Top 5 Road Trip Movies

Matt

In our second podcast, we got the idea for Top 5 road trip movies. This is a fitting list for Thanksgiving, since many of us will be doing a great deal of travel. Enjoy!

5. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure: This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. It has all the makings of a great road trip flick, with the added bonus of a seemingly unlimited amount of gags and bits with Pee-wee’s silly and smart innocence that strikes at the core of children and adults. Pee-wee heads to El Paso in hopes of finding his beloved stolen bicycle — making friends with bikers, hopping a trains and joining the rodeo.

4. Planes Trains and Automobiles: Is a charming movie that showcases Steve Martin and John Candy at their finest in this movie that plays off of their acting skills brilliantly. Martin plays a man trying to get home to his family for the holidays while Candy plays a  man with no home, a salesman with nothing in the world. Plenty of hilarious moments, including the one in the following clip (warning: strong language).

3. Easy Rider: Is a film that defined actors Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda and set a tone for filmmakers of their generation. With cash from a cocaine sale, free-wheelers Billy and Wyatt — played by Hopper and Fonda — hop on their motorcycles and ride across America toward New Orleans. Along the way, they add boozy lawyer George to their trouble-finding, society-questioning entourage. Hopper directed and co-wrote the film with Fonda. It was a landmark 1960s counterculture film. Jack Nicholson earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role as George.

2. Rain Man: This film had fantastic performances by Dustin Hoffman (who won an Oscar) and Tom Cruise in what is a very simple film layered in complex family relationships, escaping reality, and finding out what’s important. The movie is spent on the road, with interesting twists and turns along the way as two brothers who don’t know each other — one with autism — who hit the road after Cruise’s character springs Hoffman’s from his home for the disabled.

1. The Wizard of Oz: This is a phenomenal piece of film — from its vast sets, costumes and musicals, to its performances and ability to endure time. This is the ultimate road trip — going over the rainbow and back again, with charming characters, universal, lasting messages and sense of humor that takes the dark edge off the film. This is a movie that will endure forever, making it the most successful movie on this list, hands down.

Dick Tracy

Legendary police detective Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty) is the only man tough enough to take on gangster boss Big Boy Caprice and his band of menacing mobsters. Dedicated to his work but also devoted to his loyal girlfriend, Tess, Tracy’s torn between love and duty. Things get even stickier when Tracy’s saddled with an engaging orphan and meets seductive and sultry torch singer Breathless Mahoney (Madonna).

Matt
Rating: 8 out of 10

When people talk about great comic book movies, Dick Tracy is never in the conversation. But it should be.

I plucked this from the deep library on Netflix, and I’m glad I did. I really liked this movie as a kid but, as an adult, I like it even more. Beatty directed this visually intriguing film. It’s a noir world full of pastel colors. It is a dark place, full of criminals that are disfigured and warped. Tracy is ice-cold, not unlike Batman. This film has a similar feel to the world of Batman with the art deco buildings, neon lights and a camera watching from the shadows.

This comic book film is lighter in feel than most, however dark the characters are. Al Pacino is Big Boy Caprice, and he plays him to monstrous levels only he’s capable of. The film has a ridiculous cast, too. I’d argue the best of any comic book movie. Aside from Pacino and Beatty, the cast includes Dustin Hoffman, Dick Van Dyke, Paul Sorvino, Madonna, James Caan, Kathy Bates, Mandy Patinkin and Seymour Cassel.

This movie was made with a great deal of forethought and love for the source material. It’s an original take with a visually stunning style, great performances, and a fun story. This is a film that should be in the conversation of great comic book movies.

Follow us on Twitter!