When Planes, Trains and Automobiles reached the cinema
John Candy, Steve Martin movie explored the trials of holiday-season travel
All Steve Martin wanted to do was to get home to his family in Chicago for Thanksgiving.
But in the 1987 movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, his businessman character is rerouted to Kansas and forced to bunk with a talkative salesman played by Canadian comedy favourite John Candy.
"But in spite of the headliners this is not a fast and furious comedy," said Tom New, film reviewer for CBC's Midday, a week after it opened in theatres to coincide with the U.S. holiday.
"It's funny in places, but it's much more a leisurely stroll than a madcap footrace."
A John Hughes creation
Planes, Trains and Automobiles was written, produced and directed by John Hughes, who until then had specialized in teen fare like Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
"Teenmeister John Hughes ... has permitted Planes, Trains and Automobiles to be promoted as his first 'adult' feature, but it's actually a re-run of a movie he wrote in 1983, National Lampoon's Vacation," wrote film critic Jay Scott in the Globe and Mail on Nov. 27, 1987.
Scott went on to describe the film as "dreck," an assessment more harsh than New's.
"Planes, Trains and Automobiles seems to lack energy," said New. "Both lead characters, but especially Martin, have been reined in here."
Nevertheless, he said there was enough in the movie — including Candy's "excellent" performance — to "make it worth watching."
"On a scale of one to ten, Planes, Trains and Automobiles rates a six."
