Only the Lonely (1991)

This is a good John Candy film, one of the many he made in some sort of collaboration with legendary writer/director/producer, John Hughes.Although Hughes is on producer duty on this occasion, it still feels very much like a John Hughes film, even down to the fact that Ally Sheedy of 'Breakfast Club' fame appears as Candy's love interest.This film is very, very similar in tone and story to the 1955 film 'Marty', and perhaps didn't do well at the box office because of that fact, as 'Marty' is so beloved.It's a decent film though, one that boasts good performances from those involved.

Danny Muldoon (John Candy) is a good natured Chicago cop living with his racist mother Rose (Maureen O'Hara). He's always worried about his mom. She keeps rejecting the flirty Greek Nick Acropolis (Anthony Quinn). He and his partner Salvatore Buonarte (James Belushi) drive the prisoner wagon. His brother Patrick is happy to have Danny take care of mom and moving them to Florida. Danny falls for Theresa Luna (Ally Sheedy) who works at her father's funeral parlor. She's also lonely and extremely shy.It's a light rom-com with lovable John Candy. Ally Sheedy is pretty quiet. I really love both actors and they project simple nice people. O'Hara has the funniest jokes. Surprisingly she is hilarious and provides the majority of the laughs. It's a shame that she disappeared from the movies for such a long time. She's the true breakout star of this movie.

More of a romantic comedy than just straight comedy this movie from the late John Candy was really good. He plays a policeman with a bit of a domineering mother who has not had much success in finding that special someone. He finally does, but not surprisingly his mother disapproves of her. Throughout the film we are shown how this relationship between Candy's and Sheedy's character progresses and how hard the mother tries to get in the way and stop her son from marrying an Italian girl instead of a nice Irish girl. We also get to see how much Candy's character worries about his mother when he is not with her, imagining all sorts of unfortunate events leading to her demise. We get to see a rather creative way of getting a deceased person's corpse out of an apartment building too. The funniest scene and quite frankly a rather awkward scene as well has to be the dinner scene where the son finally introduces mother to prospective new wife to be. All in all this movie is really nice and sweet, the comedy is pretty tame for the most part with nothing to crude and the relationship between the couple seems more real than most romantic comedies these days.

When it was on I wasn't planning to watch it, but I'm glad I stuck with it, because it was a good old fashioned romantic comedy from writer/director Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire). Basically shy cop Danny Muldoon (the lovable John Candy) meets and falls in love with equally bashful mortician Theresa Luna (The Breakfast Club's Ally Sheedy). After many dates, sneaking around behind the back of his mother Rose (Maureen O'Hara), and a little taunting from his brother Patrick (Small Soldiers' Kevin Dunn) and friend Salvatore Buonarte (James Belushi), Danny eventually plucks up the courage to ask Theresa's hand in marriage. His mother of course is not at all supportive and very rude to people, not least of all Theresa, and worse Danny can't stop worrying about her a lot of the time, which Theresa isn't happy with. In the end, Rose wants to move to Florida, but Danny won't go, and after an understanding, she allows him to go and get his fiancée back, and they get back together, a happy ending. Also starring Milo O'Shea as Doyle Ryan, Bert Remsen as Spats Shannon, Last Action Hero's Anthony Quinn as Nick Acropolis, Joe V. Greco as Johnny Luna, Marvin J. McIntyre as Father Strapovic, Macaulay Culkin as Billy Muldoon, Kieran Culkin as Patrick Muldoon Jr., Allen Hamilton as O'Neal, Teri McEvoy as Susan Muldoon and Bernie Landis as Larry. Candy of course is always fun to watch, it may not have had the biggest amount of jokes or slapstick, but it is certainly not one to ignore. Worth watching!