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| The movie is classic John Candy... The world was robbed of 100s of hours of entertainment. |
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| Steve Martin and John Candy with a command performance. |
Synopsis (Spoiler
alert – not really): Neal Page (Steve Martin) is an ad executive… It’s
early Tuesday evening and he needs to get from New York to Chicago for
Thanksgiving … That’s when he first runs into Del Griffith (John Candy) …
Hilarity ensues … It’s a better Thanksgiving movie than even ‘Home Alone’
The meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ow of the movie: There is none! It might be the highest rated non-meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ow movie in the history of the galaxy.
Why to watch?
1. One of the most impressive movie duos ever… I wish more movies would’ve been made with John Candy and Steve Martin together… And honestly I can’t believe they didn’t make more movies together … They were a perfect duo in this movie… They’re both loveable in the movie and by the end you want to have Thanksgiving dinner with Neal and Del.
I never really thought about it until this viewing, but I can’t think of any duo that has dominated a movie more than these two dominated this movie … They are THE two characters of the movie … There is really no one else … I didn’t take a stopwatch to it, but I can’t imagine any other character is in the movie for more than three or four minutes… Even Neal’s wife … Every “buddy” movie I can think of has a love interest or an antagonist who balances out the movie, but the antagonist and the love interest in this movie is “the journey home.”
2. Kevin Bacon! Might be his shortest role ever… He’s done four minutes into the movie, but it’s a brilliant four minutes… An homage to Quicksilver.
3. The whole family can watch it… That’s rare in this day and age… I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a movie and thought it was outstanding, but then realized the language and sexual references were inappropriate for children and would also make it awkward to watch with the parents… This movie can be watched by everyone from age 7 to 77… As long as you send the children and grandparents to the kitchen to get some SunChips and sarsaparilla after the lady at the car rental desk says “Gobble Gobble”
4. Is there any job Edie McClurg won't take? 184 film and TV credits... I'm not sure what the world record is, but she's nearing Michael Starr territory... Mr. Mentalino has 190 credits... Kevin Bacon only has 75… This is from her peak era… When she also played Bonnie Brindle on Small Wonder!
5. Singing in the Car!!!! This movie is one of the pioneers of the “singing in the car” vignette… Before Harry and Lloyd sang “Mockingbird”… Before Chris Farley and David Spade belted out “It’s The End of the World As We Know It” and some Spanish-language song… Before Wayne and Garth sang Bohemian Rhapsody… Neal and Del sing “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
6. He’s in it? ... Matthew Lawrence … Brother of Joey Lawrence … Whoooooaa!
7. John Hughes! Everything he touched was pretty spectacular… Shermer High School Football Rules!
The meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ow of the movie: There is none! It might be the highest rated non-meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ow movie in the history of the galaxy.
Why to watch?
1. One of the most impressive movie duos ever… I wish more movies would’ve been made with John Candy and Steve Martin together… And honestly I can’t believe they didn’t make more movies together … They were a perfect duo in this movie… They’re both loveable in the movie and by the end you want to have Thanksgiving dinner with Neal and Del.
I never really thought about it until this viewing, but I can’t think of any duo that has dominated a movie more than these two dominated this movie … They are THE two characters of the movie … There is really no one else … I didn’t take a stopwatch to it, but I can’t imagine any other character is in the movie for more than three or four minutes… Even Neal’s wife … Every “buddy” movie I can think of has a love interest or an antagonist who balances out the movie, but the antagonist and the love interest in this movie is “the journey home.”
2. Kevin Bacon! Might be his shortest role ever… He’s done four minutes into the movie, but it’s a brilliant four minutes… An homage to Quicksilver.
3. The whole family can watch it… That’s rare in this day and age… I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a movie and thought it was outstanding, but then realized the language and sexual references were inappropriate for children and would also make it awkward to watch with the parents… This movie can be watched by everyone from age 7 to 77… As long as you send the children and grandparents to the kitchen to get some SunChips and sarsaparilla after the lady at the car rental desk says “Gobble Gobble”
4. Is there any job Edie McClurg won't take? 184 film and TV credits... I'm not sure what the world record is, but she's nearing Michael Starr territory... Mr. Mentalino has 190 credits... Kevin Bacon only has 75… This is from her peak era… When she also played Bonnie Brindle on Small Wonder!
5. Singing in the Car!!!! This movie is one of the pioneers of the “singing in the car” vignette… Before Harry and Lloyd sang “Mockingbird”… Before Chris Farley and David Spade belted out “It’s The End of the World As We Know It” and some Spanish-language song… Before Wayne and Garth sang Bohemian Rhapsody… Neal and Del sing “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
6. He’s in it? ... Matthew Lawrence … Brother of Joey Lawrence … Whoooooaa!
7. John Hughes! Everything he touched was pretty spectacular… Shermer High School Football Rules!
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| Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? --- Delaying a flight to "Nowhere" |
Why to not watch.
