Your affinity for John Candy depends on your age and how you were first introduced to him. From there, you probably know a few of his more notable films.
And then, perhaps, you dig a little deeper. You might happen to see John Candy in a lesser-known or a new-to-you movie, either on TV or suggested through a streaming service.
While you can always marvel at his performance and the comedy and the brilliance, that initial introduction sticks with you.
Is it Uncle Buck, Cool Runnings, Home Alone, Stripes, Spaceballs? Is it The Great Outdoors, 1941, The Blues Brothers, Heavy Metal, National Lampoon’s Vacation? I think mine was either Home Alone, Spaceballs, or Blues Brothers, followed by Stripes, and then as a voice in Heavy Metal.
John Candy was beloved. In a sense, John Candy: I Like Me seems a bit late to the party as a documentary released in 2025. How has it taken this long to put together a project like this? Then again, John Belushi died over a decade before Candy’s 1994 death and just got his own documentary in 2020.
So who’s to say how we choose to remember these legends beyond what they produced while alive? Perhaps it happens when it happens. New generations get introduced to Candy and Belushi all the time. They were in countless classics and so much more, from television and press tours to articles from their heyday.
The comparisons between Candy and Belushi are easier to make because of their comedic chops, and you can also sadly put Chris Farley in the mix, too. But Candy was something different.
Perhaps it was Uncle Buck, or perhaps it was because he was able to start a family and he resembled what family felt like on screen, but his loss felt different.
When you watch director Colin Hanks’ John Candy: I Like Me on film, you realize that we saw John Candy as our family, portrayed through likeable and relatable characters, and not always larger than life. It was that groundedness that made his loss feel dramatically different for those of us of a certain age.
As I question why it took so long for a documentary celebrating John Candy, I do so with a tear in my eye for the talent and the man we lost more than three decades ago. Watching John Candy made you feel something not just because of who he played but because of who he was. If that’s not enough to make you tear up, too, maybe it’s because you missed the time when he felt like family, or maybe it’s because the world has gotten a lot colder and harsher since he’s gone.
For what it’s worth, I liked I Like Me, and I hope you do too.