Best Road Trip movie

[topspeed]

As summer announces its arrival (95 degrees right now, so it's using a bullhorn where I live), so does the inevitable summer vacation and road trip!

With that spirit in mind, let's cast our votes for best road trip themed movies. There are a billion of these, so please forgive me for forgetting any. I have tried to whittle the list down and while the theme remains basically the same, the genres are quite diverse.

Here we go...

[GMichael]

How about:

The Blues Brothers(1999)
Directed by John Landis. Cast: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Aretha Franklin, Henry Gibson, Steve Lawrence, Jake and Elwood Blues, two hoodlum brothers searching for redemption, set out to locate and reenlist the members of their defunct rhythm and blues band in order to raise some honest money to save an orphanage. They may be on a "mission from God," but they're making enemies everywhere they go.

OR

The Road Warrior (1982)
Directed by George Miller. Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Michael Preston, Max Phipps, Vernon Wells. A former police officer is now a lone wanderer, travelling through a post-apocalyptic Australia looking for the now-priceless fuel of petrol. He lives to survive and is none too pleased when he finds himself the only hope of a small group of honest people running a remote oil refinery. He must protect them from the bike gang that is terrorizing them, while transporting their entire fuel supply to safety

[Rich-n-Texas]

Of those choices I have to vote for Vacation. Chevy Chase's style of humor in the National Lampoon movies was always funny to me.

Screaming chickens rule!

What year's your TA TS?

[Smokey]

I think you know which one I will vote for as my favorite

But for change of pace, I will vote for Midnight Run. It got Deniro and couple of my favorite actors such as Joe Pantoliano, Dennis Farina and John Ashton.

Another favorite road movie would be Convoy with Kris Kristofferson, Ernest Borgnine and Burt Young.

[eisforelectronic]

Road Trip is my favorite road trip movie.

[kexodusc]

Vacation here - some good movies, but this one's a clear winner IMO.
Followed closely by Smokey & Cannonball run...some funny stuff in this list.

[Worf101]

No "Vanishing Point"? LOL...

I loved "Gumball Rally" more than the rest of that lot so you know what I voted for. But there's a couple of Ron Howard movies that were also a lot of mindless 70's fun.

"Grand Theft Auto"

"Eat My Dust"

Were 2 Drive in Faves when I was stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood, Misery. God I feel so old now.

Da Worfster

[PeruvianSkies]

No "Vanishing Point"? LOL...

Yeah, put that one right up there with William Friedkins THE SCORCERER and Spielbergs DUEL. Some grrrrrrrrrrreat times on the road. Ha.

[Troy]

Vanishing Point came to mind first for me too. Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry too.

From that list I'll go with Vacation too. Just saw it again a few days ago. It's still hilarious. Midnight Run was pretty fun too.

I have a soft spot for Thelma and Louise too. Planes Trains and Automobiles is a winner as well.

But I can't stand any of the "cross country race" flicks like Gumball, Cannonball et al. Mad World was awesome and a Cross Country Race as well, but it has a totally different vibe than the pure race movies.

Easy Rider is a fascinating time capsule, but falls apart under any narative scrutiny. I prefer Two Lane Blacktop for this kinda thing.

The following list are all great, great road movies.

It Happened One Night

Slither

Kalifornia

The first 2 Mad Max movies

Grapes of Wrath

Road Games

Lost In America

Paper Moon

Pee Wee's Big Adventure

Something Wild

Wild at Heart

Kingpin

[Woochifer]

The first two that came to mind with me were the same as GM's ...

The Road Warrior/Mad Max 2 is one of my favorite movies in any genre, though I'm a bit hesitant to label it as a "road trip" movie considering its apocalyptic context!

The Blues Brothers (I assume GM's talking about the original, and not the 1999 sequel Blues Brothers 2000?) is indeed a great road trip movie, albeit in yet another unconventional context with neo-Nazis, good ole boys, state troopers, and half the Chicago Police giving chase while the heroes are on their mission from God.

A recent road trip movie I'd add to the list is Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. Nothing fancy, just a couple of stoners hitting the highway because they got the burger munchies. And the movie just lets the madness unfold as events pile one on top of the other. Growing up in L.A. where the late night burger run is a sacred ritual, I can totally relate to this movie (although IMO, White Castle is not nearly as worthy a destination as L.A. chiliburger mecca Tommy's, or Fatburger, or In-N-Out). I've actually driven 100 miles from San Francisco to Sacramento just to get a worthy chiliburger fix, and friends of mine when they were in college actually drove all night from Berkeley to L.A. (~400 miles each way) and back just to get a Tommy's burger (and even made it back in time for morning classes). So, conceptually at least, this is about as true-to-life as a movie can get!

[GMichael]

The first two that came to mind with me were the same as GM's ...

Does this mean that I'm getting smarter, or are you getting.... uh.... well.... Nevermind. I must be getting smarter.

[topspeed]

Of those choices I have to vote for Vacation. Chevy Chase's style of humor in the National Lampoon movies was always funny to me.



What year's your TA TS?

Alas, I've never had a TA. My older sister's both had Firebirds and Mustangs, but I got stuck with a rusty, clapped out Dodge Ramcharger with a 440 under the hood. It was so dirty there were mushrooms growing out of the harvest gold shag carpet.

True story.

Guess my ol' man figured out that a fast car + me at 16 years of age was a recipe for disaster (he was probably right).

Still, I've always had a soft spot for TA's as my friend in high school drove a blue 400 that sounded sooooo good!




As for Blues Brothers, yeah, it should have been there. Unfortunately, there are a few thousand road trip movies and only 10 poll positions.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Geez, now I feel guilty.

Anyway, congrats to you as well on your recent 3K posts.

And I'm sticking with my vote, The Grizzwold's = #1!

[Smokey]

Yeah, put that one right up there with William Friedkins THE SCORCERER.

That is a great movie. Although it takes a while to get rolling, but it got some of best hair raising driving stunts seen on films.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Does this mean that I'm getting smarter, or are you getting.... uh.... well.... Nevermind. I must be getting smarter.

No. It just means Wooch hasn't gotten much sleep lately.

[PeruvianSkies]

That is a great movie. Although it takes a while to get rolling, but it got some of best hair raising driving stunts seen on films.

It's a decent remake for sure, the original film called WAGES OF FEAR is intense beyond words and is worth checking out, it's directed by Henri-Geoges Clouzot and is a masterpiece in suspnse.

[GMichael]

Alas, I've never had a TA. My older sister's both had Firebirds and Mustangs, but I got stuck with a rusty, clapped out Dodge Ramcharger with a 440 under the hood. It was so dirty there were mushrooms growing out of the harvest gold shag carpet.

True story.

Guess my ol' man figured out that a fast car + me at 16 years of age was a recipe for disaster (he was probably right).

Still, I've always had a soft spot for TA's as my friend in high school drove a blue 400 that sounded sooooo good!




As for Blues Brothers, yeah, it should have been there. Unfortunately, there are a few thousand road trip movies and only 10 poll positions.

So, that 440 wasn't fast?