Review of Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) by Moe J — 01 Aug 2012

I like John Candy. I never met him personally, but he often plays likable characters. Even when he's doing very klutzy or stupid things that make you want to strangle him or run away from him, he seems like such a sweet guy who wants to do the right thing, but keeps getting into sticky situations.

He plays this kind of character in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles". Some of the situations that he and Steve Martin's character get into are situations that would make me lose my mind, but some of the situations that they get into are pretty funny.

For example, there's a very funny scene where Candy and Martin are driving on the wrong side of the road when they don't know it. I won't describe the imagery because a) I might make it sound lame and/or b) I might spoil the scene for you.

A lot of people have given this movie rah-rah reviews for this movie (eg. Roger Ebert gave it 3.5 stars out of 4 stars.). I don't think it's quite as good as that. I didn't laugh as much as I should to call this movie a comedy classic, but I still think that there are some pretty funny scenes in this movie and John Candy is likable in the role he plays.

So, I'd say it's worth seeing, but it's not a classic, in my opinion. My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4 stars.