Jump to content

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Remake


MillerEP

Recommended Posts

Man, I knew John Candy was younger than I am now in "Plains Trains and Automobiles" but I just realized that Steve Martin was younger than I am now.  And my late father was my age now when we saw the movie together at the theater during the holiday season of 1987.  Man how time flies.  And Will Smith is older than all of us.  

"And I'll say because I've been with Del Griffith.  I can take anything." 

"And they'd say 'I know what you mean'."  

That exchange, which is basically Martin's monologue and Candy's facial acting.  The tension along with the comedic relief as they awake the next morning.  That's when you know the movie is going to be brilliant.  And that scene, however they attempt it, is going to be when you know this reboot is an epic flop.  It's so magically well done.  It's not particularly hilarious or gut-wrenching, but it sets the table so wonderfully for the two actors and their story.  No offense to Messers Smith and Hart, but they don't have that kind of comedic chemistry. 

They're gonna try to cram it down our throats that Hart is this obnoxious goofball loser, and Smith is the straight man trying to tolerate him on his way home.  But that's not actually the point of Hughes' script.  That's what people always get wrong.  Martin's character is the vessel by which Del Griffith finally takes a break from the road, his wife's last wish, for him to pause and restart his life.  Seeing Martin's family at the end doesn't make us swell up with tears because he traversed hardships to get back to them, we're supposed to cry because it's Del's wife's way of telling him that it's okay to move on mentally, not stay moving physically, to find love again and start a family.  The things Martin says to Candy at the end of the movie aren't coming out of his mouth, they're coming from Del's late wife.  I just don't see that same spiritual humor coming from "Bad Boys III:  Road Trip!"  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

Man, I knew John Candy was younger than I am now in "Plains Trains and Automobiles" but I just realized that Steve Martin was younger than I am now.  And my late father was my age now when we saw the movie together at the theater during the holiday season of 1987.  Man how time flies.  And Will Smith is older than all of us.  

"And I'll say because I've been with Del Griffith.  I can take anything." 

"And they'd say 'I know what you mean'."  

That exchange, which is basically Martin's monologue and Candy's facial acting.  The tension along with the comedic relief as they awake the next morning.  That's when you know the movie is going to be brilliant.  And that scene, however they attempt it, is going to be when you know this reboot is an epic flop.  It's so magically well done.  It's not particularly hilarious or gut-wrenching, but it sets the table so wonderfully for the two actors and their story.  No offense to Messers Smith and Hart, but they don't have that kind of comedic chemistry. 

They're gonna try to cram it down our throats that Hart is this obnoxious goofball loser, and Smith is the straight man trying to tolerate him on his way home.  But that's not actually the point of Hughes' script.  That's what people always get wrong.  Martin's character is the vessel by which Del Griffith finally takes a break from the road, his wife's last wish, for him to pause and restart his life.  Seeing Martin's family at the end doesn't make us swell up with tears because he traversed hardships to get back to them, we're supposed to cry because it's Del's wife's way of telling him that it's okay to move on mentally, not stay moving physically, to find love again and start a family.  The things Martin says to Candy at the end of the movie aren't coming out of his mouth, they're coming from Del's late wife.  I just don't see that same spiritual humor coming from "Bad Boys III:  Road Trip!"  

happy will smith GIF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, MillerEP said:

This is one of my favorite movies, so I honestly don't know how to feel about this:

https://deadline.com/2020/08/planes-trains-and-automobiles-remake-will-smith-kevin-hart-paramount-john-hughes-john-candy-steve-martin-1203015171/

‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles’ Gets Paramount Pictures Remake With Will Smith & Kevin Hart Starring; Westbook, Hartbeat Produce

Mike Fleming Jr
Co-Editor-in-Chief, Film
August 17, 2020 9:57am

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures has set a remake of the classic John Hughes 1987 road trip comedy Planes, Trains & Automobiles as a star vehicle for Will Smith and Kevin Hart. Hart’s Hartbeat Productions and Smith’s Westbrook Studios will produce. In her feature debut, Aeysha Carr will write the script. Her TV credits include Brooklyn 99 and the upcoming Hulu series Woke.

