The Writer's Poke

Writer and Executive Producer: John Hughes (but not Director for this one). It's funny that Hughes uses his real name for his "top-tier" stuff, but uses the pen name, Edmond Dantes, for stuff he wrote that he doesn't want to be connected with. Why didn't he use Dantes for this screenplay? Seems like a good simple premise. Put John Candy and his family and the uninvited guests, Dan Akroyd and his family, in the Great Northern Forests, and see what happens. Chet (Candy) plays a kind of E.B. White "father." He remembers going up North as a kid, and he wants to give his kid the same fond memories he had. Roman (Akroyd) doesn't have a love of nature. He looks out at the great expanse of undeveloped land, and he sees dollars signs -- tree mills, mining, and places to dump toxic waste. As you would expect, there's comedic conflict between the two families, and then they come together and discover the real meaning of family. Buck (Chris Young) also gets ...

After watching Sgt. Bilko and hearing what my friends had to say about The Jerk (1979), I realized that I was too harsh in my assessment of The Jerk. It had a lot of funny bits, and yes, it might even be a homage to Citizen Kane, for Pete's sake. Sgt. Bilko might have its defenders too, but for now, I'm not going to be one of them. The movie is based on the 1950s TV series, and I can imagine a Steve Martin as a young boy watching that show, much like I would have been watching Gomer Pyle, USMC, at the same age. But somehow, I never got into the characters or the story. I'm a big fan not only of Martin, but also his costars in this one, Phil Hartman and Dan Akroyd. Nothing about their characters intrigues me, however, and this is also one of the rare films that even Martin admits that maybe the concept just didn't work. What was it about the 1990s? Did any of us make it through that decade unscathed? Thanks, Nirvana.