Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Were John Hughes still alive, and had he figured out how to make movies starring grownups (stop cultivating the delusion that “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” was a good film), he would have made a movie like “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” (2016). Tina Fey stars as a frustrated journalist who tries her hand as a war correspondent. Afghani hijinks ensue. And people get blown up. And there’s a love interest. And the music comes in at all the right times. And it so patiently, deliberately tells its story, you remember what it was like back when comedies actually had plots. Thanks Tina.

 

A Merry Friggin’ Christmas

“A Merry Friggin’ Christmas” (2014) was one of Robin Williams’ last movies. I know you might feel guilty about not liking it, but that’s OK, because this movie isn’t that good. (I can imagine the conversation that went on in some Hollywood development meeting: “Picture ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ meets ‘Christmas Vacation.’ It’s pure gold, I tell ya!”) So anyway, the guy from “Community” stars as the prodigal son of a dysfunctional family, of which Williams is the foul-mouthed, boozy patriarch. Cliched Christmas hijinks ensue. Road movie hijinks ensue. Sloppy plot construction and awkwardly staged family melodrama ensue. Sorry, Robin.

Uncle Buck

Round up all the things I don’t like about John Hughes movies (the uberbitchy teenage girl, John Candy, Macaulay Culkin), put them together and you get “Uncle Buck” (1989). This is not part of Hughes’ “funny” (“Sixteen Candles”) film collection. This is part of his “pathos” (“Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”) collection. Candy basically performs an over-the-top version of “Charles in Charge” so Culkin and his siblings don’t have to be “Home Alone” while their parents are away. The film’s heart is in the right place, and there’s a few funny moments, but it doesn’t measure up to Hughes’ better films.