BEFORE: From Chris Farley's next-to-last film to John Candy's next-to-last film. And the theme of pioneers continues, though this one puts another twist on it. Linking from "Almost Heroes", character actor Don Lake carries over and appears tonight as well.
THE PLOT: In the 1860's, a ragged bunch of misfit settlers hire a grizzled cowboy to take them on a journey back East.
AFTER: This has a slightly better concept than last night's film - if you believe that the Wild West was a tough place, you've got to figure that there must have been people who couldn't make it work. So a wagon train headed east should be a vehicle for high comedy. (Emphasis on "should")
Unfortunately, the result is more slapstick - nut-shots, punch-outs and people falling off horses - and more low comedy. There are a few attempts at "Airplane"-style wordplay, but they don't really work very well. If anything, this film might have taken itself too seriously, because it pales by comparison to "Blazing Saddles", a film that didn't take itself seriously at all, and worked with many of the same elements. Sometimes, tone is everything.
There are a couple of glimmers of inspiration here - the gay librarian-turned-gunslinger was a very interesting character, but he's mostly under-utilized. The neurotic frontier doctor also showed some promise, but also came off like a poor man's Woody Allen. And John Candy's wagonmaster - I felt that maybe Candy himself didn't know what to do with the character, since he didn't show the same depth as Candy's characters in films like "Only the Lonely" or even "Uncle Buck".
I feel like I'm sort of at a low point, these are definitely the type of films that I would expect to have left on the list after almost four full years of working through my collection. But I'm hoping that some real classic films will perk up the World Tour and help me end the year on more of a high note.
Also starring Richard Lewis, Ellen Greene (last seen in "Talk Radio"), Robert Picardo (last heard in "Total Recall"), John C. McGinley (last seen in "Nixon"), Ethan Phillips (last heard in "The Wild Thornberrys Movie"), Ed Lauter, Charles Rocket (last seen in "Dumb & Dumber").
RATING: 3 out of 10 Fergusons
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