Remembering Planes, Trains and Automobiles
December 14th, 2008 • Remembering...
Boy, watching Toronto sports can be frustrating sometimes, huh? Note: I’m including Buffalo in there as well, if only because the ending of that Bills game was painful.
My family is notable for the fact that we can each make reference to any number of episodes to a number of different TV shows or pop culture moments for every situation. My dad’s got Seinfeld and the Sopranos covered; my brothers and I can name anything from the first 8 or 9 seasons of the Simpsons; Kyle and I know much of the Office; I can also provide a bunch of different movie references.
That’s why tonight’s Family Guy episode (a rerun from last month, I know), replete with not just a Home Alone reference but a Planes, Trains and Automobiles reference as well made me really smile. You see, PTA is one of the Hocking family movie traditions (and in fact, one of two that involve Steve Martin; Parenthood being the other), and Peter’s take on John Candy’s speech after Steve Martin trashes him and everything about him was just spot in. Family Guy’s take was just slightly different, but Lois’ setup and Peter’s delivery sent me back to watch the scene again.
PTA is one of those movies that you understand if you ever had problems on a road-trip; it’s also severely underrated, and offers one of Candy’s best performances ever. It did get positive reviews from critics at the time, but isn’t one of those movies that everyone has seen – which it should have been. John Hughes (he of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Home Alone, and others) put together a great script that just really worked really well with Martin and Candy. It airs often enough on TBS – sorry, PeachtreeTV – that you should be able to catch it on the tube, but it’s definitely a must rent. Eric Snider of film.com recently did a write-up of the flick which fleshes out a little bit more of the movie.
I’ll probably reflect on some other movies that are significant to me that may not have been to others; if you have any of your own, or any thoughts on PTA, please feel free to leave them in the comments.
