Wagons East! (1994)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Jerry Abrahamson and Matthew Carlson
Directed by Peter Markle
Starring John Candy, Richard Lewis, Ellen Greene, John C. McGinley, Ed Lauter, and Gailard Sartain

Anamorphic: Nope; presented in dynamic full-screen
My Advice: Skip it

Some of the citizens of Prosperity are really not happy with their new digs in the Old West. They are really longing to be back in the heart of the culture...in other words, back east. So, they find the one man who is qualified to lead them back home: James H. Harlow (Candy). All would be swell if it weren't for the fact that the Railroad Tycoons stand to lose a great deal of money if the government gets the idea that people are not staying in the West. So, J. P. Moreland (Sartain) hires a bandit to make sure these people get scared enough to head West...again.

Well, this movie was seriously lacking in the funny. It could have been and should have been, but it just didn't move fast enough to be a really good comedy. It rides the line between being a slapstick and a cerebral comedy, but it doesn't excel at either, really. Candy's role doesn't lend itself to his style of humor that made him famous in the 80s and early 90s. Lewis' character is just the same character he always plays; the whiny wimp of a man that seems to enjoy complaining more than he does trying to solve whatever he happens to be whining about...and I just find that annoying. The actors who really stand out in this movie are the ones that you would think would disappear into the background. John C. McGinley's stereotypically gay librarian is just hilarious, and not because he is making fun of homosexuals, mind you. He is so committed to his character that it's the situations he is placed in that makes his character worthwhile. Ellen Greene's town whore is a played with a simple comedic style and she almost makes it seem easy (no pun intended).

This DVD is an utter disappointment. Here we have the final film of one of the great comedic actors of our time and there is not one dedication or tribute to him on this DVD whatsoever. Candy passed away while filming this movie and they had to rewrite his final scenes, but there is nothing on this DVD about that at all. I should think there should be some kind of biographical documentary about Candy on this DVD as well as interviews with some of the other actors that were involved in making this film with him. Perhaps some interviews with his closest friends would have been nice, too. Instead there is not one scrap of bonus material on this DVD. In fact, if you look at the main menu of the DVD, your only choices are to play the movie and to go to the scene selections sub-menu. I'd settle for some text-on-screen stuff, but no. It's not even widescreen, for pity's sake!

So, pass on this one. The movie itself is not strong enough to be on a rental list and, since there are no special features on the disc, my suggestion is to wait for a DVD presentation that can help to remember and help celebrate the life and death of John Candy. Or hell, a better movie to do the same would work, too.