Movie of the Week #11 - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Funnily enough in the UK this is often seen as a Christmas movie, folks here often forget it's set at Thanksgiving until they're reminded. I caught the movie on TV with my Dad over the Christmas week, although I've seen it a handful of times before. It's got a reputation of being a Dad film, and my Dad was happy-as-larry settling in when it came up channel flipping.

For me it's still a classic comedy that somehow rises above a million other schmaltzy entries of the time. It's pretty much a laugh a minute. There's great chemistry between the two leads - I always find myself sympathizing with both, and each character walks a very fine line of becoming completely insufferable - the film finds that sweet spot and somehow manages to carry it for the runtime. You really find yourself rooting for both of them for different reasons.

The reveal at the end is a nice turn, and well executed. The quiet moment where Martin returns to find Candy sitting alone in the waiting room has always stayed with me. It made me cry even though I've seen it so many times. And I also like the film doesn't hang about - it really is about the journey and not the destination.

I've rolled my eyes at the very dated score before, but I found it a bit more charming this time. It stands out like a sore thumb these days, and you're never quite expecting it. I go back and forth on whether a more classic score would have been a better call.

I don’t know why, but I vividly remember watching this. It was Halloween 2013. I was 14 years old. I never really went trick or treating anyway, but my older sister was still going. I stayed home and put this on Netflix while my mom was in the living room with me. I was doing History and Math homework while watching it.

I don’t know why my memory of it is so vivid. It’s not like it was a life changing moment for me. It was early on in me starting to like movies (which is why I chose to watch it) but it’s not like that was the day I decided to be a film buff. It’s weird how memory works like that.

Anyways, I had watched Due Date before this. That came out when I was 10. I didn’t know that was a remake of this until a few years later. But I know this was very lauded by GenXers, which is who I was watching back then for movie recommendations.

I don’t actually particularly love this movie. I think it’s fine. I find Due Date to be funnier, mostly because it’s more in line with my humor (and Todd Phillips is probably responsible for forming what I find funny when I was a kid anyway).

It did not make me laugh out loud when I first saw it and it didn’t make laugh out loud now. I think that’s probably because, even before I saw it I had already seen it through osmosis. Family Guy references this all the time and I grew up watching that. And is probably why I enjoyed something like Midnight Run more since that hasn’t really been parodied to death.