Canadian Bacon

I assumed this would be terrible because I never heard of it but it had some funny moments. I only watched it because of Candy but he's not really the star. If I had known Alda was in it and Moore wrote it, I definitely wouldn't have watched it. Glad I did.

John Candy was and still is one of my favorite comedians. He knew the art of comedy...and it didn't have to be laced with profanity.

One of the reviews suggest it is offensive to Canadians...what??????

In the film Canadians are portrayed as polite, clean and somewhat naive...Americans are portrayed as violent, dirty and somewhat naive.

For every joke aimed at Canadians is aimed back at Americans...that's what makes the film funny though...it is much like the actual relationship between the countries.

For Canadians...hearing John Candy respond to the capital of Canada being Ottawa was priceless..."What do you think were stupid?", hilarious. :)

Also funny...the streets of Toronto being bare!! Toronto is the 5th largest city in North America. Suddenly...everyone disappears...

Candy will be missed! RIP John!

This is not one of Candy's best movies,(his number 1 being Planes, Trains, and Automobiles), but it is a funny movie. I read some comments on this movie from Canadians, and they're way too hard on it. It does poke fun at Canada a little, but it's not that bad. John Candy is actually Canadian, as almost anyone who knows who he is knows, and he really brought it out in this movie, just like in the old SCTV skits(that show needs to get on comedy central, in the time slot next to SNL. My local cable puts it on Saturday nights at about 2 a.m. I can't believe it!) I loved some of the jokes in this movie, (though at times some of them weren't funny, and also were slow) and scenes like the campfire, the hockey game, and the part where a cop pulls them over in Canada(in which Dan Akyroyd did a cameo, he also was in a film back in '88 with John Candy called 'The Great Outdoors'). That's all great stuff and makes up for some of the bad moments in the movie. Once again, no where near Candy's best movie, or performance, but it was still good fun. 2.5 / 5 stars

The President of America's ratings have dropped. What he really needs to do is get a war to get his popularity up. However the usual bad guys aren't interested so he decides to start a talking war against Canada. Using the media to stir up anti-Canadian feeling his popularity rises but a group of American citizens take it too far and prepare for invasion.

Michael Moore is a rare talent and many of his programmes and films could be used as a model for anyone wanted to do satire and be both political and funny at the same time. When he's on form he puts our own Mark Thomas into the shade. However with this film he can't take a really good idea and make it last for 90 minutes. Most scenes with the President and his media war with Canada is really sharp and really funny – just like Moore at his best.

However it's the rest of the film outside of this one point that fails. It is just a rambling comedy that doesn't have anything to say or do. Moore is a little lost and it lacks bite and, sadly, laughs. The cast try hard and Candy is watchable if not at his best. Alda is good but a bit too light and friendly to be the president. The rest of the cast are amusing in different ways – Torn, Pollack, Nunn, Spadlin, Wright, Belushi etc are all good.

Overall Moore lacks his usual bite and this one good idea is lost in a film when really it could have been a good 15 minute sketch. The media war is funny and, post 9/11, is quite sharp even though it is a little too light, but outside of that the comments, ideas and laughs dry up.

If you would've told me that Canadian Bacon, a movie I remember basically because it was shown in a high school "media literacy" class would feel so...appropriate in 2025 (literally thirty years later), I wouldn't have believed you.

Fundamentally, this is a political satire about a post-Cold War United States desperate for a foreign enemy to a) scapegoat its domestic problems and b) justify maintaining its inflated military budget. But it's also about how quickly people can be convinced of an "enemy" out there by the power of the mass media (essentially, Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky).

As enlightened as we (probably) thought we would be, our current age reflects the same lesson people have had to learn time and time again: technology and methods change, people don't. As we stare down a manufactured conflict between the United States and Canada in 2025, this movie feels so relevant.

It is also, though, very much reflective of its time. In what was and still is his only fictional film, Michael Moore approaches the subject matter with a sledge hammer and pulls no punches in criticizing the American political class. There's a very mid 90s sardonic nature to this movie that I found not only charming, but honestly kind of irresistible.

One thing I really liked about this film was the cast. John Candy, Alan Alda, Bill Nunn, and Rip Torn are really, really good here. Canadian Bacon is a vertiable feast of 90s comedic talent.

The writing and structure of the film could be a bit better; I found some of the analogies confusing and some running jokes really unfunny. I didn't understand Rhea Perlman's character at all, and I also kind of wish we got the Canadian perspective. The film, despite its subject matter, feels oddly small (centred around Niagara Falls, New York)

As is typical for Moore, he tends to paint Canada as almost utopic; a country apparently devoid of anything negative at all, but obsessed with its maple syrup and beer, and (even inaccurate at the time) lily white. (Just an FYI, Canada isn't and never has been a homogenous nation of blondes with blue eyes, don't know where this idea comes from). But, it is funny to me that even back then, Canada was a shorthand for "friendly country."

It's not the best movie about frosty relations between the U. S. and Canada (that is definitely South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, which I may also watch as I drown myself in laughs). But it is kind of fun.