RIP Richard Lewis Eugene decided to dust off this much-hated flick in light of the passing of comedian and actor Richard Lewis, who co-stars in the film. And it went much better than expected!
Everyone played their parts well. Perfectly. Wonderful cast. Cute idea too. But (and I was an excited kid at the time) the writing was bad. It was an appendage of Mel Brooks comedy which aged poorly overall minus Young Frankenstein and maybe Blazing Saddles. Not for anything controversial, but just because it was slow and based on dated jokes. Trust me I go back to his old stuff and it doesnt work anymore. Even Men in Tights didnt age badly because of a few black stereotypes, it's just SLOW and irrelevant and I'm a sucker for old nostalgic stuff. But ok, is it a ZERO? Of course not. But man, it was a place where a lot of old comedy went to die. I'm glad Lewis was able to keep working in Curb, he's funny...but Wagons East wasn't and it hurts me most to know John Candy died making that movie after his legacy of brilliant films. Candy's roll basically felt like a background cameo person (which he had a lot of in the past and did very well) but pushed to a lead where his character and humor was stretched wayyyy too thin. Alright. Apologies. Overall I agree with you and I appreciate that you bring this old film up cause it did have a great cast to look back on and and admire :)
Watched this movie years ago and didn't care for it, but definitely not a zero. I notice that's the critic score though. To me the beauty of the internet, and specifically a website like Rotten Tomatoes, is that it allows me to see what audiences think. Why should I care what the "experts" think about a movie? Especially a comedy that isn't supposed to possess some kind of artistic or symbolic merit. I don't need anyone to interpret Wagons East for me. I need to know if people think it's funny. I'd say the 32% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes sounds about right based on what I remember.
I completely agree with you. Even though I made a video about it, it’s no masterpiece! Just simply saying that it doesn’t deserve the hate that it’s gotten. I wouldn’t even give it a Fresh rating, and I think 32% is about right! But certainly not a 0%. Thanks for watching and commenting!
It's better than Last Jedi... which just proves that Rotten Tomatoes is meaningless. The Donner Party revelation followed by the bbq in the snow really got me rolling. The tone is like a live action Itchy and Scratchy almost. Deaths, some rather shocking, grisly, but almost always offscreen deaths are treated so casually that it's probably the weirdest aspect. Slade's scenes are definitely always straight out of Looney Toons. But man, there's some surprise lines and moments that caught me off guard while a lot of others you can see coming a mile away. But just the sheer, baffling mixture of styles of humor is bound to get a laugh at some point. I think the circumstances around the movie was why it was tanked and panned. It's also politically incorrect af which always pisses off them critic types. Good. A bad RT score is almost a badge of honor and a 98% is a red flag for elitist pandering trash.
