Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) UMR Stats
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) UMR Links
Cogerson Review on Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Why I watched this one? Easily one of my all-time favorite movies….and it is two days before Thanksgiving. Added bonus…watched it with my 11 year old daughter…who was watching it for the first time.
What is this one about? A man Steve Martin) must struggle to travel home for Thanksgiving with an obnoxious slob (John Candy) of a shower curtain ring salesman as his only companion.
My thoughts on this one? Watching this movie is like talking to a friend you have not seen awhile. Movie is still funny and touching. Scene after scene is enjoyable. Martin and Candy are wonderful. I see a lot of myself in Martin’s character…..but it is always Candy’s character that tugs at my heart. My top five moments in the movie. (1) A Steve Martin rant a car rental booth. (2) A backwards trip up a highway. (3) When Martin and Candy wake up spooning. (4) Martin racing Kevin Bacon for a cab. (5) Martin and Candy walking up the street as the approach Martin’s house. Final thought: A wonderful movie that is still a joy to watch. Happy Thanksgiving 2018.
HI BRUCE
I enjoyed your latest thoughts on Planes Trains & Automobiles as it is one of my own all-time favourites and Steve Martin and John Candy BOTH always bring me warm feelings in their movies.
It’s been a few years since I have seen Planes/Trains but you have given me an appetite to renew my acquaintance. If I recall correctly one of my all time fave songs is also in it and may even have accompanied the spooning scene – Back in Baby’s Arms by Patsy Cline? I used to watch the film with my brother at Christmas time and he went into stiches of laughter at a scene where maybe a ferocious dog freezes stiff. I too loved the Bacon cab scene but it was all-in a very heart-warming film and great Thanksgiving/Xmas viewing.
The spooning scene always reminds me of the Brit comedy 1960’s School for Scoundrels in which Ian Carmichael and Terry-Thomas are competing for the fair hand of the lovely Janette Scott but she can’t make up her mind and until she chooses one of them is at pains to offend neither.
Accordingly when each of them invites her to go to the movies she insists that both accompany her and she sits between them as they watch the film. After they settle each of them reaches across to surreptitiously hold her hand and for a while both sit happily hand-holding – until they look at her and see that she’s got her arms folded at which point they scream and wrench their hands away! I may have told that story before on Cogerson but it’s worth repeating because the Brits are great at that type of comedy. Indeed you give School for Scoundrels a healthy 75% rating on your new Brit soup page.
Anyway take care and thanks for sharing your Thanksgiving Day activities with us.
Hey Bob….thanks for the Thanksgiving good wishes….we had an awesome day…actually watched 5 movies yesterday….it was a perfect day for movies….brutally cold outside. We watched two Christmas movies as a family….The Christmas Chronicles (Russell is awesome as Santa) and A Nightmare Before Christmas (WoC had never seen it). Then at night WoC and I rewatched Wild Tales which is a collection of short stories about revenge….a IMDb Top 250 movie……and still a fun movie to watch. Then I watched Sweet Virginia (an ok low budget thriller) and The Hindenburg (the DVD I watched was horrible!) The movie was ok. Poor GCS…lol.
Ok…back to P, T and A. Interesting about the spooning scene and School for Scoundrels. I will have to check out School for Scoundrels. I think you are right about that Cline song….we actually did not get the chance to see it this year…..but I have still seen it twice in the last 13 months….last Turkey day and another viewing in March 2018. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Good stuff as always.
HI BRUCE
5 movies in one day! And to think that I have boasted many times on this site about watching 3 flicks on Christmas Day 1954 though to be fair to myself I did travel in and out of the city centre in the freezing cold twice to watch them whereas I presume that you watched yours in the comfort of your own home. No videos/DVD’s back in the early 1950s!
My Xmas day 1954 movies were a double bill of Brit comedy Genevieve starring Kenneth More and western Dawn at Socorro starring Rory [Gaumont cinema matinee] Living it Up with Martin & Louis [Royal Hippodrome early evening performance] and Jubilee Trail starring B actor Forrest Tucker [Imperial cinema, late evening performance] Hey that’s 4 movies – I’ve been short changing myself!
Glad that your gang enjoyed Thanksgiving Day – Team Cogerson well deserved it.
Happy Thanksgiving To Everybody….Enjoy Your Day!