I can’t really think of a reason … The only complaint I have from the whole movie is some of the sloppiness towards the end … I didn’t notice until about my 20th viewing that despite the fact that St. Louis is only 300 miles from Chicago, it seems to take them a long-long-long time to drive … They switch drivers on two separate occasions … But then after that there’s a scene that mentions stopping for gas and a sign is visible that says “Chicago 102 miles” … Unless it’s some craptastic rental car place like Enterprise, car rental places always give you a car filled with gas, so why would you have to fill up after 200 miles? … St. Louis to Chicago is definitely a one-tank trip … (Spoiler Alert from this point on) At this point the car catches on fire … At this point, a mere 102 miles from home, instead of calling for a ride the rest of the way, they decide to stay in a motel … The sloppiness continues as they are driving their destroyed vehicle the next morning when they are stopped by a Wisconsin State Police officer – portrayed by Michael McKeane (side note - Lenny from Laverne and Shirley has 223 film and TV credit... So he's more impressive than the aforementioned Michael Starr) for driving 78 miles per hour… Wisconsin isn’t on the way to Chicago from St. Louis … And the final bit of sloppiness… When they are stopped, you are given the impression that they’ve driven a little bit, at least long enough to belt out “Blue Moon of Kentucky” while driving 78 miles per hour, yet when they hitch a ride in the back of an 18-wheeler the rest of the way Del mentions they’ll be home in three hours… 90 miles in three hours?
I can’t really think of a reason … The only complaint I have from the whole movie is some of the sloppiness towards the end … I didn’t notice until about my 20th viewing that despite the fact that St. Louis is only 300 miles from Chicago, it seems to take them a long-long-long time to drive … They switch drivers on two separate occasions … But then after that there’s a scene that mentions stopping for gas and a sign is visible that says “Chicago 102 miles” … Unless it’s some craptastic rental car place like Enterprise, car rental places always give you a car filled with gas, so why would you have to fill up after 200 miles? … St. Louis to Chicago is definitely a one-tank trip … (Spoiler Alert from this point on) At this point the car catches on fire … At this point, a mere 102 miles from home, instead of calling for a ride the rest of the way, they decide to stay in a motel … The sloppiness continues as they are driving their destroyed vehicle the next morning when they are stopped by a Wisconsin State Police officer – portrayed by Michael McKeane (side note - Lenny from Laverne and Shirley has 223 film and TV credit... So he's more impressive than the aforementioned Michael Starr) for driving 78 miles per hour… Wisconsin isn’t on the way to Chicago from St. Louis … And the final bit of sloppiness… When they are stopped, you are given the impression that they’ve driven a little bit, at least long enough to belt out “Blue Moon of Kentucky” while driving 78 miles per hour, yet when they hitch a ride in the back of an 18-wheeler the rest of the way Del mentions they’ll be home in three hours… 90 miles in three hours?
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| Chicago ... 102 miles... Still three hours and a stop in Wisconsin away. |
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| Lenny... From Laverne & Shirley... Apparently never left Wisconsin and became a state mountie. |
But that’s it… Nothing else negative about this movie.
Best line of the movie: Del Griffith: “We’d have more luck playing pick-up sticks with your butt cheeks than getting out of here before day break.”
- or –
Neal Page: “Those aren’t pillows.”
Role that Robert Loggia should’ve been given: This is a tough one … As I said before, it’s just John Candy and Steve Martin and then a bunch of characters they have brief encounters with … Nobody that commands the amount of screen time that Robert Loggia commands … But I guess I’ll go with the Cab Dispatcher who punches Neal Page and then lifts him up by his testicles.
Degrees to Kevin Bacon: Kevin Bacon is in it! So everybody in the movie is a 1... Kevin's a 0!
Will you laugh: Yes
Should you laugh: Yes… It's laugh until you shart funny
Will you cry: My eyes welled up a couple of times.
Can you watch it with your grandmother: Yes… But mute at car rental counter scene.
Can you watch it with your children: Yes… But mute at car rental counter scene.
Is it worse than "Grown Ups"?: No… The first two minutes of the movie were more worthy of my cash dolla than Grown Ups.
Is it better than "Furry Vengeance"?: Yes!… I can’t believe I’m saying this, but “Yes!”
On a scale from 1 to 32: I give it a 30.24... Highest score I’ve given out so far … It’s one of the best comedies ever made and I venture to say one of the most underrated films of all time … You haven’t seen it yet? … You’re soooo stupid.
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