John-Candy Movie Reviews

Wait !

STOP - No, it's not an Olivia Newton John video !

It's a bad made for TV movie !

What can I say?

I'm a sucker for movies so bad that they come back around to good again.

This is one of those.

Originally, I watched it on television because it features Alexandra Paul ( of "Baywatch" and "American Flyers" fame ) and I'm a fan, but I must admit that I BOUGHT it because I enjoyed it so much - I just love watching it.

It's about an out of shape ( yeah, first imagine Alexandra Paul, now put her in a bulky sweatshirt, that's what they call out of shape ) woman who finds herself in body building.

There's a whole cooked up story around a competition and her coach/sponsor ( played by Sandahl Bergman, looking very fine, I might add ) but mostly it's just cheesy fun to watch stuff.

It's even a little inspiring.

Good eye candy and if you like Alexandra Paul, you have to see it.

Oh, and for you real Women's Body Building fans, it features Rachel McLish and Lisa Lyons - two greats from the beginning of the sport ( sorry, no Cory Everson ).

Best Regards, turtlex.

This is one for those who appreciate a barefoot lady. The contest scene at the climax of the film has about 40 remarkably attractive female bodybuilders on stage, all in bikinis and barefoot. I just wish I could get on stage and give all those lovely pairs of feet some attention! Please release this on dvd soon!

Kavik is a strong, intrepid championship sled-dog who barely survives a plane crash in Alaska, in which he is taken in by a little boy and is nursed back to health, although the crash tramatized him. Then Kavik's wealthy owner comes to take the dog back to Washington state, marking a heartbreaking departure from his one true friend. But once after being in Washington for a few days, Kavik makes a daring escape out from his owner's house, and makes a journey back to Alaska on his own for thousands of miles; embarking on a test of will and survival -- such a good strong plot on the classic "dog befriends boy" in cinema like "White Fang" and "Big Red". Will Kavik ever reunite with the boy he loves? Will he be able to survive the wilderness? Will he live and be OK? Just one big complaint: the story moves on in a very slow creeky pace -- even more so at the second half, and maybe Kavik should've encontered more dangers in the wild, but maybe that would've made the film too long. The acting is decent. And one would care about Kavik and his human child freind and their relationship. So it's much perfect veiwing for kids and adults. And, hey, the late John Candy has a cameo here as a gas attendant.

This movie is about a boy who finds a dog from a plane crash and nurses him back to health, but he is an expensive sled dog and his owner claims him back, good ending.Great movie for dog lovers!!!!

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION is one of the funniest and best road trip movie's of all times. The film stars Chevy Chase (back when he used to make good movies) as Clark Griswold, a family man whose plans and dreams always seem to turn into nightmares. Clark has always wanted to take his family on a cross country trip and it finally happens. However, along the way everything that could go wrong does: from getting lost in East St. Louis, Illinois; to getting stuck driving an irate aunt (Imogene Coca) back to her home; to misplacing a family pet; to having their money stolen by some very slick (as in oil) car repairmen; to causing an incident at an American amusement institution. The film pokes fun at all sorts of ideals about the perfect vacation. For example, Wally World is a great parody of Walt Disney Land, the owner's name is Roy Wally (Roy Disney was in charge of Disney at the time the movie was made) and he looks a lot like Roy Disney. The movie also illustrates exactly what not to do on a family vacation. The film was directed by Harold Ramis and was written by John Hughes, both who went on to become huge mammoths of 1980's film. The does contain some nudity and foul language and because it was made in the pre-PG13 days has a R rating, though most of what is seen and heard is tame by today's PG-13 standards.

The DVD of the film isn't in wide screen and the sound isn't as good as it could be. The only extras are some production and cast notes and the usual trailer.

Over all it's a great comedy and the best of all the National Lampoon Vacation movies.

This is the greatest comedy movie in the vacation series behind Christmas Vacation(the funniest). Also some of the best acting Chase and D'Angelo have done.

