Absolutely. To the point it looked like he was drawing on real personal experience with something similar. But John candy’s best dramatic moment was the, “I like me.” speech in Planes, Trains and Automobiles where he was doing something similar.
I think to be successful in comedy your entire ego must be shredded but after that has happened you can forever see the sad broken pieces.
Ebert wrote about seeing John Candy at the bar in a hotel.
Thanks for posting this!
I talked about the original here some time ago. The 2024 version is indeed very close to the original, scene and dialogue wise. The big difference is the ending and it is a BIG difference I hope you check it out. The performances are memorable, especially from the actor playing James McAvoy’s role.
Witchboard (2025)
Not recommended.
Apparently a 2024 release, but I saw no way to see it until now. A remake of the 1980s Ouija board movie that was not allowed to use the term Ouija in the title due to trademarking.
This one was dull and the Witchboard, which at least this time was unrelated to Ouija, barely features in it other than a framing device.
Directed by the guy who did the 1980s Blob and The Mask with Jim Carrey.
Boring!
with Cate Blanchett from a few years ago (so maybe mentioned upthread). It was on BBC late Sunday when they often show foreign language films, yet I was like, “Isn’t that Cate Blanchett?” playing a conductor in the Berlin Orchestra. Quite long - over 2.5 hours which assures that any of the bits that might have been put in to make things clear (if they were happening at all) were not edited out.
Scanners 1981 Michael Ironside, Stephen Lack
On Max
It’s now considered a Cult classic by many viewers. I hadn’t seen it in decades.
It holds up fairly well. The story is pretty odd, but it held my attention.
Only David Cronenberg could turn people with psychic powers into lethal killing machines.
He even named a character Dr Ruth. 
I watched the new Pixar film Elio yesterday. It was fine, but not that special. It certainly had that Pixar level of quality, but the story was far from original. Indeed it seemed to draw from multiple sci fi movies to get its plot and characters. I recognised Last Starfighter, Galaxy Quest, ET, Flight of the Navigator, Explorers, Lilo and Stitch, Contact, ALF (of all things), Alien, Total Recall, and I’m sure there was a lot more.
So it was very derivative, and felt much more like recent failures like Mars Needs Moms or Strange World than anything unexpected or original that Pixar usually strives to put out.
I’m sure kids will get a laugh out of it, but I found it quite a letdown.
Played by Patrick McGoohan, no less.
To be clear, neither of those were made by Pixar.
We went to see The Long Walk last night. The first movie we’ve seen in a theater, lo these many years! But I am a big fan of the book, and of Stephen King, who had a birthday yesterday.
I thought it was just okay. I knew it would be a really hard story to film. First they have to make you care about all these people, and then they start killing them off. The first part was done unevenly, the second part was done very well. I mean, damn. My husband might be traumatized. And it was different from the book in a way I did not see coming. When it was over, my husband said, “What is the takeaway from that?” I still don’t have the answer, but I suspect it wouldn’t meet the approval of the current powers that be. Anyway, I think the actors turned in some great performances.
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Saturday evening I was looking for a Robert Redford movie to watch and a bulk of them like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All The President’s Men were available on various streaming services but cost money to rent so I opted for A Bridge Too Far, which I hadn’t seen before.
The movie is a bit overloaded, it’s an epic war film after all. It is about Operation Market Garden, a failed WWII Allied operation to retake the Netherlands from Nazi occupation. American, British, and Polish paratroopers and glider forces would jump into the Netherlands to secure a number of bridges and Allied armored forces would follow in (by ground) to reinforce and hold.
The movie’s jump scenes were legit and pretty cool to watch, featuring camera shots from the plane, from the ground, and from the air as well (and it took me back to my days in Airborne units), and the number of vehicles used in the production was impressive. There’s really nothing negative I could say about the film, it is long and was obviously made in the 70s, and there are some bloody scenes, but that’s war for you. There is one scene where the Germans released residents from a psychiatric hospital as part of their withdraw, so the Allies come across people in white bedclothes making goofy faces at them from the woods. Nothing further happened though, the Allies saw them and then moves on. It was kind of an odd aside and the inmates didn’t seem to be depicted very well imo.
As for Redford’s part. He played a major in the 82nd Airborne (John Ratzenberger was one of his lieutenants!) who led a force via boats against German emplacements at a crucial bridge.
I recommend the movie if WWII epic war movies are your thing or if you want to see some great actors from back then. My wife is less interested in war movies and mostly enjoyed it, though she avoided watching the heavier action scenes.
I caught the new Superman movie last night. It’s on Prime. Meh.
Idunno. Some things about it just didn’t sit right with me. I didn’t really like the mes-en-scene style opening. I thought we were going to get at least some origin stuff. I also thought the way they depicted the public swinging so wildly - first against Superman, and second against Luthor - with just, like, one headline on the big screen was goofy. It’s literally minutes afterward that the entire world is for against either one. Not to mention that Superman’s parents’ message to go ahead and rule earth as a killer tyrant turning out to be real and not a Lex Luthor creation, pretty much shits on the whole Superman ethos.
And what the hell is with Jimmy Olsen pulling all the huzz. What, does he have a big horse cock or something?
Oh, and Green Lantern? That was what they came up with for Green Lantern? I’d rather watch Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern over that bowl-head.
It was a fun watch, I suppose, but it’s just a strange Superman movie.
Redford also delivers the one line everybody remembers from the film and ultimately gave many amateur historians an inaccurate idea of why the operation failed.
“Never attack Russia in winter.”
Just went to see Justin Tipping’s new film Him (2025), from Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, but not a Jordan Peele film. As I remarked in the Sinners thread a few months ago,
Add “sinister football ritual cult” to the list of horror scenarios in this film trend, please. And renew my request for the occasional more cozy context format. 
That said, I don’t think Him as a film was in the same league with Sinners, or Get Out or Nope. A lot more confusing plotholes in the villainous motivations and machinations, if you ask me.
Nonetheless, it was masterfully atmospheric and did a great job of creating character sympathy and suspenseful tension, so I’m thumbs-upping it.
I saw this, and my overwhelming reaction was “you know you are old if you really enjoyed this movie” (which I did, btw). If you saw TIST forty years back in the theater and really haven’t been feeling like it was all that long ago, the pure cognitive-dissonance zing will just make you laugh and laugh.
Managed to get through 28 Years Later on Netflix. It was okay, but I’m hoping it’s the end of the franchise. Probably not, considering the ending.
??? I never said they were.
I mean, the sequel is out in 4 months.