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The greatest Thanksgiving movie of all time


Sbbruin

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Oh, there's a thread.  And I get choked up about it every year.  

More important than that though---why is this movie so hard to find every damn year?  I'm not exactly awash in streaming options (it's piss), but I can't find this thing ever on Google Fiber/Netflix/Prime other than some $14.99 rental option.  What is it about this magical movie?  

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6 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Oh, there's a thread.  And I get choked up about it every year.  

More important than that though---why is this movie so hard to find every damn year?  I'm not exactly awash in streaming options (it's piss), but I can't find this thing ever on Google Fiber/Netflix/Prime other than some $14.99 rental option.  What is it about this magical movie?  

Fucking A.  I decided to watch it on my iPad and I know I have it on my dvr and it can’t find it.  Had to pay another 3 bucks.  But it is worth it,  “Oh are my dogs barking.”

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3 hours ago, Lobo said:

Oh, there's a thread.  And I get choked up about it every year.  

More important than that though---why is this movie so hard to find every damn year?  I'm not exactly awash in streaming options (it's piss), but I can't find this thing ever on Google Fiber/Netflix/Prime other than some $14.99 rental option.  What is it about this magical movie?  

It was on Amazon Prime streaming recently. I watched it. You can rent it for like $3.

That being said, this thread should just be titled PTA (*I'm dumb. Missed the gist of the title). John Hughes was a fucking genius screenwriter (although I could be wrong, deferring to @henrygandorf).

The entire movie is brilliant from scene to scene and the closure is tear jerking. 

Edited by ztejas
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4 hours ago, Radical Larry said:

Oh, he's drunk. How would he know where we're going?

If I was at the funeral of my best friend, and I randomly thought of that line I think I might bust out laughing.

and As mentioned the cutaway to seeing John candy in the devil suit was a stroke of genius. I’m sure it looked ridiculous on paper but what an excellent few minutes of movie history.

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And I really don't care for the way your company left me in the middle of fucking nowhere with fucking keys to a fucking car that isn't fucking there. And I really didn't care to fucking walk down a fucking highway and across a fucking runway to get back here to have you smile at my fucking face. I want a fucking car...right...fucking...now.

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This is hands down the best scene of the movie, and the best scene of any John Hughes movie.  It does a great job of capturing the evolving emotions Steve Martin's character feels.  There's reconciliation and gratitude when he and Del are saying goodbye, a sense of relief when the train pulls away, the anticipation of seeing his family, looking back on the past days' events with laughter, and the sudden realization that Del might not have a family to go home to. 

It still gets me.

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25 minutes ago, South Austin said:

This is hands down the best scene of the movie, and the best scene of any John Hughes movie.  It does a great job of capturing the evolving emotions Steve Martin's character feels.  There's reconciliation and gratitude when he and Del are saying goodbye, a sense of relief when the train pulls away, the anticipation of seeing his family, looking back on the past days' events with laughter, and the sudden realization that Del might not have a family to go home to. 

It still gets me.

Same here. 

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2 minutes ago, JimmyHoffa said:

Steve Martin's performance in the Hotel Rant is one I don't think many other actors could pull off. The amount of disgust and disdain in his facial expressions as he rips Del is pretty amazing and John Candy is standing there delivering assist after assist. 

Spot on.  And the incredibly vulnerable response from Del ("I like me.  My wife likes me."  Which is so painful when you realize his situation at the end), followed by the visible guilt and regret Neal feels, is a fantastic scene. 

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6 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Spot on.  And the incredibly vulnerable response from Del ("I like me.  My wife likes me."  Which is so painful when you realize his situation at the end), followed by the visible guilt and regret Neal feels, is a fantastic scene. 

Stop... just fucking stop right now. I can't be crying sitting here in my studio. I got work to do.

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7 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

The part where they're driving between two semis and Steve Martin looks over to see a laughing John Candy dressed in a devil suit is the funniest moment in the history of cinema. 

Before that it was when the Cowardly Lion ran down the hall and jumped out the window in The Wizard of Oz. 

After that, was it Large Marge?

giphy.gif

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He is still wildly underrated.  Criminally underrated, you ask me.  

Think about this writing run:

Mr. Mom, Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes Trains & Automobiles, the Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Career Opportunities, and Dutch.  All in the span of about 10 years, or basically the 1980's+.  That's the comedic writing equivalent of what Led Zeppelin did in the 1970's.  

We were indoctrinated with his brilliance in Chicago growing up and I was a little too young to appreciate most of his movies as they came out in theaters in real time.  But there's not a movie on that list that I don't consistently crack up to each time I watch it, and almost all of them have a teary moment as well.  

I had a halfway decent post in last year's thread about this movie where I talk about what I think Hughes was really trying to say with this movie.  But I can't find it.  It sums up the movie, and Hughes, for me pretty well.  He obviously find a muse in John Candy given they worked on like 6 movies together. 

Edited by Lobo
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Hughes didn't hit 1.000 but for the sheer volume and quality his record is hard to beat especially from '83-'90.  Starting with Mr. Mom and ending with Home Alone.  I know he had some later hits but other writers/director would be hall of fame level with 2-3 great movies in those 8 years but he was associated with 10+.  Effectively those coincided with my teenage years so his movies were on point with me.  

I was never really a Home Alone fan but I can appreciate why others like it.  I won't say that his 90s movies were bad but they didn't seem to resonate (minus the Home Alone series) as much with the public and definitely not with me.  Of course, he only directed one of the >90s movies, Curly Sue.

 

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21 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Think about this writing run:

Mr. Mom, Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes Trains & Automobiles, the Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Career Opportunities, and Dutch. 

didn’t realize he was responsible for Dutch.  that movie is criminally underrated. 

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There was another thread at one point where it was said that johnn candy played drama better than comedy, and I agree. Steve Martin can play both as well and that’s what makes this movie great, they can switch roles as needed. 
 

candy had a way to get you to root for him in all of his roles, his characters have good and bad but the good always overshadowed the bad. 
whether it’s silliness like armed and dangerous or Harry crumb, or more dramatic like only the lonely or delerious, all you want by the end of the film is for him to win out. 

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8 hours ago, South Austin said:

And I really don't care for the way your company left me in the middle of fucking nowhere with fucking keys to a fucking car that isn't fucking there. And I really didn't care to fucking walk down a fucking highway and across a fucking runway to get back here to have you smile at my fucking face. I want a fucking car...right...fucking...now.

CSB the route that he walked (not counting the runway part) is legit, I've done it.  There are (at least as of the late 90's) zero sidewalks to walk from the long term parking on the south side of 70 to the north side where Lambert sits.  AKA St. Louis sucks.

also, they did not film in Wichita.

Edited by mulletpelini
Stubbville was a possibility though.
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