Basically, Clark(Chevy Chase) plays a family man who wants to take his family to Walley World, America's Favorite Fun Park. Ellen(Beverly D'Angelo) is Clark's sassy wife, and Rusty(Micheal King) and Audrey are their two kids. As always in the Vacation Series, everything goes wrong.

First Clark's car gets crushed by an idiot at the car place. Then on their way through Chicago they get lost and end up in the ghuetto part of town where Clark pays $10 for nothing, and then falls asleep at the wheel and crashes into the motel parking lot. He then does a funny impresion of Alfred Hitchcock's Phsyco by grabbing a banana and heading towards the shower while Ellen's in it, then whips open the curtains and does a knife motion at her with the banana.

They then continue their vacation, and Clark flirts with a notorius blonde chick(Christine Brinkley).

Some other highlites of the movie are when Aunt Edna dies, when Clark has an outburst while driving, and when they get to walley World and it's closed.

All in all, this is a great comedy movie! Rated "R"- Nudity and Explicit Language

You ever fill out one of those questionnaires that ask "if you could have only 5 movies, which ones would you pick"? Well, this one is on my list. I can't even tell you how many times I've seen this movie. Even though I own it on DVD, when it aires on television, I still have to watch it. Chevy Chase it at his finest, reminding me of my dear 'ol Dad himself on vacation. Some may say that the humor is a little farfetched and over-the-top, but for me, that's what makes this the hysterical blockbuster that it is!

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION is one of the funniest and best road trip movie's of all times. The film stars Chevy Chase (back when he used to make good movies) as Clark Griswold, a family man whose plans and dreams always seem to turn into nightmares. Clark has always wanted to take his family on a cross country trip and it finally happens. However, along the way everything that could go wrong does: from getting lost in East St. Louis, Illinois; to getting stuck driving an irate aunt (Imogene Coca) back to her home; to misplacing a family pet; to having their money stolen by some very slick (as in oil) car repairmen; to causing an incident at an American amusement institution. The film pokes fun at all sorts of ideals about the perfect vacation. For example, Wally World is a great parody of Walt Disney Land, the owner's name is Roy Wally (Roy Disney was in charge of Disney at the time the movie was made) and he looks a lot like Roy Disney. The movie also illustrates exactly what not to do on a family vacation. The film was directed by Harold Ramis and was written by John Hughes, both who went on to become huge mammoths of 1980's film. The does contain some nudity and foul language and because it was made in the pre-PG13 days has a R rating, though most of what is seen and heard is tame by today's PG-13 standards.

The DVD of the film isn't in wide screen and the sound isn't as good as it could be. The only extras are some production and cast notes and the usual trailer.

Over all it's a great comedy and the best of all the National Lampoon Vacation movies.

This is the greatest comedy movie in the vacation series behind Christmas Vacation(the funniest). Also some of the best acting Chase and D'Angelo have done.

Basically, Clark(Chevy Chase) plays a family man who wants to take his family to Walley World, America's Favorite Fun Park. Ellen(Beverly D'Angelo) is Clark's sassy wife, and Rusty(Micheal King) and Audrey are their two kids. As always in the Vacation Series, everything goes wrong.

First Clark's car gets crushed by an idiot at the car place. Then on their way through Chicago they get lost and end up in the ghuetto part of town where Clark pays $10 for nothing, and then falls asleep at the wheel and crashes into the motel parking lot. He then does a funny impresion of Alfred Hitchcock's Phsyco by grabbing a banana and heading towards the shower while Ellen's in it, then whips open the curtains and does a knife motion at her with the banana.

They then continue their vacation, and Clark flirts with a notorius blonde chick(Christine Brinkley).

Some other highlites of the movie are when Aunt Edna dies, when Clark has an outburst while driving, and when they get to walley World and it's closed.

