Planes, Trains & Automobiles

A very enjoyable comedy with a very good Steve Martin/John Candy duo. A few scenes are really great and hilariously funny (especially the march from the rental shop through the airport and what follows, and then the nighttime car ride), but some I found a little weak and a little, really just a little rife with awkwardness. However, the ending moved me, even though I had been preparing for it! (26/01/2020)

The movie absolutely captivated me with its fantastic John Candy, who initially appears to be just annoying but eventually proves that his character is much more interesting. In contrast, Steve Martin shows that he simply isn't as good an actor and just doesn't have what it takes to carry the film, even though he is the main character. (23/12/2016)

John Hughes's first “adult” comedy (without teenagers) is outwardly full of goofy slapstick humour, but inside it can be surprisingly sensitive and moving for even the most hardened cynics. When grumpy morose Neal (Steve Martin) tries to get home to Chicago from New York for Thanksgiving, he's stuck with pushy, carefree Del (John Candy), whose zest for life drives him crazy. What's more, their journey together is a fierce demonstration of Murphy's Law in action. Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Hughes throws sticks at both characters' feet in an ingeniously relentless and unpredictable manner, resulting in a string of comically absurd yet believable situations. More important than the humour are the characters, who underneath all the wacky antics undergo significant development and with whom we can easily sympathise. This is something Hughes has always been good at, and something that doesn't appear much in comedies today (with a few exceptions). (25/12/2018)