{"id":5859,"date":"2013-02-01T11:04:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T16:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=5859"},"modified":"2022-09-11T11:08:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T15:08:24","slug":"planes-trains-and-automobiles-is-astonishingly-unfunny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/planes-trains-and-automobiles-is-astonishingly-unfunny\/","title":{"rendered":"Planes, Trains and Automobiles is astonishingly unfunny"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve been catching up on my John Landis, for better or for worse. Trading Places<\/a><\/em> and Coming to America<\/em> are both much better than I remembered, and I’m glad I revisited them. But Planes, Trains and Automobiles<\/em> is just astonishingly unfunny. A slapdash production, clearly banking solely on the presumed charm and appeal of its stars without a solid screenplay or sense of character to back them up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Martin’s character is fuzzily defined, wavering between misanthropic big city businessman and “gee, I guess I’ll give friendship and bonhomie a shot”. While John Candy is inherently likeable, the movie makes the imitative fallacy with regards to his character: he’s gross, blunt, and crude, designed to be everything a big city guy like Martin ignores as he goes about his day. But the problem is… he actually is<\/em> annoying to the audience too, making it difficult to come around to find either of these two likable or endearing. That’s fine for a complex drama, but it’s fatal for a heartwarming comedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been catching up on my John Landis, for better or for worse. Trading Places and Coming to America are both much better than I remembered, and I’m glad I revisited them. But Planes, Trains and Automobiles is just astonishingly unfunny. A slapdash production, clearly banking solely on the presumed charm and appeal of its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,2],"tags":[1470,77,1996,1830,1216],"class_list":["post-5859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2-stars","category-movies","tag-1470","tag-comedy","tag-john-candy","tag-john-landis","tag-steve-martin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/planes-trains-automobiles.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-1wv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5172,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/trading-places-1983-movie-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":5859,"position":0},"title":"Trading Places: The prince’s nurture vs. the pauper’s nature","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"November 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"John Landis' Trading Places is remarkably unafraid to take a cold hard look at racism, privilege, and inequality. It still retains the power to incite gasps and raise eyebrows, decades after release. With two major caveats, Trading Places is one of my personal favorite comedies. 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The Coen Brothers recently repeated this trick by following up another masterpiece, No Country for Old Men, with the happy-go-lucky Burn After Reading. This blog wonders if this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Big Lebowski","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/big-lebowski-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/big-lebowski-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/big-lebowski-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/big-lebowski-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/big-lebowski-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1222,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/burn-after-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":5859,"position":2},"title":"The Coen Brothers confound expectations, as usual, with Burn After Reading","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Although every Coen Brothers film is unmistakably theirs alone (can the Auteur Theory apply to more than one person at once?), Joel and Ethan have a reputation for rarely making the films audiences want or expect from them at any given time. Clooney and McDormand give this movie two thumbs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":846,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/walk-hard\/","url_meta":{"origin":5859,"position":3},"title":"Jake Kasdan spoofs the musical biopic in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"May 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This blogger finds most so-called biopics wanting. The two- to three-hour feature film format is more akin to an essay or short story than a book, and as such is ill-equipped to sum up the entire life of a human being in more than a string of highlights. Yet studios\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/walk-hard-dewey-cox-45.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/walk-hard-dewey-cox-45.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/walk-hard-dewey-cox-45.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/walk-hard-dewey-cox-45.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/walk-hard-dewey-cox-45.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2076,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/gritty-grimy-and-graffitied-the-taking-of-pelham-one-two-three-1974\/","url_meta":{"origin":5859,"position":4},"title":"Gritty, Grimy, and Graffitied: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"January 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Plenty of genre movies have been set in New York City, such as Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (devilry on the Upper West Side), Walter Salles' Dark Water (ghosts on Roosevelt Island), Guillermo Del Toro's Mimic (vermin in the subway), and Spike Lee's Inside Man (thievery on Wall Street). 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How can you not be at least a little curious about a Roger Corman-produced Star Wars pastiche, starring John-Boy from The Waltons, Hannibal from The A-Team, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., with a screenplay by John Sayles and special\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "1 Star"","block_context":{"text":"1 Star","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/1-star\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Battle Beyond the Stars","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/battle-beyond-the-stars.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/battle-beyond-the-stars.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/battle-beyond-the-stars.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/battle-beyond-the-stars.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/battle-beyond-the-stars.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5861,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5859\/revisions\/5861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}