Five minutes is too long a wait, even with the red hair. Draisen, who–SPOILER ALERT–is behind the kidnapping, points him toward Detective Harry Crumb, at which point we finally get to see the inexplicably red-headed John Candy. Downing (played by the always reliable Barry Corbin). The scene ends with some chloroforming and a kidnapping (always hilarious) before we cut to the offices of Crumb & Crumb, where Eliot Draisen (Jeffrey Jones, best known as Ed Rooney from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” or for being a sex offender) is meeting with the kidnapped girl’s father, P.J. And if you think that sounds like a bad start for a funny movie, well, you’d be right on the money. “Who’s Harry Crumb?’ starts off oddly, with a prolonged pseudo-striptease, followed by mud application, in a weird Kubrickian-looking spa. Let’s see if I can fight through it and finish writing this. That was the closest I’ve ever come to insulting John Candy. But you’d be hard-pressed to put it at the top of the Candy oeuvre. Sure, there are some funny moments in it, enough to make watching it 25 years later a not completely unwelcome task, and it is certainly not the worst Candy movie (I recall “Delirious” being pretty terrible, and I’m so certain that “Nothing but Trouble”–starring Candy, Dan Aykroyd, and Chevy Chase, aka three of my all-time favorite funny people–is awful that I refuse to watch it). And that’s where “Who’s Harry Crumb?” comes in. He’s easily among my favorite movie stars of all time, and in 1989 news of a new John Candy movie would bring an immense amount of joy to my 12-year-old life.īut I am not such a Candy man (see what I did there?) that I can contend that everything he ever did was amazing. He was undoubtedly a hero of mine growing up, and the list of movies he’s been in that I love is a long and impressive one (to name just a few, “Planes, Trains & Automobiles,” “The Great Outdoors,” “Summer Rental,” “Brewster’s Millions,” and, coming to an At 25 post later this year, “Uncle Buck”). I have a hard time saying anything bad about John Candy. Not his best film but its up there in the top five.Starring:John Candy, Shawnee Smith, Jeffrey Jones, Annie Potts, Tim Thomerson, Barry Corbin Overall you are lead through a nice array of amusing sequences which are fun, I won't lie and say they are great and hilarious simply because Candy is the star ergo they must be great as that isn't the case, if this film had been made today it would probably be long forgotten very very quickly but that also does testify to the skill and charm of Candy. Its all very silly yet likeable as Candy uses his girth in all manner of ways to make you chuckle, classic 80's actor Jeff Jones is the perfect dastardly foil to Candy with Tim Thomerson in an unusual role as a slightly useless badguy henchman. A simple plot involving an inept private eye trying to uncover a kidnapping and inadvertently succeeding through his own blundering, a slight copy of 'The Pink Panther' methinks but its a fun little farce giving Candy the oppertunity to try many character disguises.think 'Fletch'. The ever lovable John Candy manages to make you smile throughout this film despite it being somewhat childish with some pretty lame predictable visual gags.
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