John Candy was one of the most beloved comedians of the 1980s and 1990s who had plenty of incredibly underrated movies that didn’t get enough love. While the late actor died tragically young at age 43, this was not before leaving the world with some of the most iconic comedic performances ever put to the screen in classics like Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck. However, for every legendary Candy performance, there was another hidden gem that, despite being equally hilarious, failed to gain the same lasting legacy as his best-known work.
The best John Candy movies included acclaimed collaborations with comedy greats like Steve Martin, Bill Murray, and Mel Brooks, although lesser-known releases also paired him with the likes of Tom Hanks, Dan Aykroyd, and Richard Pryor. While some underrated movies suffered from lackluster screenplays, Candy’s vulnerable sincerity and likable comedic charm helped elevate them into solid comedies. There were just so many underappreciated John Candy movies that deserve a lot more credit than they ever got.
10 Going Berserk (1983)
John Candy as John Bourgignon
While it’s true that the comedy Going Berserk was weighted down by a convoluted plot, John Candy’s hilarious performance helped elevate this underrated film into something worth seeking out. With Candy as a soon-to-be-husband and clumsy chauffeur getting married to a congressman’s daughter, the narrative of this movie acted as more of an excuse to tie together outrageous misadventures than to be a truly engaging story. As Candy’s wedding day approaches, he’s seen caught with a murderous cult, running wild with a motorcycle gang, and even ends up handcuffed to a dead man.
While there’s a reason Going Berserk hasn’t achieved the same kind of timeless legacy as Candy’s best movies, it’s also a testament to his comedic talents that he was so outstandingly funny throughout. Despite the script being a mixed bag, Going Berserk had some truly great moments as Candy meets an assortment of oddball characters while trying to ensure his wedding day still goes off without a hitch. It’s not the most sophisticated movie in the world, but for lovers of Candy’s unique brand of comedy, it will be a hidden gem.
9 Delirious (1991)
John Candy as Jack Gable
Although Delirious was a critical and commercial failure, looking back on this John Candy movie today, it’s impossible not to recognize it as a forerunner for everything from Pleasantville to Ruby Sparks. Candy plays Jack Gable, a soap opera writer who, after a hit to the head, wakes up on his own show and soon learns he can manipulate the world around him through his writing. While Delirious is packed with great ideas, and Candy gives a likable performance, it’s just not funny or dramatic enough to fully exploit the uniqueness of its concept.
The fish-out-of-water fantasy styling of Delirious would be far better executed by Bill Murray two years later in Groundhog Day. While Candy does his best with this material, and there are some real flashes of brilliance, the concept of a man stuck in a world of his own creating works much better when the more dramatic sides of its story are explored. As a story played entirely for laughs and with Candy far too focused on getting the girl than figuring out the mystery of his situation, while it has its moments, Delirious has been forgotten for a reason.
8 Armed And Dangerous (1986)
John Candy as Frank Dooley
After being framed for stealing a television by his corrupt colleagues, former cop Frank Dooley and his wayward lawyer friend Norman Kane carve out new careers for themselves as security guards in Armed and Dangerous. With John Candy and Eugene Levy in the main roles, this unlucky pair are once again the victims of corruption and decide to investigate the shady practices within their company. As over-the-top hijinks ensue, Candy and Levy seem to make enemies out of everybody they cross in this outrageous farce.
Armed and Dangerous showcased Candy and Levy as an impressive comedic duo. There were flashes of brilliance as they brought to mind their best work together on the sketch series Second City Television (SCTV). Like most of Candy’s underrated and lesser-known comedy work from the 1980s, Armed and Dangerous was just too silly to truly stand the test of time. While their antics, which saw the duo in over their heads with a drug cartel and even dressing in drag, was funny, some lighthearted humor alone was not enough to cement a movie’s place as a true comedy classic.
7 Who’s Harry Crumb? (1989)
John Candy as Harry Crumb
While Who’s Harry Crumb? was a funny mystery movie with a great John Candy performance, it was also strikingly similar to The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! from the previous year. Both movies featured bumbling, occasionally brilliant detectives, and unfortunately for Candy, Leslie Nielsen’s characterization of Frank Drebin was the performance that stood the test of time. This was disappointing, as Candy really gave his all to the role of Harry Crumb, and with a better script, this could have been a far more successful endeavor.
Like so many comedy mysteries before it, Who’s Harry Crumb? saw Candy play a detective investigating a missing person. While there’s some tongue-in-cheek parodying of the neo-noir genre, it did not land nearly as well as Chevy Chase’s Fletch or Steve Martin’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, two films that charted this same territory with much better success. Like so many underrated Candy movies, Who’s Harry Crumb? featured great comedic talent without the script to back it up.
6 Volunteers (1985)
John Candy as Tom Tuttle
Volunteers saw John Candy team up with Tom Hanks the year after he had his breakout success with Splash. As an engaging comedic duo, Candy played affable Washington State graduate Tom Tuttle, while Hanks was the spoiled, womanizing Yale student saddled with $28,000 in gambling debt, both of whom have joined the Peace Corps and flown to Thailand. Hoping to survive the next two years, Volunteers was a comedy packed with antics, a love story with Hanks’ future wife, Rita Wilson, and a hilarious performance from Candy.
