For Buck, read schmuck. That's how bulbous John Candy's cast in this simplistic but rather enjoyable comedy. Fat, out-of-work and 40, and forever evading marriage to his long-suffering girlfriend (Amy Madigan), Buck suddenly finds himself temporarily in charge of his brother's kids, two wild juveniles and Tia, a teenager who shows all the signs of getting herself pregnant at an early age. Buck is a sausage-fingers who breaks everything and cooks enormous breakfasts consisting of eggs on onions, but the kids' problems appeal in no time to his innate sense of adulthood and, in a few weeks, he proves himself a better parent than his brother ever was. It all sounds too predictable to be much fun, but in fact it works pretty well, giving Candy a chance to show what he can do, playing a variant on the slob who comes good that he played in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Not a great film, but one that makes you feel better for having seen it. Macaulay Culkin is one of the kids.

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