Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Neal Page	Steve Martin	½
Del Griffith	John Candy	½
Susan Page	Laila Robins	½
State Tropper	Michael McKean
Taxi Racer	Kevin Bacon
Owen	Dylan Baker
Marti Page	Olivia Burnette
Doobie	Larry Hankin
Walt	Richard Herd

Review

Steve Martin plays it mostly straight in the lead as an arrogant advertising executive who desperately tries to get from New York and home to Chicago for Thanksgiving, only to be hampered by constant delays, cancellations and rendezvous with the annoyingly cheerful and talkative John Candy. If the premise seems equally annoying, you're quite right; the film is an ordeal to watch, especially if you try to develop any kind of sympathy for the protagonist. There are funny bits and pieces scattered around, but also more agonizing stupidity than John Hughes ever wrote before or since (perhaps with the exception of Home Alone 3). Martin's combination of subdued seriousness and overacted anger is neither here nor there, but the film does reveal to have a heart and the finale is more satisfactory then one could hope for.