Planes, Trains, And Automobiles

Strangely, I've now seen two movies in one week with both John Candy and Kevin Bacon in the cast.

Okay I've finally seen it. Yeah it was pretty great! I knew very bare bones basics of the story, heck I didn't even know who directed it until about halfway through and I had a great time with it. The story follows businessman Neal who is desperately trying to get home to his family for Thanksgiving as everything goes wrong and he is paired with a obnoxious travel partner Del as they go from New York, to Wichita, to St. Louis, to Chicago. It would be foolish to say this isn't an adventure movie, I'd even call it an odyssey, but it's a comedy first and it did that job very well. Good comedy is based on misery, and seeing so much bad stuff happen to the pessimistic and angry Steve Martin while most everything goes right for the super kind and sweet John Candy does work. Steve Martin is one of the very few people who can act like the biggest jerk and yet you are still on his side, you don't hate him. That's talent, it could so easily go off the deep end and have him be this unholy bastard of a man who nothing good should ever happen to, but you understand his situation and frustration. John Candy, shock of all shocks, is wonderful and lovely and amazing. I'm severely tempted to just do a whole week of John Candy movies, and again he shows real talent in this movie because he can get on your nerves at times, and yet still makes it really funny. If you met a person like this in real life you would strangle the life out of them, but because it's John Candy he can get away with it. The style of the writing and direction was ringing a few bells in my head and I wondered if John Hughes had any hand in this at all and sure enough he wrote and directed it, no wonder I liked it so much. It's somewhat hard to talk about the movie without going through every scene and every series of unfortunate events, but I will talk about one. When Steve Martin gets on the L train, he's made it to Chicago, and he's thinking about home. That got a tear out of me, it was just one but one is all you need. It's a very simple thing to describe and yet impossible to describe, he's thinking about walking through the door, seeing his wife and his kids, the food, the atmosphere of the dining table, and thinking about his unlikely friend. It's a very brief scene, incredibly minimalistic in how it's shot, but my God you get so much emotion out of that. You've probably had days where it seems nothing is going right, you've had a lot of stress and problems either preparing for the holidays or travelling to see family for the holidays, and to see him on his way after so much trouble has occured it struck me man. It struck me like an arrow through the heart. I think about home now more than I ever have, I like to be there when I can, there's no better place to be. It's a really good film, not my favorite of John's but another strong film in his career. 4 stars, 8.5/10, be back tomorrow to see an old flame.

Looney Tunes Back In Action

So the situation is the new Space Jam will get a review Saturday, not Friday because of work hence the oddball schedule this week.

I have so much to talk about here. This is one of the most interesting movies not only to watch but to talk about, it is truly a film in it's own world that must be experienced. I'm not even really sure how to start. I owned this movie on DVD all those years ago and watched it often, and seeing it again after 15 years is kind of a trip. So the film is basically an adventure movie with Bugs and Daffy as they assist two employees of the Warner Bros. company, an uptight vice president played by Jenna Elfman and the son of a spy actor played by Brendan Fraser. It goes off the rails quick in terms of story I suppose like any Looney Tunes cartoon, with chases, slapstick, plots of world domination, and more. I genuinely feel it is a worthy movie to see and not just be left in 2003 when it was released, there's a lot I admire and enjoy about it despite the movie being this utter grab bag of different plot elements yet it pulls it off pretty good. It does kinda break my heart that all tellings of the production pointed to it being a disaster with Joe Dante having a rough time making the movie due to executive control, because they did good work. I think they flat out got some cathartic satire of making Warner Bros. and pretty much every studio system look like braying jackasses, it's kind of beautiful actually. The personalities of the Looney Tunes are present and strong, a distinct action by Joe Dante who absolutely loathed Space Jam and how the characters were treated, and it fits perfectly in with the world of those cartoons. It does have that same spirit, it does have that good humor, it's handled mighty well! I laughed often and even when I didn't I still appreciated the humor. I'm trying so hard not to spiral out and just talk about random things but I feel it's kind of a losing battle with a film like this. We get science fiction references galore in Area 52, including the first time I ever saw Daleks though I had no idea what they were called. Timothy Dalton is essentially playing James Bond again which I absolutely loved. Steve Martin, God bless him man, he had to take on a role of a egomaniacal villain in a post Austin Powers world with mixed success. The celebrity cameos in this is off the charts, Dick Miller, Ron Perlman, Joan Cusack, Matthew Lillard, Roger Corman, friggin' Goldberg, it's outrageous how many people they got for this. The animation style looks airbrushed to shit, and it's not as perfectly mixed with live action as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but it looks good and still has that good fluidity of motion. It's just a bonkers movie to the max, not to the point of overstimulation but certainly fraking hard to talk about after viewing. I do recommend it, but as for a rating I'm a bit stumped. I did like it, it captured the spirit and fun of the Looney Tunes, Brendan is the best part of the movie period, great references, good comedy, odd yet entertaining. 3 stars, 7/10, and the 90s classic is up next.