliberate unemployment, avoidance of committing to a relationship with his serious girlfriend, his slovenly appearance, and general irresponsibility, Uncle Buck clearly cares about his nieces and nephews and doesn't cave in to his teen niece's antisocial behavior. He grows to understand that, for all its freedom, his life of bachelorhood has some drawbacks.
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Positive Messages
very little
Uncle Buck learns the importance of family and committed relationships. Tia, his teenage niece, learns to put more trust in the adults in her life and to try to do a better job of understanding her mother in particular.
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Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Uncle Buck is a 1989 John Hughes-directed movie in which John Candy plays a perpetually irresponsible adult brought in to babysit his nieces and nephew due to a family emergency. Within the first five minutes, a teen girl, while exchanging unpleasantries with her brother and sister, says "crap" and "s--t," followed by the brother saying "goddammit" and the little girl saying "s--t." Later, the boy asks his teen sister if she's "waiting for your sex?" While the profanity from kids more or less slows down after the beginning, adults also use profanity and make reference to "dild* jokes," and a neighbor mistakenly thinks Buck is having sex in the laundry room because of the sounds he makes as he tries to unjam a packed washing machine. Teens drink and smoke; the boyfriend of the teen girl clearly wants to have sex with her and is later seen engaged in nonconsensual foreplay with another girl at a party. For his part, Uncle Buck smokes cigars, drinks beer to excess, talks of pet names for his girlfriend's private parts (culminating in his name for his private part, "Felix"), and seems to make his living engaged in various scams involving gambling. Nonetheless, the movie does attempt to paint an accurate picture of 1980s teen life, and the characters begin to see the errors in their ways and lifestyles. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
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Uncle Buck
Parent and Kid Reviews
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- Parents say (18)
- Kids say (41)
age 12+
Based on 18 parent reviews
Katherine R. Parent of 10, 14, 18+, 18+, 18+ and 5-year-old
June 16, 2024
age 10+
f66f901b-4318-4d86-a56d-73da845473b2 Parent of 18+, 18+, 18+, 18+, 18+ and 18+-year-old
April 19, 2024
age 18+
Uncle Buck 1982
Hi this is Matthew Rhodes so anyhow i am trying an other movies copies or clean verisons to get as fatherhood as an was clean so anywho the some in Planes Trains and Automobiles and Diray Of A Wimpy Kid or Diray Of A Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules and Diray of A Wimpy Kid Dog Days and Diray Of A Wimpy Kid The Long Haul was some per postitove of messages and language and violence and sexaul and no nutty and rude content My Sister and My Brother Erin Johnson Rhodes and Lucas Johnson they have kids there names are donamic and Louisa Johnson they live in Zeeland Michgan so anyhow some movies like the the Loarx and Toy Story and Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 Toy Story 4 Wreck it Ralph Ralph Breaks the Internet has some rude contentand the new annie and instant Family John Cena Playing with fire Tangeld and Frozen or Frozen 2
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See all 18 parent reviews
What's the Story?
Buck Russell (John Candy), 40, is a sports-betting, unemployed bachelor living in a messy apartment, stringing along his longtime girlfriend, Chanice (Amy Madigan), who wants to settle down with him. The black sheep of the family, Buck is shocked when his brother calls. It's an emergency -- his sister-in-law's father has suffered a heart attack, and they need Buck stay at their posh suburban home to watch the kids while they go out of town. Buck walks into an uncomfortable household situation. Little Mazy (Gaby Hoffman) and Miles (Macaulay Culkin) get along great with the big, goofy teddy-bear uncle. But 15-year-old niece Tia (Jean Kelly) positively loathes Buck. Her resentment and teen rebellion against her mother take the form of haughty sarcasm, progressive apparel, and hanging with a vaguely "goth" party crowd. Eventually Tia's feud with Buck crosses the line and causes genuine pain. But you get the feeling the girl is just imitating, in caricature, typically snotty grown-ups on her side of the tracks.
Is It Any Good?
Our review:
Parents say (18):
Kids say (41):
In Uncle Buck, John Hughes has created a likable hero who exhibits both the virtues and the drawbacks of acting like a big kid. The benefits outweigh the negatives, though -- or at least that's the case Hughes tries to make. As he did in Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club, Hughes makes it seem like class structure in America is just as divisive as the dukedoms and commoners in Jane Austen's backyard.
And, when Buck agrees to watch the kids, it not only helps him avoid a job Chanice lined up for him, but it's also supposed to prove to her that he can be a responsible parent-like figure in spite of himself. There's enough slapstick and falling-down stuff with Candy acting goofy to please viewers not looking for heavy stuff, and the acting is all on target.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the conflicts among the various characters. Do you think Buck could have handled bad-girl Tia in a more productive way? Do you believe the way the story comes out? Has Buck himself grown up a little by the end? What do you think will happen between him and Chanice?
In the 1980s, John Hughes, the director of Uncle Buck, made a name for himself by making movies that tried to move beyond the typical trite stereotyping of teenagers and to convey the realities of broken homes, drug and alcohol use, teen sex, cliques, and not fitting in as well as coming to grips with first loves, more responsibilities, and uncertain futures. Where and how do these portrayals of teens seem (and look) dated, and what are some of the ways in which the issues addressed are still discussed decades after these movies were released?
If you could remake this movie, how would you do it? Who would star?
Movie Details
- In theaters: August 16, 1989
- On DVD or streaming: August 23, 2005
- Cast: Jean Louisa Kelly, John Candy, Macaulay Culkin
- Director: John Hughes
- Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
- Genre: Comedy
- Topics: Book Characters
- Run time: 100 minutes
- MPAA rating: PG
- Last updated: June 3, 2024
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Uncle Buck
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