All in all, this is a great comedy movie! Rated "R"- Nudity and Explicit Language

You ever fill out one of those questionnaires that ask "if you could have only 5 movies, which ones would you pick"? Well, this one is on my list. I can't even tell you how many times I've seen this movie. Even though I own it on DVD, when it aires on television, I still have to watch it. Chevy Chase it at his finest, reminding me of my dear 'ol Dad himself on vacation. Some may say that the humor is a little farfetched and over-the-top, but for me, that's what makes this the hysterical blockbuster that it is!

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION is one of the funniest and best road trip movie's of all times. The film stars Chevy Chase (back when he used to make good movies) as Clark Griswold, a family man whose plans and dreams always seem to turn into nightmares. Clark has always wanted to take his family on a cross country trip and it finally happens. However, along the way everything that could go wrong does: from getting lost in East St. Louis, Illinois; to getting stuck driving an irate aunt (Imogene Coca) back to her home; to misplacing a family pet; to having their money stolen by some very slick (as in oil) car repairmen; to causing an incident at an American amusement institution. The film pokes fun at all sorts of ideals about the perfect vacation. For example, Wally World is a great parody of Walt Disney Land, the owner's name is Roy Wally (Roy Disney was in charge of Disney at the time the movie was made) and he looks a lot like Roy Disney. The movie also illustrates exactly what not to do on a family vacation. The film was directed by Harold Ramis and was written by John Hughes, both who went on to become huge mammoths of 1980's film. The does contain some nudity and foul language and because it was made in the pre-PG13 days has a R rating, though most of what is seen and heard is tame by today's PG-13 standards.

The DVD of the film isn't in wide screen and the sound isn't as good as it could be. The only extras are some production and cast notes and the usual trailer.

Over all it's a great comedy and the best of all the National Lampoon Vacation movies.

This is the greatest comedy movie in the vacation series behind Christmas Vacation(the funniest). Also some of the best acting Chase and D'Angelo have done.

Basically, Clark(Chevy Chase) plays a family man who wants to take his family to Walley World, America's Favorite Fun Park. Ellen(Beverly D'Angelo) is Clark's sassy wife, and Rusty(Micheal King) and Audrey are their two kids. As always in the Vacation Series, everything goes wrong.

First Clark's car gets crushed by an idiot at the car place. Then on their way through Chicago they get lost and end up in the ghuetto part of town where Clark pays $10 for nothing, and then falls asleep at the wheel and crashes into the motel parking lot. He then does a funny impresion of Alfred Hitchcock's Phsyco by grabbing a banana and heading towards the shower while Ellen's in it, then whips open the curtains and does a knife motion at her with the banana.

They then continue their vacation, and Clark flirts with a notorius blonde chick(Christine Brinkley).

Some other highlites of the movie are when Aunt Edna dies, when Clark has an outburst while driving, and when they get to walley World and it's closed.

All in all, this is a great comedy movie! Rated "R"- Nudity and Explicit Language

You ever fill out one of those questionnaires that ask "if you could have only 5 movies, which ones would you pick"? Well, this one is on my list. I can't even tell you how many times I've seen this movie. Even though I own it on DVD, when it aires on television, I still have to watch it. Chevy Chase it at his finest, reminding me of my dear 'ol Dad himself on vacation. Some may say that the humor is a little farfetched and over-the-top, but for me, that's what makes this the hysterical blockbuster that it is!

i loved this movie. everyone will like this movie. it's awesome.

I can't believe the number of negative reviews this movie has gotten! I bet these people don't like James Bond movies, either.

To fully appreciate Heavy Metal, one has to understand the era it came out in. At the time, most animation, at least what was seen in the US, was frequently of the "family entertainment" variety seen in Saturday morning cartoons and TV commercials. Apart from Ralph Bakshi, most animators were basically shackled by the need to present something that was "rated G". Heavy Metal took the exact opposite route. It was a liberating experience for the animators working on the film to be allowed to draw things they usually weren't allowed. And they got paid to do it, too!

