Wagons East

"Wagons East" (which does not have an exclamation point on the film's title - that's just in the ads) is a sad farewell for John Candy, who died during production earlier this year.

Candy made a lot of dud comedies during his career but this is one of the worst, lacking any discernible humor and paling in comparison to such other comedy Westerns as "Blazing Saddles" and "Support Your Local Sheriff," which did a much better job of sending up cowpoke cliches.

Candy plays a drunken wagonmaster hired to take a bunch of disillusioned Easterners back home, including a gay bookseller (John C. McGinley), a hooker with a heart of gold (Ellen Greene), an uptight banker (Robert Picardo) and a cattle rancher named Phil (Richard Lewis).

The players seem game and the basic story isn't a bad idea - but the execution is extremely poor, with a soggy script and perfunctory direction that mutes any intended humor.

"Wagons East" is rated PG-13 for violence, sex, profanity, vulgarity and a nude painting prominently displayed in a saloon.