The Perfect Thanksgiving Movie

Thanksgiving: a time for good, comforting food. A time to get together with family. A time to be thankful for what you have and want you've gained throughout the year. A time for some football. A time before the busiest shopping day of the year. A time when the weather changes significantly. A time to travel.

If you're looking for the perfect movie to watch on Thanksgiving then look no further: Planes, Trains and Automobiles is your answer!

Thirty years ago writer/director John Hughes broke away from teen angst films to deliver one of the greatest road trip movies ever. This movie is about every traveler's worst nightmares come to life, in an era without cellphones, Uber and Lyft systems, and GPS Navigation System.

Neal Page, played brilliantly by Steve Martin, is an uptight marketing executive trying desperately to get home to his family in Chicago from New York. Almost instantly his trip becomes a nightmare before he even reaches the airport.

When he finally reaches the airport, his flight is delayed due to the weather and while waiting in the terminal he meets Del Griffith, played wonderfully by John Candy, a loveable but obnoxious, over talkative, shower curtain ring salesman thus inadvertently starting a reluctant friendship between the two.

What follows is a hilarious three day odyssey across the country in an attempt to get Neal home in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Their lives will never be the same after this nightmare of a trip! The movie also features one of the funniest moments in motion picture history with the line, "Those aren't pillows!" and features one hilarious scene at a car rental place that shows what happens when someone is pushed over the edge. You haven't seen an upset customer like this before, maybe you have, but still this is one of the funniest moments in the movie.

It features cameos from various actors/actresses of other John Hughes films, including a memorable, yet weirdly placed cameo by Kevin Bacon.

This is the perfect movie to watch because it is rather relatable and the chemistry between Steve Martin and John Candy is incredible. The movie is definitely not meant for children under the age of seventeen as it is rated R for strong language and a brief sexual image.

This movie can bring some laughter and maybe even some tears to the family. Fun fact: this movie could have earned a PG rating if it wasn't for one scene where the use of one word is spoken eighteen times in a hilarious minute. Even though it is also rated R for a sexual image, they are barely visible, (more like one of the "blink and you'll miss it" types) and could have secured the movie a PG rating because the movie was released in the eighties and the rating system was a bit more loose than they are now. Seriously, do you really think the movie JAWS would be rated PG today?

Steve Martin hails this movie as his own personal favorite movie that he has done, it was also John Candy's favorite. It truly is a comedy classic. John Hughes admitted that a three hour version of the movie was filmed, though not in order, however that cut of the movie is said to have been lost in a vault somewhere, deteriorated by now.

I watch this movie every Thanksgiving and I never grow tired of it. I always laugh, the jokes never grow old to me; they are still just as funny now then when I first watched this movie. Add this to your family traditions for Thanksgiving, you'll be glad you did!