Thanksgiving is drawing near, so it feels like the perfect time to give some love to John Candy. I first encountered Candy on SCTV, a Canadian alternative to Saturday Night Live presented as a fictitious television network with all sorts of wacky content. It aired after The Tonight Show on Friday nights here in The States for a few years in the early 80s and launched the careers of Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Rick Moranis, and Candy. Even while that show was still going Candy had small but memorably amusing roles in films like The Blues Brothers, Stripes, & National Lampoon’s Vacation. Unfortunately Hollywood’s obsession with tall, dark, & handsome (and thin) precluded him from becoming a classic leading man, but he left behind a solid and very funny filmography that I’m happy to explore.

Friday Night

Uncle Buck

It’s probably the first movie you think of when someone mentions John Candy, which is appropriate since he almost singlehandedly carries the whole thing as unkempt & unemployed Buck Russell, a middle aged, feckless, cigar smoking ne’er-do-well who spends most of his days drinking and betting on horse races. He is called upon to babysit his brother & sister-in-law’s three children while the parents tend to a family emergency. It is a unique amalgamation of the buddy comedy & fish-out-of-water formulas because Buck is definitely out of his depth. The two little kids (portrayed by Gaby Hoffman & MacCauley Culkin just one year before he stumbled into superstardom) think their uncle is weird, but get along with him just fine. Conversely, their teenage sister is in a rebellious phase and clashes with him. Hilarity ensues. My definition of a good movie has always focused on whether or not we still enjoy watching it decades later on a lazy vegg day spent on the couch, and Uncle Buck definitely qualifies. It is quintessential John Hughes and classic John Candy.

Saturday Matinee

Only the Lonely

If you haven’t seen it you really should. Writer/producer/director Chris Columbus is essentially John Hughes 2.0, having been responsible in one way or another for classics like The Goonies, Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, two Harry Potter films, and Christmas with the Kranks. Columbus wrote & directed this dramedy about a middle-aged Chicago cop whose relationship with a shy funeral home beautician is complicated by his domineering mother. The cast, which includes Candy, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Quinn, and Jim Belushi, is delightful, but it’s the inclusion of screen legend Maureen O’Hara that gives the movie gravitas. O’Hara, best remembered as the mother in Miracle on 34th Street and for co-starring in several John Wayne westerns, had been retired for two decades and living in The Virgin Islands, but Columbus successfully wooed her back to Hollywood for one final big screen role.

Saturday Night

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles

Soon enough many of us will spend much of our downtime consuming Christmas movies that we’ve all seen a thousand times, which is perfectly valid. Hell, a lot of you might’ve already started your holiday film binge last month. At any rate, as much as I love Christmas I always lament the fact that Thanksgiving tends to get the shaft in the process. However, there are a few Thanksgiving-centric entertainments, and this is the best among them in my opinion. Weather & other catastrophes wreak havoc on a Chicago ad exec’s efforts to make it home from New York in time for Turkey Day, but his chief annoyance is a well-meaning yet irritating salesman making the same trek. Written, produced, and directed by John Hughes, it has become an important part of my holiday tradition. I usually watch it the night before Thanksgiving, or perhaps on the actual holiday if circumstances allow. There have been rumors of a remake in recent years, and I get it, but I hope it is done respectfully, as an homage or even an unofficial sequel using the same framework with different characters. Perhaps they could even throw in a Steve Martin cameo.

Sunday Matinee

Summer Rental

A stressed out Atlanta air traffic controller is forced to take some time off, so he treats his family to an extended vacation in a popular Florida resort town. Unfortunately the trip isn’t as relaxing as he’d prefer, as a number of things go awry. This was John Candy’s first starring role, and the cast includes Rip Torn in a kind of beta version of the character he’d play in Dodgeball two decades later. The movie itself is reminiscent of a discount rendition of National Lampoon’s Vacation, which had been released a couple of years earlier. There’s a dash of Caddyshack tossed into the mix as well. It’s not a great film, but Candy’s affable charm makes it fun.

Sunday Night

The Great Outdoors

I guess one vacation-from-hell movie wasn’t enough, so a few years later Candy teamed up with Dan Aykroyd for another one, written by the incomparable John Hughes. Candy once again takes his family on vacation, this time to a quiet cabin in the woods of Wisconsin. When his affluent, snooty brother-in-law crashes the party hilarity ensues. This is probably a better film than Summer Rental simply because of the addition of Aykroyd and the script by Hughes. There has been talk of a reboot and/or sequel in recent years, although I don’t know how the latter would work without Candy. I suppose it’ll happen eventually. Not even great movies are sacred in Hollywood, and truthfully this isn’t a great movie.