After the opening Soft Landing sequence, we're introduced to the Loc-Nar, a glowing green orb responsible for all the evil that has plagued the universe (or at least, that which has plagued the human race). The various stories contained in the film are told by the Loc-Nar to a young girl, as examples of it's awesome power.

The stories include the film noir homage Harry Canyon, the male "wish fulfillment fantasy" of Den (which demonstrates the versatility of the late John Candy, who voices both Dan, the science nerd who gets transported into an alternate dimension by the Loc-Nar, as well as Den, the Conan/He-Man-esque beefcake that he is magically transformed into), the highly amusing Captain Sternn (trivia: the voice of the prosecutor is done by John Vernon, the actor who portrayed Dean Wormer in Animal House), the EC-esque B-17 (aka Gremlins, which went through so many script revisions, it's a miracle it got finished at all), the bizarrely hilarious So Beautiful And So Dangerous (ok, maybe there's some truth to the juvenilia charges during this segment, but only a corpse could keep from laughing at this piece), and revenge scenario of Taarna (imagine a tougher, sexier version of Xena, only about a decade and a half earlier).

While there IS some element of juvenilia here, it's no worse than any other movie that's been released by any major studio during the last 25 years. In fact, I bet it's a little more cerebral than most of those other movies. Harry Canyon is a rather crafted film noir homage, while some elements of Taarna are clearly patterned on Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. And while there are a couple sex scenes and a certain amount of excessive violince in Heavy Metal, again, it's nothing compared to some of the garbage that's shown on cable TV these days. I'd certainly rather watch this than Basic Instinct or No Way Out.

This movie is a classic piece of animation. Yeah, some of it's rough around the edges, but that has a lot to do with Columbia's decision to move up the deadline so they could have the original movie out in time for the summer 81 season. One has to consider the scope of the undertaking, and the relatively short time that was at hand to create it.

Look at the "travelling sequence" during Taarna, where she's shown riding her mount (a sort of large bird creature) over a rolling landscape, and consider that it was done WITHOUT the use of any kind of computer generated work. It's explained in the audio commentary on the rough cut of the film, as well as during the documentary how it was done, and why it didn't quite turn out as planned). No one had ever done anything like that, and it had to all be done by hand.

Really, you can't take this movie too seriously. It's a movie that exists soley to entertain. There's no big message or point to the movie. Just put the DVD in the player, turn out the lights, turn up the volume LOUD, and just enjoy the trip.

It should be noted, that this disc also contains some of the best bonus features I've seen on any DVD. Besides the regular movie, you get a full length "rough cut" of the film, consisting of storyboards, pencil tests, and some completed animation. The only audio for this rough cut (besides the optional audio commentary, by Carl Macek, who also does a completely different commentary for the finished movie) is the dialog. There's long stretches of silence, but it's worth watching, as there's lots of bits of dialog that were cut from the final movie (we learn, for instance, that Katharine, like Den, was also transformed when she was transported to this mysterious alternate universe). It's also interesting to note that the stories weren't always in the order that they were in the final movie.

There's also a half hour documentary with interviews from many of the filmmakers involved in making the film. We finally find out why we see a model of a house blowing up at the end (because they didn't have time to finish the animation for that one bit), and also why Cornelius Cole's Neverwhere Land was cut from the movie (either for reasons of length/continuity, or because Cole didn't finish it in time, depending on exactly which version of the story you wish to believe.

You also get a few minutes of deleted scenes, most notably the above mentioned Neverwhere Land, which was originally supposed to link Captain Sternn and B-17. There's also a few minutes that surround an early version of the framing story (in whence the Loc-Nar was actually the power source of a magical merry-go-round, and the various objects on the merry-go-round related in one way to the stories...ie, there's a taxicab, Taarna's mount, etc...each time the girl takes a ride in a different vehicle on the merry-go-round, she experiences a different story).