The original starred Steve Martin and John Candy as a mismatched duo forced to become bunkmates and traveling partners in a desperate attempt to get home to loved ones for Thanksgiving after their flights are canceled. A slew of holiday travel disasters follow, and they mix like water and oil. Hart and Smith produce with Westbrook Studios Co-President and Head of Motion Pictures Jon Mone and Hartbeat’s President of Film and Television Bryan Smiley.

The film seems like an ideal one for a new version from Paramount: it was very funny, but writer/director Hughes made it exceptionally touching considering the high concept road trip premise. He caught two superb physical comic actors at the peak of their powers. 

Carr most recently executive produced the upcoming Hulu series Woke, which premieres in September starring New Girl’s Lamorne Morris and SNL‘s Sasheer Zamata. She wrote episodes and became a supervising producer on Brooklyn 99 and was a writer on Rel, The Carmichael Show, Mixology, Everybody Hates Chris, and My Wife and Kids.

Carr is repped by ICM Partners, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Goodman, Genow; Hart is repped by UTA, 3 Arts and Schreck Rose; Smith is repped by CAA

as soon as I saw the thread title I immediately thought, fuck Kevin Hart is going to fuck up one of the best comedies of all time.  I figure the Martin character would be white though and probably will ferrell.  this might be the dumbest ideas of all dumb ideas but hollywood gonna hollywood.  just get the list going  trading places, stripes, ferris, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fuck is next? Animal House? American Graffiti? Planes, Trains and Automobiles is the perfect movie. We watch it every single Thanksgiving and laugh at all the same things every single fucking time. Like, who takes a knife to open a motel door, comes in and steals their money without them noticing and then puts the huge wad of bills in his hat that's on his head? Genius.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

On ‎8‎/‎18‎/‎2020 at 4:02 PM, Pig Bellmont said:

I guess the remake with Robert Downy Jr and Zach Galifinakis was so successful they wanted to do it again but blacker?

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1231583/?ref_=fn_al_tt_0

Exactly. 

In a similar vein, instead of insulting (1) the intelligence of the audience, and (2) the legacy of John Hughes, why not script a road trip caper and call it something other than Planes, Trains, and Automobiles?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lots of reasons it can be remade. It's been 33 years. A sufficiently large mass of people have never seen the original, often because they had not yet been born. John Hughes isn't getting any deader. It's not like we're talking about the Godfather, Star Wars, or Citizen Kane. But what it really comes down to is that John Hughes had a huge string of good movies. With a little updating, they could all be made to work well in the present.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/18/2020 at 12:06 PM, DanRydell said:

Because Hollywood a business and people don't buy tickets to original movies anymore. 3 of the 25 highest grossing movies in domestic box office last year weren't sequels, remakes, or based on some sort of existing IP.

Exactly. "Hollywood" chases/makes what people watch.  If original stories with unfamiliar characters, plots and themes made money, that's what they would make.  But we are a country full of dumb fucking rubes who like to watch things go "boom" and don't want to have to think hard about *anything* -- so guess what we get? 

Lots of superhero movies and re-makes so the sea of unwashed masses don't have to go through the Herculean effort of learning new characters or plots.

So don't blame "Hollywood" - blame the Idiocracy that they are making movies for.

Edited by oSuJeff97
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, McCroskey said:

You can’t make a movie with shower curtain rings, Del...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

True story, I'm part of a hospital renovation,  I run a team of carpenters, we're at the end of the job, final cleaning crew is in, we're just missing a few things, like how does the hospital want us to hang their pinche shower curtains?  No one has an answer, I text the project manager a picture of Del Griffin every morning.

Shower curtain rings are holding up the job.

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As much as we're all (rightly) cringing at this, the point has been brought up several times already: technology has made much of the plot obsolete. Those of us of a certain age understand EXACTLY how difficult travel was pre-internet, phones and apps.

