Some of the gags land hysterically while others land with a thud. Most of em' actually, and for a John Candy film (sadly his last), it's a disappointment, although not the catastrophe I thought it would be. The prospect of a successful new life in the wild west has been disappointing for a group of settlers so they decide to do the reverse: migrate back east. Actually, that makes sense, but when word gets around, the men with the money desperate to make more of it from the fools who decide to go west strive to stop them in order to prevent bad publicity. Candy's the wagon master in charge of getting the group together, assisted by Richard Lewis.
There's Ellen Greene as a prostitute who can't make ends meet, Melinda Culea as a virginal mail order bride, John C. McGinley as a gay book seller far more sophisticated than anyone else in the party, and Ed Lauter as a member of the wagon party who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. McGinley gets an amusing, non-offensive (and genuinely innocent) scene where a young male traveler who asks him to help him wash his back in the local lake misinterprets seeing him "excited", documenting an innocence of the time period that wouldn't be seen the same way just decades later. Certainly no western comedy classic, but for light entertainment, I enjoyed it although I can easily see why others may not.
There's Ellen Greene as a prostitute who can't make ends meet, Melinda Culea as a virginal mail order bride, John C. McGinley as a gay book seller far more sophisticated than anyone else in the party, and Ed Lauter as a member of the wagon party who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. McGinley gets an amusing, non-offensive (and genuinely innocent) scene where a young male traveler who asks him to help him wash his back in the local lake misinterprets seeing him "excited", documenting an innocence of the time period that wouldn't be seen the same way just decades later. Certainly no western comedy classic, but for light entertainment, I enjoyed it although I can easily see why others may not.