And finally, you get all Heavy Metal covers up through 1999, plus various bits of production drawings, cels, etc.

In short, this is a classic film that should be viewed by all fans of animation and/or heavy flicks. Prudes and conservatives who get cranky at the very thought of a movie being ruined by a little too much flesh or blood (and really, there isn't THAT much of either in this film) or a little warped humor (ok, there's PLENTY of that here) are advised to keep away. I just wish they had restored Neverwhere Land to it's original place between Captain Sternn and B-17.

Growing up in the 70's and early 80's, I loved what this animated classic had to offer. Music from all of my favorite bands and good stories straight from Heavy Metal magazine. Or course, the animations are dated compared to todays standards, but the actual stories more than make up for it. The final story was the best with the great soundtrack and all.

This classic is for fans of the 70's and 80's generation and truly enjoyed the music from those days. Fans of Heavy Metal magazine will defintely love this also. Today's snobbish teenies need not apply!!

"Catch Me If You Can" is the story of real-life con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr. who, in the late 1960's and early 1970's, when he was between the ages of 16 and 21, wrote $2.5 million dollars in bad checks and became one of the most notorious con men in American history. The film follows Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) from his early high school pranks to his check-printing operation and eventual capture in France five years later. FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) doggedly pursues Frank as he successfully impersonates an air line pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer, living the life of a playboy and cashing ingeniously forged checks all along the way.

"Catch Me If You Can" was directed by Stephen Spielberg and, along with Minority Report, signifies a revival of Spielberg's directing talent after fifteen years of mediocre-at-best filmmaking. This film is fairly light fare, but it is immensely entertaining, funny, touching, and impeccably cast. Frank Abagnale, Jr. is a perfect fit for Leonardo DiCaprio, and is probably his best role since "What's Eating Gilbert Grape". Tom Hanks seems to have abandoned his typically saccharine roles this year -much to his credit- and puts in a wonderful performance as sympathetic geeky G-man Carl Hanratty (along with a terrific showing in "Road to Perdition"). Christopher Walken was the only actor to receive an Oscar nomination for "Catch Me If You Can". His performance as Frank Abagnale, Sr., our protagonist's down-and-out father, deserved the honor. Frank Jr.'s awkward combination of admiration and pity for his father seems to have been a key motivator in his illustrious life of crime, and Christopher Walken really helps us understand that.

The real Frank Abagnale, Jr. is a successful security consultant these days, protecting businesses from white collar crime. He cooperated with and bascially likes the film, but is quick to point out that "Catch Me If You Can" is based on his biography of the same name that was written about 25 years ago. Mr. Abagnale says that some aspects of his experiences were exaggerated in that book and some have been altered for the movie as well. Whatever the inaccuracies, Frank Abagnale, Jr.'s immense intelligence, ambition, and guts are the most striking elements of the film. It's the rarity of finding all of these qualities in such abundance in one person that make Frank's character so fascinating, and make him one of cinema's most lovable antiheroes.

I highly recommend "Catch Me If You Can" for its great performances and its extremely entertaining story of an ingenious con man and his noble pursuer...made all the more interesting because the story is largely true.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, the latest opus so far from the cinema's greatest living director Steven Spielberg, is a highly inventive crime caper movie based on real life.

Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Frank Abagnale, a kid from Long Island who ran away from a broken home and worked his way to riches by impersonating everyone from airline pilots to doctors to lawyers and forging checks to the tune of $4 million during a three-year spree in the 1960s. Tom Hanks, reliable as always, portrays Carl Hanratty, the FBI man hot on his trail from coast to coast who eventually tracks him down in France. The process by which DiCaprio is able to manage not only to forge checks but also his own identity is done with considerable wit and humor; and the cat-and-mouse game between him and Hanks closely resembles Hitchcock at his prime.

