{"id":8598,"date":"2024-11-27T13:42:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8598"},"modified":"2024-11-27T13:42:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:42:39","slug":"wagons-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/27\/wagons-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Wagons East"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Wagons East <\/strong>(1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Comedy-Western\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (off-color humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Markle\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Matthew Carlson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Small\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frank Tidy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 26, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Candy, Richard Lewis, John C. McGinley, Ellen Greene, Robert Picardo, William Sanderson, Melinda Culea, Lochlyn Munro, Joel McKinnon Miller, Abraham Benrubi, Thomas F. Duffy, David Dunard, Marvin McIntire, Tony Pierce, Jill Boyd, Russell Means, Rodney A. Grant, Ed Lauter, Gailard Sartain, Ethan Phillips, Don Lake, Charles Rocket. John Dennis Johnston.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $4.4M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

\u00a0The western-comedy Wagons East<\/strong> would have ridden off into the sunrise, never again to darken the doorways of the moviegoing public\u2019s collective memory, if not for it being John Candy\u2019s final movie. He died of a heart attack while working on the western spoof. Some people think Canadian Bacon was Candy\u2019s last movie but it\u2019s not. In actuality, it was made before but came out after Wagons East<\/strong>. In any event, it\u2019s shame his swan song is such a collection of sour notes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot concerns a group of settlers who\u2019ve had it with life in the Wild West. It\u2019s just too rough for them. They decide the best thing to do is return from whence they came, the East. They hire grizzled, alcoholic wagon master James Harlow (Candy) to lead them. They include an ex-surgeon (Lewis playing his usual neurotic character), a gay bookseller (McGinley, Wall Street), a hooker (Greene, Little Shop of Horrors), a banker tired of being robbed all the time (Picardo, Gremlins 2) and a mail-order bride (Culea, The A-Team) betrothed to a group of brothers who split the cost.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Naturally, the group runs into their share of troubles along the way, most of them the work of a villainous railroad baron (Sartain, Ernest Goes to Camp) who sees their leaving the West as bad for business. He hires a bad guy in a black hat (Lauter, Death Wish 3) to stop them. When that fails, he hires a posse that rides, rides, rides and nothing else. They also encounter Native Americans who agree to escort them through hostile territory because if going east catches on, it means finally ridding themselves of the white man. Then, of course, there\u2019s Harlow\u2019s incompetence. He\u2019s not very good at his job. He gets them lost, of course. Need I continue?<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the plot threads in Wagons East<\/strong> involves a secret about Harlow\u2019s past. One of the wagon train members, a dull-witted sort played by William Sanderson of TV\u2019s Newhart, knows he\u2019s known for something, but can\u2019t remember what. Since it takes more than half the movie for his memory to serve, I\u2019ll jump ahead and tell you that Harlow was the wagon master for the infamous Donner Party. You know, the one that ended in death and cannibalism? This explains why Harlow is a vegetarian.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let me circle back to the black-hatted bad guy played by Lauter for a moment. He\u2019s the Wile E. Coyote of this tale. Every trap he lays for the travelers backfires. Despite being buried in an avalanche of rocks and getting blown up, he keeps getting back up. This is the only amusing part of Wagons East<\/strong> and even then it takes a back seat to Kirk Douglas doing the same schtick to greater effect in 1979\u2019s The Villain.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019d now like to address an issue that appears to be a subject of debate. At least I think it is. I\u2019ve heard some people claim that Candy filmed all of his scenes prior to his death. He did NOT. The fact is Wagons East<\/strong> was in its final days of filming when the actor-comedian died unexpectedly. Special effects and a stand-in, as well as a few script rewrites, were used to complete the film. Now that this is settled, let\u2019s move on to why the movie doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although Candy is the star, he hardly registers as a presence most of the time. He doesn\u2019t get any big scenes or hilarious moments. There are many scenes he\u2019s not in. A lot of Wagons East<\/strong> focuses on the wagon train passengers. When he is on-screen, he\u2019s still not completely there. He\u2019s aloof and disinterested. For a comic star with as big a personality as Candy, this is a bad thing. Now it could be the result of his failing health and if I\u2019m being honest, he looks and sounds exhausted. However, I think the more likely reason is the lazy direction of Peter Markle (Hot Dog… The Movie) who displays a surprising amount of ineptitude here. His movie has no sense of comic timing, pacing, excitement or what is and isn\u2019t funny. It\u2019s as flat as Matthew Carlson\u2019s uninspired screenplay. It contains the usual jokes about flatulence, sex, bestiality, bodily substances and getting hit in the balls, all PG-13 level. There\u2019s a particular gross gag about a urine-filled canteen. Use your imagination.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Wagons East<\/strong> wastes a talented cast that includes Lewis who brings his act to a western setting to zero comic effect. McGinley is reduced to playing a gay stereotype who decides to leave the town of Prosperity after one of its dirty denizens purchases a pristine copy of Pride and Prejudice to use as toilet paper. I\u2019m sure straight people would be appalled by this as well. Ah, screw it! Let\u2019s just say that no cast member emerges from this catastrophic comedy unscathed. It\u2019s a black mark on all of their resumes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Aside from a few silly moments featuring Lauter, Wagons East<\/strong> is unfunny to a heartbreaking level. While Candy\u2019s scenes may have been completed, the same can\u2019t be said of the screenplay. It feels half-written. Remember when I talked about the posse? Permit me to elaborate. The scenes of them riding furiously are intercut with scenes of the wagon train making its way east to St. Louis. At one point, they end up on a beach. Huh? How did that happen? Then we never see or hear about them again. Many of the situations, like the bit with the US Cavalry (dispatched by the railroad baron, of course) that culminates in a fist fight that goes on entirely too long, are contrived.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If Blazing Saddles is the zenith of western-comedies, Wagons East<\/strong> is the nadir. It\u2019s not even as good as Lust in the Dust. It\u2019s not at all surprising TriStar dumped it into theaters at the end of August. It is NOT how I want to remember John Candy. Thank God he left behind a legacy that includes comedy gems like Stripes, Spaceballs, Uncle Buck and my favorite, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. That\u2019s how he should be remembered.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wagons East (1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Comedy-Western\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (off-color humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Markle\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Matthew Carlson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Small\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frank Tidy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 26, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Candy, Richard Lewis, John C. McGinley, Ellen Greene, Robert Picardo, William Sanderson, Melinda Culea, Lochlyn Munro, Joel McKinnon Miller, Abraham Benrubi, Thomas F. Duffy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9388,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-this-sucks-so-bad","category-westerns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Wagons-East-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8598"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9390,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8598\/revisions\/9390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}