Wagons East (1994): Dir: Peter Markle / Cast: John Candy, Richard Lewis, Ellen Greene, John C. McGinley, Russell Means: Final film for Canadian comedian John Candy who sadly passed away as the production of this film was grinding to a halt. It is a comedy about misguidance with John Candy as wagon master James Harlow who is chosen to lead a group of settlers east. Some gossip surfaces regarding his leading the Donnar Party, which strikes fear into the civilians but he wishes to correct his mistake. Vulgar humour including a scene where someone drinks a canteen full of urine. Dreary plot deteriorates into a series of predictable mishaps. Director Peter Markle does his best to satire the western genre but Harlow is the only character given any depth. As his final film appearance Candy gives it his best despite the pitiful fist fight finale. The rest of the cast play off stereotypes. Richard Lewis plays a cattle owner and a cardboard second to Candy. Ellen Greene plays a female who hints innuendo with Harlow. With that said she is basically a romantic prop who only adds a predictable subplot that nobody cares about. There is even failed references to Looney Tunes violence but unfortunately we are not lucky enough to have a large rock land on this film. It is unfortunate that Candy's final film was this horrible with ambitions of cheap humour and stupidity. Score: 3 ½ / 10

John Candy is on record as saying he feared something bad was going to happen if he went to Mexico to make this film. Well, two bad things happened. John Candy died, and this film was made. How's that for bad karma? Wagons East is a stupendously bad film on just about every level. A scarce chuckle or two in almost two hours is about all you can expect. Only a few scenes with Candy are rewarding, mostly because they will remind you of how funny he had been in the past. With this film, we see perhaps an interesting idea for an SNL sketch stretched into an insufferably long film. We see some decent character actors wasted, while the wrong ones get most of the screen time. And worse than anything, we see a John Candy that is painful to watch. He was heavier than ever, and just looks like he'd rather be any place else. How in the world did they find a horse strong enough to carry him?The story deals with a handful of people ready to give up on life in the old west and start a wagon train heading back to St. Louis where they can give city life another try. There are a couple of cute early gags involving the oft-robbed town banker and a gay bookstore proprietor selling a cowboy a copy of Pride and Prejudice so he can use it for toilet paper. These are interesting observations, but again they cannot be the basis for a feature length film. Once the train gets rolling east, what little laugh well we had dries up rather quickly. How long did they milk the Donner Party angle? This might have been good as a throw-away gag later in the film, but the fact that Candy's character was their wagon master too is brought up again and again and again. Any of the half-dozen subplots involving people on this journey could have been cut and actually would have improved the picture. We just don't care about these people. What has Richard Lewis ever done to be the star of a theoretically mainstream comedy? The guy isn't funny. At all. Never was. Too bad the last film Candy ever did turned out this bad. Its doubtful that Canadian Bacon would be much better, so I just won't even watch that one. 3 of 10 stars.The Hound.

OK. First of all, I liked very much. It is a revelation the character of John C. McGinley as "Julian" but the leads portrayed by Richard Lewis and Robert Picardo were pretty much hilarious and John Candy himself brings warm presence to the screen. Maybe I totally support this film because was filmed on location of my land: Durango, Mexico, but I can say that I enjoyed the film and I laughed a lot while I was first watching it, because that time in the same day I also watched Cable Guy(1994) and I was disappointed of this film. But when I saw Wagon's East(1994), I was transported to the far west, with a fantastic idea behind it: What happens if some West residents decide to go back to the East? But in a comedy tone and really good acting, a good ensemble of performers, and a good story.

My wife and I actually quite enjoyed this movie. It was by no means John Candy's best but it was certainly better than we expected. Perhaps that's why I disagree with what most critics say.Perhaps I love it for sentimental reasons knowing that Candy died just before the movie was completed. Nonetheless we had a good laugh and I do recommend this as a good pop corn movie.The main premise of the movie is that there are a group of individuals in a small western town that have had it with "The Code" of the west. They hire a drunken guide (Candy) to take them back east and thus starts the comedy of errors as they go against the grain.Admittedly the acting is only fair at best, but then again most of these characters are comedians do a pretty good job of playing off each other.