John Candy month: Summer Rental

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 character and others he is the straight man who is sick of all the goofiness around him. One of the best scenes in the movie is when tons of beachgoers invade their rental house as it's right on the beach access road. Candy is hilarious as Jack is both the straight man and comic relief in the scene. It's a brilliant scene and worth the price of admission alone.

As sometimes happens during these career retrospectives I am not saying this is a lost masterpiece of Candy's filmography. It is not going to stack up against films like Planes, Trains and Automobiles or Uncle Buck. But it's a solid comedy and one of my personal favorites in Candy's filmography. With Candy in the lead role and Carl Reiner behind the camera it's a solid comedy from the eighties. There's far worse films to watch. It's pretty widely available for a decent price. Give it a watch this summer. Even if it's just a rental.

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Brendan Fraser month

For the month of September we are celebrating an actor who has recently begun to have a resurgence. Brendan Fraser seemingly dropped out of the business around the late 2000s and it came out that it was due to some personal issues. He had a bad injury and faced abuse from a male celebrity. But with the release of Steven Soderbergh's No Sudden Move and Fraser's casting in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, we are taking the chance to explore Fraser's career. So let's dig up his filmography and enjoy a blast from the past celebration.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

A retrospective by Brooks Rich Let's kick off the spooky season with a bona fide classic. I love the horror genre, but not much really scares or creeps me out. Most horror films I just watch and enjoy. However, 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is one of those that really gets under my skin, and not just because the Sawyer family are eating people. The way Tobe Hooper shoots the film gives it an almost documentary feel. If you have never seen 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' you should probably fix that immediately. Do I need to explain what it's about? A group of '70s kids is driving across Texas in a van and runs afoul of the Sawyer family, including the man himself, Leatherface. It's a classic of the horror genre and one of the pioneers of the '70s and '80s horror boom. The film has a reputation for being sickeningly bloody and violent, but that is not true. It's essentially a bloodless film, which makes it even more horrifying. Most of the violence

Forgotten Film Friday: Absolute Power

Clint Eastwood stars as Luther Whitney, a jewel thief who works in the Washington DC area. One night while he is stealing from a mansion he is forced to hide in a secret compartment with a two way mirror. From there he observes a sexual rezendevous with the wife of a powerful man and the President of the United States Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) Suddenly the president gets aggressive and while defending herself the woman is shot to death by two Secret Service agents. Luther manages to get away with a letter opener the woman stabbed the president with. At first Luther plans to flee the country. But when he is disgusted by a statement the president makes, Luther decides to expose the crime. I miss these kind of films. The nineties was a great time for thrillers exactly like this. They are not the flashiest films but they are also not obsessed with big action scenes. It's all plot and character with them. Sure this plot might be a little out there but Eastwood makes it work. He's

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