Generation Xers got screwed out of a lot of things, not the least of which was animation. Boomers and Millennials got Bugs Bunny, Pixar and Disney classics (“Pinocchio,” “Lion King,” etc.). We got Scrappy Doo and “Heavy Metal.” For whatever reason, Ivan Reitman thought 1981 was the right time for an animated anthology featuring the four food groups for 14-year-old Xer boys: weapons of war, rock and roll, purple eye shadow and huge breasts. The animation is typical of the early 1980s – artistic yet awful. The story is also typical – some kind of high-minded pacifism shrouded in blood and boobs.
Archives for posts with tag: John Candy
Former “Saturday Night Live” performer John Belushi made a movie (“Continental Divide”) that takes place in the Rockies. He died a few months later. SNL host John Candy died while filming a western called “Wagons East” (1994). Ex-SNLer Chris Farley died shortly after making the western “Almost Heroes.” (Career advice for Will Ferrell? Do salads, not drugs. Or westerns.) As for “Wagons East,” Candy does a pretty good job looking and acting the part of a bearded, mountain-man, wagonmaster. But the dialogue is lame and the cast is mostly B-listers (Richard Lewis, John C. McGinley) who just schtick it up.
There are some who enjoy the cinematic combination of scriptwriter John Hughes and actor John Candy. I am not one of them. I believe Hughes’ most forgettable films star Candy. The absolute worst might be “The Great Outdoors” (1988). Family-man Candy takes brood on vacation, sleazy brother-in-law Dan Aykroyd barges in, hijinks ensue. Meh. Actually, it’s worse than meh, because the hijinks are compounded by a plot twist you could see coming from a mile away and subplots involving puppy love and kids in danger that seem like leftovers from “The Brady Bunch” It’s Aykroyd and Hughes at their laziest.
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