Spielberg obviously identified with Abagnale and his saga, since the director himself told some pretty tall tails in his youth to break into Hollywood, including lying about his age. As a result, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, like a lot of Spielberg's work, has a deep personal resonance to it. But Spielberg also devotes time to Hanks' FBI agent's dilligence in pursuing the elusive Abagnale. The film's witty title sequence, made to look like the film itself was actually made in the early 1960s, and John Williams' jazzy score (in the manner of Henry Mancini's great film scores from the 60s), prove to be the icing on the cake.

Long and deliberately paced but never dull, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is one of the best films of 2002, and yet another great movie in the Spielberg canon.

I have only seen this movie once, but I loved it! It had me laughing, crying, and cringing. The actors Leo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks are superb, with a very Hunter/Hunted feel. I would love to see this movie again, having read the book, which was majorly different. Highly recommended, a movie covering all bases.

"Catch Me If You Can" is the story of real-life con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr. who, in the late 1960's and early 1970's, when he was between the ages of 16 and 21, wrote $2.5 million dollars in bad checks and became one of the most notorious con men in American history. The film follows Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) from his early high school pranks to his check-printing operation and eventual capture in France five years later. FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) doggedly pursues Frank as he successfully impersonates an air line pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer, living the life of a playboy and cashing ingeniously forged checks all along the way.

"Catch Me If You Can" was directed by Stephen Spielberg and, along with Minority Report, signifies a revival of Spielberg's directing talent after fifteen years of mediocre-at-best filmmaking. This film is fairly light fare, but it is immensely entertaining, funny, touching, and impeccably cast. Frank Abagnale, Jr. is a perfect fit for Leonardo DiCaprio, and is probably his best role since "What's Eating Gilbert Grape". Tom Hanks seems to have abandoned his typically saccharine roles this year -much to his credit- and puts in a wonderful performance as sympathetic geeky G-man Carl Hanratty (along with a terrific showing in "Road to Perdition"). Christopher Walken was the only actor to receive an Oscar nomination for "Catch Me If You Can". His performance as Frank Abagnale, Sr., our protagonist's down-and-out father, deserved the honor. Frank Jr.'s awkward combination of admiration and pity for his father seems to have been a key motivator in his illustrious life of crime, and Christopher Walken really helps us understand that.

The real Frank Abagnale, Jr. is a successful security consultant these days, protecting businesses from white collar crime. He cooperated with and bascially likes the film, but is quick to point out that "Catch Me If You Can" is based on his biography of the same name that was written about 25 years ago. Mr. Abagnale says that some aspects of his experiences were exaggerated in that book and some have been altered for the movie as well. Whatever the inaccuracies, Frank Abagnale, Jr.'s immense intelligence, ambition, and guts are the most striking elements of the film. It's the rarity of finding all of these qualities in such abundance in one person that make Frank's character so fascinating, and make him one of cinema's most lovable antiheroes.

I highly recommend "Catch Me If You Can" for its great performances and its extremely entertaining story of an ingenious con man and his noble pursuer...made all the more interesting because the story is largely true.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, the latest opus so far from the cinema's greatest living director Steven Spielberg, is a highly inventive crime caper movie based on real life.

Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Frank Abagnale, a kid from Long Island who ran away from a broken home and worked his way to riches by impersonating everyone from airline pilots to doctors to lawyers and forging checks to the tune of $4 million during a three-year spree in the 1960s. Tom Hanks, reliable as always, portrays Carl Hanratty, the FBI man hot on his trail from coast to coast who eventually tracks him down in France. The process by which DiCaprio is able to manage not only to forge checks but also his own identity is done with considerable wit and humor; and the cat-and-mouse game between him and Hanks closely resembles Hitchcock at his prime.

Spielberg obviously identified with Abagnale and his saga, since the director himself told some pretty tall tails in his youth to break into Hollywood, including lying about his age. As a result, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, like a lot of Spielberg's work, has a deep personal resonance to it. But Spielberg also devotes time to Hanks' FBI agent's dilligence in pursuing the elusive Abagnale. The film's witty title sequence, made to look like the film itself was actually made in the early 1960s, and John Williams' jazzy score (in the manner of Henry Mancini's great film scores from the 60s), prove to be the icing on the cake.

