PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES: Is Neal Page’s Experience Now the American Thanksgiving Experience?

’80s Movies: A Guide to What’s Wrong with Your Parents PODCAST:

When you think of Thanksgiving movies, your brain might rush by Addams Family Values, Free Birds or Jack and Jill. Frankly, Thanksgiving movies of substance are few and far between. But hopefully, you’ll think of the greatest, most relatable Thanksgiving movie ever: Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

But let’s focus in on one word: relatable. In 1987, Neal Page’s (Steve Martin) teeth-gnashing journey was an anomaly. We’d all had a frustrating experience or two, but Neal’s three-day journey to get home was an exaggeration for most everyone (except John Hughes, whose five-day ordeal to get home one Thanksgiving inspired the script). In 2018, though, more cars are on the roads, more planes in the air, and more B.S. at the car rental counter. Is Planes, Trains and Automobiles now the American Thanksgiving experience?  On our ‘80s Movies: A Guide to What’s Wrong with Your Experience podcast, mother-daughter movie critics Tara McNamara and Riley Roberts look at that concept, why a perceived “family film” got an R rating, and if this classic holds up for today’s youth.

If nothing else, let our podcast entertain you on your long, long ride to Grandma’s house.