For reasons time forgot, I refused to watch or like this movie as a child, despite being a big fan of John Hughes' other work. Something rubbed me the wrong way. My best guess is the advertisements of physical gags, like Martin washing his face with Candy's underwear. That's not funny to me. I broke down to watch when I found out it's one of the few Thanksgiving movies, maybe the only one anyone's seen.
Planes, Trains & Automobiles stars Steve Martin as a guy trying to get from New York to Chicago for Thanksgiving. He leaves 2 days before Thanksgiving, so this seems like it would be simple, but it's not. He goes through various mishaps and accidents, aided by an oblivious John Candy, getting to the airport for his flight. Once in the air, the Chicago airport shuts down and they land in Wichita (The first of numerous highly questionable occurrences). Candy befriends Martin on the flight, to Martin's displeasure. In Wichita, Martin can't get a room, so Candy offers to help him out. Turns out they have to share the room, and a bed. Wackiness ensues. The next day, flights still booked solid, they try to take a train. It breaks down midway. Then they try to independently rent cars. Martin finds his has been stolen from the rental lot. He ends up riding with Candy, of course, and they proceed to argue and do stupid things, eventually getting to Chicago after more zany adventures. It's there we find out Candy's a lonely guy who lost his wife and has no where to go for Thanksgiving.
Credit to the ending for not being overwritten. No big speech. Martin comes in, asks Candy why he isn't going home, Candy gives him the simple truth. It's a good moment.
Ended up being a good movie, despite most of the humor not being my style. (Full disclosure, I watched on a plane. The cabin pressure may warp my taste to like anything.) I can see why the things are funny, it's just not that funny to me. It has the John Hughes feel, which I love. Candy puts in a great performance. His speech in the middle is typical Hughes. I feel like he had that written for one of his teen movies and decided to use it here instead. Works either way.
The problem with the movie, and the reason I don't like the humor as much as others, is that I spent half the movie second guessing everything. The funny stuff relies too much on improbable occurrences for my taste. What are the odds a plane is redirected AND a train breaks down AND a rental car is stolen? Then, because life isn't enough, Martin routinely screws himself and makes the situation worse, for no reason other than it's funny to see him suffer. There are too many mishaps and illogical reactions for me to buy.
Two other major points that make no sense:
1. Is there even a 1% chance that a plane scheduled to land in Chicago lands in Wichita? That's over 700 miles away. Would they have enough fuel for that? Why not land in Indianapolis, Des Moines, St Louis, Omaha, Michigan or Ohio? Every place is closer than Wichita.
2. It takes them like a day and a half to get from St. Louis to Chicago. That should be a 5 hour drive.
Many character actors who are John Hughes staples in this one. The secretary from Ferris Bueller. Ben Stein. The guy who played Kramer on Jerry. There's also Michael McKean, briefly.
The strangest guest appearance may be Kevin Bacon as a guy trying to get a taxi at the same time as Martin. The cool part about that scene is its use in two movies. The same clip is in She's Having a Baby, starring Bacon. Makes me wonder why synergy like this isn't used more often. One shot for two movies is cheaper than two shots. It may just be too difficult, or restrictive, to use more often.
First Viewing: 3+2+2+2+2 = 11