Long and deliberately paced but never dull, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is one of the best films of 2002, and yet another great movie in the Spielberg canon.

I have only seen this movie once, but I loved it! It had me laughing, crying, and cringing. The actors Leo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks are superb, with a very Hunter/Hunted feel. I would love to see this movie again, having read the book, which was majorly different. Highly recommended, a movie covering all bases.

Maybe I live too close to the Canadian border, but I thought this was an incisive and hilarious look at the end of the cold war and our relations with our forgotten neighbor to the north. John Candy is perfect in his role as a jingoistic sheriff determined to save us from the Canadian menace. Kevin Pollak is Kevin Pollak, but he does it well. This was the first film in which Alan Alda redeemed himself to me ("Flirting with Disaster" was the second). I find most of Michael Moore's stuff too precious and uncomplicated, but in going to fiction, he's able to show that there are multiple sides to a complicated story like the end of the arms race, and he pokes tremendous fun at our complete unfamiliarity with Canada.

Ah, the Cold War. As we stare wistfully back at that half-century of empty threats and balks from the Soviet Union that let our nation prosper so, employing so many Americans, singlehandedly defeating the looming specter of poverty through the massive peacetime military buildup that was our citizens' collective meal ticket, we can't help but worry about how we'll fare economically now that we've been forced into autonomy from the federal government...And so begins "Canadian Bacon", Michael Moore's 1994 fictitous laff riot. It's an amazingly astute and hilarious look at how beneficial cold wars really are to a country; and Moore doesn't let up in his continuing crusade against the downsizing enigma, setting the movie in Niagra Falls, New York, a city ravaged by unemployment, suicides, and crime, due to the closing of (you guessed it) a cold war arms plant. The American characters, John Candy in paticuliar, are all perfect, and the Candian mounties had me rolling on the floor. Michael Moore's first foray into fiction is utterly flawless.

For those who thought that Wag the Dog was a landmark in understanding the propaganda machinery. This came before and offers a thoughtful look at the makings of a war.

Maybe I live too close to the Canadian border, but I thought this was an incisive and hilarious look at the end of the cold war and our relations with our forgotten neighbor to the north. John Candy is perfect in his role as a jingoistic sheriff determined to save us from the Canadian menace. Kevin Pollak is Kevin Pollak, but he does it well. This was the first film in which Alan Alda redeemed himself to me ("Flirting with Disaster" was the second). I find most of Michael Moore's stuff too precious and uncomplicated, but in going to fiction, he's able to show that there are multiple sides to a complicated story like the end of the arms race, and he pokes tremendous fun at our complete unfamiliarity with Canada.

Ah, the Cold War. As we stare wistfully back at that half-century of empty threats and balks from the Soviet Union that let our nation prosper so, employing so many Americans, singlehandedly defeating the looming specter of poverty through the massive peacetime military buildup that was our citizens' collective meal ticket, we can't help but worry about how we'll fare economically now that we've been forced into autonomy from the federal government...And so begins "Canadian Bacon", Michael Moore's 1994 fictitous laff riot. It's an amazingly astute and hilarious look at how beneficial cold wars really are to a country; and Moore doesn't let up in his continuing crusade against the downsizing enigma, setting the movie in Niagra Falls, New York, a city ravaged by unemployment, suicides, and crime, due to the closing of (you guessed it) a cold war arms plant. The American characters, John Candy in paticuliar, are all perfect, and the Candian mounties had me rolling on the floor. Michael Moore's first foray into fiction is utterly flawless.

For those who thought that Wag the Dog was a landmark in understanding the propaganda machinery. This came before and offers a thoughtful look at the makings of a war.