John Hughes remembered: PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES
John Hughes is best known for coming-of-age comedies with real heart, like THE BREAKFAST CLUB, SIXTEEN CANDLES, and FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF. However, while I do enjoy high school Hughes, my favorite films of his are the ones that feature adult protagonists, and take place more in the everyday world, with my all-time favorite Hughes movie being PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES.
Like Adam with FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, I first saw my top Hughes movie thanks to my dad (or P. Bear #1, if you want to get technical). I'm not sure of my exact age at the time, but it was somewhere in the 8-10 range, and what I am sure of is, both me and my P. Bear loved every second of the movie. The moment that always stands out in my mind from my initial viewing of PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES is how much my Dad enjoyed the part where an incredibly frustrated Steve Martin drops the F-word a lot in a speech to a car rental clerk, which ends with the ambushed clerk, looking Martin straight in the eye and saying, "you're fucked." Dad was right for enjoying this scene so, as it is incredibly hilarious, and undoubtedly features one of the best uses of the F-word ever in a movie.
The reason I love PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES so much is because of how consistently funny it is - the film starts strong and never lets up. The film just gets funnier as things continue to go bad for Martin's straight man, with John Candy's annoyingly optimistic and hilariously clueless character always there to make things worse, no matter how good his intentions.
For me, Hughes' two funniest films are PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES and UNCLE BUCK. Two hilarious films where Hughes wasn't concerned with teenage issues, and just wanted to make us laugh with overmatched adult characters trying to survive whatever comically difficult situation Hughes created for them. While it was very hard for me to pick my favorite between PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES and UNCLE BUCK, in the end the F-bomb scene barely gave PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES the victory, and after writing this post and reliving the greatness of PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES over and over in my mind, I feel very good about my decision.
Source My Soul
Other articles that you might like:
Commenting Rules: Comments are intended to open up the discussion to our readers about the topics at hand, and as such should be offered with a positive and constructive attitude. If your comment is not relative to the above post or is disrespectful to the authors and readers, we reserve the right to delete it. Continued abuse of our good nature will result in banishment of the offender. Additionally, if you have any burning issues to point out to the GATW crew - typos, corrections, suggestions, or straight-up criticism - please email us instead of commenting here.
Pingback: John Hughes remembered: PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES | Cars....