Cinema Basement

A retrospective by Azzam Abdur-Rahman When Brooks asked me if I had any movie in mind for John Candy month I honestly only had one in mind, Only The Lonely. This film I related too so much but due to my life I just didn't feel comfortable discussing it. It became a weird albatross I was carrying, I hadn't written anything for the blog in a while and I wanted to contribute something but what I honestly couldn't tell you. I worried I would end up on a Lance Bangs-ish review that became less and less a review of the movie and more a musing on the struggles of losing a talented actor/comedian too soon to their own vices. I worried I like many other months wouldn't have a damn thing to say. Then last night after seeing the latest Mission Impossible I returned home to a sea of dog vomit and disappointment. It was literal dog vomit. 2 hours well into 3am I cleaned as my dog and I lay in misery at our lot in life. After commuting a task that was truncated by more vomit and...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Air traffic controller Jack Chester (John Candy) is given paid time off when he nearly causes two airline disasters. He takes his family down to Florida for a vacation. Hijinks ensue because its '80s comedy and Candy ends up challenging a pompous Richard Crenna to a yacht race to close out the summer.  This is a movie that has been forgotten to time in the grand scheme of Candy's career. Even with Carl Reiner directing it does have the same name recognition as some of Candy's other works. But I think it's a solid entry in his filmography. He plays a great everyman who we have no problem rooting for. The slobs versus snobs relationship he has with Crenna works like a charm and he genuinely seems like a good father and husband. Candy was always great at playing both the everyman and the aloof goofball. Sometimes he'll even play both. His character of Jack Chester in this is a good example of that. At times Jack is the goofy comic relief...

 What can you say about John Candy? He was a comic genius who was taken from us too soon. There were a lot of comedic heavyweights of the eighties and nineties but Candy stood above most of them. If there is a Mount Rushmore of comedy I imagine John Candy would be on it. For the month of July we are honoring this comic genius.