You younger people out there might not even know who John Candy is, but he was kind of a big deal back in the day. He died at pretty young age of a heart attack unfortunately. Before he left us he gave us a few gems, such as this one.

I'm a big fan of Steve Martin as well despite the fact that he has had some rather rubbish movies over the past 10 years or so and subsequently has pretty much disappeared from the scene. I still think he is one of the finest comedians of the past 100 years though.

The movie plot is simple: Due to storms all flights are grounded right around Thanksgiving time and Neal Page (Steve Martin) desperately wants to get home to his family for the holiday. He ends up getting coupled up with Del Griffith (John Candy) in a series of unfortunate events in their combined efforts to get back home to Chicago. The two don't really get along mostly because Neal finds nearly everything Del does to be extremely annoying especially since Griffith seems to be relatively accident prone.

Neal is successful and mild-mannered, while Del is crude and a bit of a simpleton. However, they find ways of complementing one another's talents along the way and there are plenty of laughs as well as some touching moments that kind of says a lot about how we should help each other out in life. It has a bit of a twist ending that will stick with you and maybe make you misty-eyed (it did for me!)

if you've seen the movie you almost certainly remember this hilarious scene

This is one of the few movies where I recall Steve Martin swearing. He spent his entire life being an extremely clean comedian and although I didn't realize it at the time, that sort of thing was very rare for him.

This is one of my favorite comedies from the 80's and it is still a good movie today. I highly recommend you check it out. I might be giving it a little bit of favoritism because Candy is dead and someone said i don't give higher than 8 very often, but whatever... it's my blog and i'll do what i want.

9 / 10

Name: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (film): I miss John Candy
Item: Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Author: @gooddream

Comments · 8

@gametestplay(48)· 2857d

The people train runs out of Stubbville. Owen was the best. According to the woman who played his wife, the part where he spits before shaking hands with Steve Martin was improvised and they kept it in the movie, which is why the camera just barely misses the shake.

@kwadjobonsu(61)· 2857d

This is an astonishing classic film. Incredibly moving story with amazing characters. You would truly care about these characters and the positions they put themselves in throughout this humorous and dramatic film. It's simply comedy mixed with tense drama scenes. This is one of John Candy's best film in my opinion, the acting was simply amazing. The music score for this movie was good. John Hughes has created many timeless classics, and this was one of them.

@praditya(67)· 2857d

This movie seems to be interesting, as you have rated it with such good numbers. I will surely watch it.

@rodneysreviews(53)· 2858d

"Neal finds nearly everything Del does to be extremely annoying" = funny

"make you misty-eyed" = emotions

That was the genius of John Hughes. He could make you laugh hard, but ground it so firmly in real human experience, that although you didn't know it, he was tearing up your emotions too.

This is probably why his teen films define the genre, because he completely got both the desire of teens to break out and wildly define themselves, but also their deep feelings of vulnerability connected to their lingering child selves.

This was the first grown up movie he made, and the best. I got misty eyed way before the end. There's a moment, half an hour in, at the end of the premise, once Hughes has set up the odd couple pairing of the grey man (Martin literally had white hair) and the klutz (Candy was a master at bumbling), where Hughes tunes us in to his dual tone: first he has Candy annoy the shit out of Martin in their hotel room, and we laugh our asses off in sympathy with Martin as he tries to put up with Candy's shit (including spilling beer on Martin's side of the bed and endlessly clearing his throat), but then Candy responds: "I'm an easy target. I don't like to hurt people's feelings. I like me. My wife likes me." And the 180 degree turn from sympathy with Martin, to sympathy with Candy, is so sudden, and so elegantly engineered, that you feel Hughes has let you in on a great secret of the universe, that everyone has reasons, everyone deserves love.

From this moment on, the movie can't fail. We care about both characters, and experience them as if they were our own friends, both funny, both flawed.

Subsequently, every time Hughes has Candy pull another klutz move, we brace for impact with Martin in the full knowledge that no matter how much they fight, no matter how much we laugh, ultimately we care about both, because all people are worthwhile.

Hughes understood how escalating tension in a movie escalates the potential for laughs. Putting Candy behind a wheel, we know he's gonna mess up, especially when he starts singing along to Ray Charles "Mess Around" lol. But Hughes stalls and stalls and stalls the impending disaster, until we are laughing in anticipation of laughing. And the pay off, when it happens, is equally masterful.

This is a very special movie. Although I didn't know it at the time, this was one of Candy's last movies (he died at 43), one of Hughes' last movies (he retired from directing after Candy passed away), and one of the best ensembles Martin ever worked with, resulting in Martin's most sympathetic screen portrayal, the sarcastic Martin picking up bonus human points from the big-hearted Candy and Hughes.

A heart-warming comedy classic! :)

@httr4life(45)· 2858d

Two legends of comedy made this one of my favorite movies of all-time. I can watch this flick any time of the day or year for that matter. Candy was my favorite on-screen comedian...this movie, and Uncle Buck are his best in my opinion. Good review...by the way that scene with Edie McClurg at the car rental place STILL cracks me up to this very day. 😂😂😂

@raisha1(45)· 2858d

One of my faves! Never gets old! "How would he know where we're going?" LOL! Every time I watch this I also think of Pee Wee Herman hitching a ride from Large Marge! Legendary!

@prince121(61)· 2858d

I like alot of movies. I like alot of funny movies...!!!!!

But this absolutely ranks at the top. this is one of my favorite scenes in any movie ever. and the scene that preceded it, playing Ray Charles on the dash and the stupid hoops on the parka sleeves, and the scenes immediately after - the car fire, the wallet, running the burned up Chrysler into the motel building and burning rubber out of there, hauling ass down the highway singing Blue Moon of Kentucky and the traffic stop...it's just nonstop comedic gold. this is one of the best movies ever made. no doubt about it.!!!!!!!! I give this movie 10 out of 10!!!!!!

@lionsuit(64)· 2858d

The scene where they are on the freeway headed the wrong way is sooo funny. Classic.