Steve Martin and John Candy give excellent performances as the not-so-good companions desperately trying to get home for Thanksgiving in this amiable comedy, which sends up the vagaries of the whole American transport system. Written and directed by Home Alone creator John Hughes, it occasionally finds it difficult to balance the slapstick with the sentiment. Yet, the cheerfully astute playing by the disaster-prone "little-and-large" leads ensures that the farcical proceedings are always fun to watch.

An irritable marketing executive, Neal Page, is heading home to Chicago for Thanksgiving when a number of delays force him to travel with a well meaning but overbearing shower curtain ring salesman, Del Griffith.