BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) TOMMY BOY
This list could have easily been a top 10. It feels kind of weird to be snubbing “King Pin”, “Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back”, “Dumb and Dumber”, and “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle”. That’s just a few off the top of my head. What we have here is the best of the best. Tommy Boy is just that. The comedy duo of Chris Farley and David Spade will go down as one of the best. Farley is a big loveable man child whose father passes away. With the family business in jeopardy, Farley is joined by a small uptight and snarky David Spade. They travel the road selling brake pads and timeless hilarity ensues.
(THREE) VACATION
The husband and wife comedy duo of Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo brought up not one, not two, not even three; but FOUR great sequels. If you enjoy comedy and tell me that the original National Lampoon Vacation, European Vacation, Christmas Vacation, and Vegas Vacation aren’t great then I hope you choke on your choice of Walley World beverages. Granted Christmas Vacation isn’t a road trip, the other three are more than enough for these two to make the list. The kids always change, but the two constants in this franchise are the parents. Both just want their family to have a good time and enjoy themselves. As goofy and dumb Chevy’s “Clark Griswold” is, D’Angelo’s “Ellen” sticks by him and proves she can be just as goofy at certain times. She pretty much plays the straight man most of the time as he gets himself into more and more trouble. But at the end of each movie, all is okay, the family is happy, and these two stick together. I’m pretty sure at this point, we’d go anywhere with them.
(TWO) THE BLUES BROTHERS
The fact that this is a road trip movie is probably one of the last things that comes to mind when thinking about this movie, one of the best comedies of all time. You think about it being a musical comedy, you think about the car chase, you think about the smoothness of Jake and Elwood Blues. We forget that for most of this movie we have John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd travelling across the Midwest getting their old band back together. You can’t help but enjoy the ride. I mean, c’mon… they’re on “a mission from God”.
(ONE) PLANES, TRAINS, & AUTOMOBILES
If don’t agree with this, then you might as well go outside and meet me for a fist fight. There is no budging on this one. The very best road trip comedy movie duo is John Candy and Steve Martin from “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”. You see, in this film our two traveling counterparts experience multiple means of transportation. Of those methods, we have planes, trains, AND automobiles. So yeah, they’re not lying. This movie is just great. I would like to think that if John hadn’t passed away, eventually John Candy and Steve Martin would cross paths again in the future for a sequel. I dunno… maybe call it “Boats, Helicopters, and Motorcycles”. Maybe not. Regardless, this movie is magic. The three scenes that always stand out to me is the “wet rag” scene with Steve Martin and Candy’s underwear, the wrong way driving scene, and the scene were John Candy charms folks into buying shower curtain rings as exotic jewelry. This movie is a normal comedy. There are set up and jokes coming at a rapid pace, but what makes it work is the chemistry between the two. Both characters could be categorized as “goofy fat guy and slender straight man”, but they brought so much more to the table here. One of the best ever.
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