With glimpses into Candy’s undeniable talents and Hanks’ future as one of the world’s biggest movie stars, Volunteers hilariously spoofed earlier movies like Casablanca, Bridge on the River Kwai, and Lawrence of Arabia. With plenty of big laughs and excellent one-liners, Volunteers had a sharp script that was elevated by the skill of its performers. While Volunteers can feel slightly dated and won’t hold up as well as the best 1980s comedies, it’s well worth seeking out if you only see Candy and Hanks share the screen.
5 1941 (1979)
John Candy as Private First Class Foley
Following the back-to-back success of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, director Steven Spielberg set his sights on the screwball comedy genre with the release of 1941. Despite having so many classic films under his belt, 1941 proved over-the-top comedies were not the director’s strong suit, and the movie underperformed at the box office. However, it boasted an incredible cast, including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and, of course, John Candy, and has since built up a cult following.
With a story revolving around Los Angeles’s panic following the WWII attack on Pearl Harbor, 1941 featured incredible visual effects, plenty of slapstick humor, and truly chaotic energy. Candy played a small, supporting role as a member of a 10th Armored Division M3, and although it wasn’t a perfect film, there were enough laughs to keep 1941 interesting. Spielberg himself considered the film a disappointment (via EW), stating that he was “not embarrassed by it” but that “ it wasn’t funny enough.”
4 Summer Rental (1985)
John Candy as Jack Chester
After proving his talents with several supporting roles and two-handers, John Candy gained his first lead role in Hollywood with Summer Rental. As a burnt-out air traffic controller, Candy played a man in need of a break who takes his family on a vacation to Citrus Cove, Florida. However, what was supposed to be a rejuvenating time of rest and relaxation was anything but as Candy’s forced to sleep in a decrepit shack on the beach and finds himself embroiled in countless mishaps.
As a good-natured beach-based comedy, Summer Rental highlighted the woes of vacationing and the stress a family can be put under while seemingly trying to enjoy themselves. While it comes across as more like a collection of sketches than a truly engaging story, many of the sequences in Summer Rental were so funny the lack of narrative heft could be forgiven. Candy excelled in his first leading role, and although it’s been mostly forgotten, it was a good omen for all his great movies on the horizon.
3 Brewster’s Millions (1985)
John Candy as Spike Nolan
Brewster’s Millions was based on a 1902 play by George Barr McCutcheon and is a story that’s been adapted several times before. However, the greatest version of this story starred Richard Pryor and John Candy, two titans of comedy whose mere presence on the big screen together was a comedy lover’s dream come true. With Pryor as a Minor League Baseball pitcher who accepts a challenge to spend $30 million in 30 days to inherit $300 million from his great-uncle, this comedy of excess featured plenty of wasteful carnage as Monty Brewster sought to dwindle his fortune down to nothing.
Candy played Monty’s best friend, Spike Nolan, a baseball catcher along for a wild ride of frivolous and thoughtless spending. With plenty of screwball antics and direction from filmmaking icon Walter Hill, like its title character, Brewster’s Millions occasionally squanders the talents of its cast but has enough hilarious moments to keep things exciting. While Brewster’s Millions missed out on being a true classic, watching Pryor and Candy together was always going to lead to laughs.
2 The Great Outdoors (1988)
John Candy as Chet Ripley
With a script from 1980s movie icon John Hughes, The Great Outdoors was an excellent comedy that paired with John Candy and Dan Aykroyd. With Candy as Chet Ripley, a Chicago husband and father looking to enjoy a much-needed vacation at a lakeside resort, his pleasant time is interrupted when he’s joined by his obnoxious brother-in-law Roman Craig. As a classic story of a mismatched pair stuck together, The Great Outdoors succeeded primarily off the comedic skills of Candy and Aykroyd, who played off one another perfectly.
This vacation-from-hell comedy may not have been as memorable as Candy’s other Hughes movies, like Planes, Trains and Automobiles or Uncle Buck, but The Great Outdoors still featured plenty of hilarious sequences. Watching as Candy’s rich, arrogant sailing champion brother-in-law destroys all his plans to whisk his family away to the great outdoors, it was impossible not to feel for him. This was a testament to Candy’s skill as an actor, as, even when laughing at his antics, it was hard to ignore the sincerity behind his suffering.
1 Only The Lonely (1991)
John Candy as Officer Danny Muldoon
Only the Lonely featured John Candy as a 38-year-old lonely bachelor working as a Chicago police officer in a film written and directed by Chris Columbus and produced by John Hughes. While the love story between Candy and Brat Pack member Ally Sheedy was central to this film’s charm, it was Maureen O’Hara as Candy’s overbearing Irish mother who told the show. As one of O’Hara’s best movies, Only the Lonely signaled the Hollywood icon’s return to the screen after a 20-year hiatus from the industry.
The comedic chemistry between Candy and O’Hara was off the charts, and it was thrilling to witness him showcase his talents, unlike a star who had acted alongside legends like John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. Only the Lonely was a fantastically underrated 1990s that showcased John Candy’s skill for sincerity as he embodied Danny Muldoon with a real air of humanity. Only the Lonely was a funny, heartfelt picture that deserves more attention.
Source: EW
