The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Comedy · 1987
An irritable marketing executive, Neal Page, is heading home to Chicago for Thanksgiving when a number of delays force him to travel with a well meaning but overbearing shower curtain ring salesman, Del Griffith.
Movie details
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
“What he really wanted was to spend Thanksgiving with his family. What he got was three days with the turkey.”
1987 Comedy 1h 32m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
7.6 / 10
179.7K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
93 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
72 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
7.3 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
An irritable marketing executive, Neal Page, is heading home to Chicago for Thanksgiving when a number of delays force him to travel with a well meaning but overbearing shower curtain ring salesman, Del Griffith.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Planes, Trains and Automobiles?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Airplane!
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The Out-of-Towners
Comedy · 1970
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Tommy Boy
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To save the family business, two ne’er-do-well traveling salesmen hit the road with disastrously funny consequences.
National Lampoon's Vacation
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Clark Griswold is on a quest to take his family to the Walley World theme park for a vacation, but things don't go exactly as planned.
Disaster Holiday
Comedy · 2024
A workaholic dad, trying to win over his kids, heads to the coast of Durban for a big work meeting — under the guise of a family road trip vacation.
Dumb and Dumber
Comedy · 1994
Lloyd and Harry are two men whose stupidity is really indescribable. When Mary, a beautiful woman, loses an important suitcase with money before she leaves for Aspen, the two friends (who have found the suitcase) decide to return it to her. After some "adventures" they finally get to Aspen where, using the lost money they live it up and fight for Mary's heart.
The Great Outdoors
Comedy · 1988
It's vacation time for outdoorsy Chicago man Chet Ripley, along with his wife, Connie, and their two kids, Buck and Ben. But a serene weekend of fishing at a Wisconsin lakeside cabin gets crashed by Connie's obnoxious brother-in-law, Roman Craig, his wife, Kate, and the couple's two daughters. As the excursion wears on, the Ripleys find themselves at odds with the stuffy Craig family.
Rat Race
Adventure · 2001
In an ensemble film about easy money, greed, manipulation and bad driving, a Las Vegas casino tycoon entertains his wealthiest high rollers -- a group that will bet on anything -- by pitting six ordinary people against each other in a wild dash for $2 million jammed into a locker hundreds of miles away. The tycoon and his wealthy friends monitor each racer's every move to keep track of their favorites. The only rule in this race is that there are no rules.
The Family Plan
Action · 2023
Dan Morgan is many things: a devoted husband, a loving father, a celebrated car salesman. He's also a former assassin. And when his past catches up to his present, he's forced to take his unsuspecting family on a road trip unlike any other.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
John Hughes
Written by
John Hughes
Steve Martin
Neal Page
John Candy
Del Griffith
Laila Robins
Susan Page
Michael McKean
State Trooper
Dylan Baker
Owen
Kevin Bacon
Taxi Racer
Olivia Burnette
Marti Page
Court is in session
Put Planes, Trains and Automobiles on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.