John Candy

Spaceballs: The Movie Review

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Spaceballs
  • IMDb: link

Released 5 years after the conclusion of the original Star Wars trilogy, and long before any glimmer of new Star Wars films ever being made, with Spaceballs writer/director Mel Brooks lampooned the cultural phenomenon along with countless other sci-fi properties including Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, and others. Although Brooks would go on to do other parodies in a similar vein, arguably learning the wrong lesson from the film, Spaceballs marks the end of the director’s better work which peaked far earlier in the early 1970s.

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John Candy: I Like Me

/ / Home Video
  • Title: John Candy: I Like Me
  • IMDb: link

Colin Hanks‘ documentary examines the life of John Candy through friends and family while featuring a number of clips from TV and movie performances, interviews (both archival and new), and home videos of Candy with his family. The film works as a celebration of Candy’s life and work, rather than a more critical delve into the man, while also examining into demons he struggled with before dying of a heart attack at the age of 43.

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Turkey Day Entertainment

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Although not as numerous as Christmas themed programs, there quite a few Thanksgiving specials and movies worth a look. Aside from some NFL football, Thanksgiving always makes me pull out some old favorites to watch.  There are two things I make time to watch every Thanksgiving. The first is a very special episode of WKRP and the second is Home for the Holidays. Here’s a little about them and some other Thanksgiving themed fun you might enjoy.

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Brewster’s Millions

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Brewster’s Millions
  • IMDb: link

Brewster's Millions Blu-ray reviewThe 1985 comedy stars Richard Pryor as a struggling minor league baseball player who comes into a small fortune. However, there is one catch. To earn the entire estate Montgomery Brewster (Pryor) must spend $30 million within 30 days to inherit $300 million. He must not accumulate any assets, and he is also barred from telling anyone the truth about his increasingly odd behavior.

While director Walter Hill‘s film may never be quite as funny as it should be, Brewster’s Millions does deliver some wacky hijinx with Monty’s spending sprees, his interactions with his teammates and best friend (an underutilized John Candy), and the various forces working against him. Lonette McKee also stars as his accountant/love interest.

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Spaceballs (Your Helmet is So Big Edition)

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Spaceballs
  • IMDb: link

Spaceballs (Your Helmet is So Big Edition)Released back in 1987, Mel Brooks‘ Spaceballs lampoons the original Star Wars trilogy (and several other sci-fi movies) in a comedic adventure about a scoundrel (Bill Pullman) in a Winnebago, a space princess (Daphne Zuniga) on the run from both a wedding and an evil empire, and a dark-clad villain with a really big helmet (Rick Moranis) and a plan to steal an entire planet’s oxygen supply.

More than 25 years later Spaceballs may be a bit dated but it still provides plenty of laughs and quotable lines, particularly for Star Wars fans. With a supporting cast including John Candy, George Wyner, Dick Van Patten, Joan Rivers, Brooks in multiple roles as both President Skroob and the Schwartz expert Yogurt, a memorable cameo from John Hurt, Mega Maid (who goes dramatically from suck to blow), a memorable radar technician (Michael Winslow), an entire crew of Assholes, and Pizza the Hutt, Spaceballs fills the screen with an enjoyable assortment of odd characters to keep the comedy rolling.

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