I don't have kids, but do millennials and younger find it funny/touching? I had friends in college who wouldn't watch any film if it was in B&W because they only had color TV as kids.

To me PTA is as timeless as It's a Wonderful Life. You can easily look past the parts that date the films because the story is true & universal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:


I feel the same about Krull.

See, now you couldn't remake Krull today because cell phones would completely negate the 1/3rd of the movie where they try to find out where the Black Fortress will transport to each sunrise.  You'd just ask google, "Where will the Black Fortress be tomorrow morning?"  And then just get pre-order an Uber to take you there instead of those crazy fire horses.  Damn kids these days...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

I'm sorry if the emotional struggles of upper middle class white people from the suburbs of Chicago doesn't really appeal to me.

Uh, the emotional struggles of upper middle class white people from the suburbs of SE Florida's Bushwood Country Club doesn't really appeal to me.

But I thought "Caddyshack" was a funny movie.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

Uh, the emotional struggles of upper middle class white people from the suburbs of SE Florida's Bushwood Country Club doesn't really appeal to me.

But I thought "Caddyshack" was a funny movie.  

Danny was poor and Harold Ramis didn't make 10 Caddyshacks

Edited by Michael Knight
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Dewey said:

True story, I'm part of a hospital renovation,  I run a team of carpenters, we're at the end of the job, final cleaning crew is in, we're just missing a few things, like how does the hospital want us to hang their pinche shower curtains?  No one has an answer, I text the project manager a picture of Del Griffin every morning.

Shower curtain rings are holding up the job.

American Light & Fixture makes the best shower curtain rings in the world.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Michael Knight said:

Danny was poor and Harold Ramis didn't make 10 Caddyshacks

Half the buddy duo in "Planes Trains & Automobiles" was poor.  As was every other secondary character.  And Steve Martin's character was merely upper middle class.  

Several key characters in nearly every one of his movies is middle class to poor.  That was the whole point.  How the regular and/or uncool kids interacted with the rich/cool kids.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going to admit something: I have never seen Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. I didn't even know it was a John Hughes film until this thread. It came out when I was 8, an age at which I had no interest in adult buddy movies, especially comedies. More importantly, I've never been a big Steve Martin fan, though I liked John Candy's work. I was shocked to discover that it grossed more than all but two of the films he directed (Ferris Bueller and Uncle Buck both made more).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

As much as we're all (rightly) cringing at this, the point has been brought up several times already: technology has made much of the plot obsolete. Those of us of a certain age understand EXACTLY how difficult travel was pre-internet, phones and apps.

Ha... my favorite story about this is when a group of friends and I were driving back from a ski trip from Colorado to Stillwater when I was in college.  We stupidly decided to take the route through New Mexico and the Oklahoma panhandle instead of I-70 to I-35... I don't recall why...

Anyway, there was some town in New Mexico where we needed to take a certain highway that would take us to the Oklahoma panhandle... the other one went south toward Texas.

It was the middle of the night and at some point we were driving and I was looking at the map and was like, "I don't think we're on the right road..." An argument ensued.... We drove another 30-40 miles and then hit the sign that said, "WELCOME TO TEXAS"..... I was like... FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.  :D:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

As much as we're all (rightly) cringing at this, the point has been brought up several times already: technology has made much of the plot obsolete. Those of us of a certain age understand EXACTLY how difficult travel was pre-internet, phones and apps.

I don't have kids, but do millennials and younger find it funny/touching? I had friends in college who wouldn't watch any film if it was in B&W because they only had color TV as kids.

To me PTA is as timeless as It's a Wonderful Life. You can easily look past the parts that date the films because the story is true & universal.

I'm 38 and it's one of my favorite comedies of all time. I watch it, at least, every Thanksgiving. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, oSuJeff97 said:

Ha... my favorite story about this is when a group of friends and I were driving back from a ski trip from Colorado to Stillwater when I was in college.  We stupidly decided to take the route through New Mexico and the Oklahoma panhandle instead of I-70 to I-35... I don't recall why...

 

No wonder you got lost...  

Edited by slorch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...