Watch Wagons East! For Free

Strong and Moving!

Please don't spend money on this.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

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.

Wagons East is a well presented western about a group of settlers who have found the glorious west to be more The Land of Barbarism than the promised Land of Opportunity. So they quit and head home.It is wrong to think of the movie as a spoof and if you watch it expecting a Mel Brooks movie you will only be disappointed. Wagons East is a genuine western comedy, with a wide variety of laughs from family trip clichés to road runner gags and seen as such it is a remarkably good western with clever, though uncomplicated comedy and a good plot image. Although the greedy, but paranoid Rail Mogul is a little weak, most of the clichés fit in neatly and comically with the plot.Oh and don't watch Wagons East expecting a John Candy film. The main leads are Richard Lewis and Robert Picardo, with strong input from Scrubs star John C. McGinley. Candy makes a good appearance, but his comic performance is considerably muted compared to his more prominent films. This may be due to his unfortunate death towards the end of filming; or it may be that he felt the role deserved a more quiet presentation due to the terrible secret in the characters past.I enjoyed this film immensely and heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys a light laugh.

Recap: A few American settlers with bright hopes of a new beginning in the west get deeply disappointed at the lack of civilization and opportunities and decide to head back home. Back east. They hire a all but confident wagon master and start their journey through the perilous country. However, back home some industrialist fear that they could start a new trend and that they would lose out on millions of dollars. The wagon train must be stopped.Comments: One of the great parodies of Western movies it is deeply underrated and, in my mind, obviously misunderstood. A good mix of puns and jokes from the Western genre are sprinkled with satirical jokes about life in common and some original jokes. I can't say it's pace is high but there is no slow parts and it is never dull. There is always something to laugh about. And that maybe one of its great strengths, that might have been overlooked. There is much subtle humor, small details that are just great. Or is it that it's just the humor that speaks to me.An impressive cast of comedians, some that have proved their worth both before and after. The obvious lead is John Candy as the defamed wagon master (from the real Donner Party, the character is not though). Stated that he was unwilling to do this movie but had to because of contractual obligations it is still impressive that he can be so good in it. Not his best movie, far from it, but it is till really good. Unfortunately it was also to be his last movie as he died during filming Wagons East, but some skilled editing and rewriting make that fact unnoticeable by watching the movie.He also has some strong support of actors and comedians. Most prominent, to me, is Richard Lewis who is too underrated but does a great role once again. And then there is John C McGinley. Now doing a great character in Scrubs he already here shows his comedian talent as the overly gay settler. Notable appearances also from Robert Picardo and Ethan Phillips, both of later Star Trek fame, Abraham Benrubi and Ed Lauter.All in all it is a great comedy. It sure helps to appreciate some wacky humor and parody of the Western genre. I've seen it several times and it never fails to deliver.8/10

This movie is silly and very short of being a funny movie. Unhappy 'easterners' are not pleased with being out west; so they hire a drunk wagon master(John Candy)to lead them back east. Sight gags were just not funny enough to carry this one. And Richard Lewis gets on your nerves very quickly; but then I honestly don't like him at anything he does. Ed Lauter is hilarious as the bumbling villain.The movie was dedicated to Candy. He died from a massive heart attack ten days before the movie was completed. A stand in and digital enhancement enabled Candy's character to be seen in the final scenes. Candy was a very good comedian and gave us some real good knee slapping, belly laughs in his career. This movie was just not the caliber of his best.Also in the film, you will recognize: William Sanderson, Gailard Sartain, Ethan Phillips, Ellen Greene and Rodney A. Grant.