'square their wagons', Harlow rides in to the rescue and 'calls out' the cavalry leader to single combat. After a drawn out and comical fight scene, Harlow is victorious, and the group celebrates. Harlow and Belle decide to pursue a relationship, Julian departs for somewhere 'even further west' (San Francisco) and the group rides toward the now visible St. Louis to finish the journey. Cast Production Candy was contractually mandated to make this film due to his existing contract with Carolco Pictures from their scrapped John Hughes film Bartholomew v. Neff, which Candy was to star in with Sylvester Stallone. Despite his misgivings about the script, and due to the fact that he owed more than $1 million due to his stake as a minority owner with the Toronto Argonauts football team, Candy agreed to make Wagons East in Durango, Mexico. On March 4, 1994, Candy died of a heart attack in his sleep after finishing the day’s shooting. Following Candy's death, Carolco received an insurance payout of $15.3 million. The film was completed by using CGI, a body double and script rewrites to finish Candy’s remaining scenes. Reception The film was released five months after Candy's death and was a box-office bomb. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with 30 reviews, the film has a rare approval rating of 0%meaning no favorable reviews whatsoeverreceiving an average rating of 2.9/10. The site's consensus describes the film as "a witless, toothless satire of Westerns that falls far below the standard set by Blazing Saddles, and is notable only for being John Candy's final screen performance." Film critic Roger Ebert, who called the film "a sad way to end John Candy's career", stated that his legacy was already permanent and would survive this film. In the book The Comedy Film Nerds Guide to Movies, Wagons East! is listed at number one on its list of The Ten Worst Westerns. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale. Year-end lists 6th worst– Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News Top 18 worst (alphabetically listed, not ranked) – Michael Mills, The Palm Beach Post See also List of films with a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes Almost Heroes References External links 1994 films 1990s adventure comedy films 1990s Western (genre) comedy films American adventure comedy films American Western (genre) comedy films 1990s English-language films Films set