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Steve Martine and John Candy are comedy geniuses; each has a very different style yet somehow in Planes, Trains & Automobiles they work together flawlessly.

Neal Page and Del Griffith have one thing in common, they are both trying to get to Chicago and their plane gets stranded states away because of a snowstorm. Neal reluctantly agrees to team up with Del to find another way home and together the men not only irritate each other to no end, but run into every trial you can imagine from being forced to ride in the back of a hillbillies pick up truck to being stolen from in a motel room. This movie is a traveler’s nightmare and that alone makes it one of the funniest films you’ll enjoy about something that might actually happen to you.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles is a John Hughes film and I have to say it is the first Hughes film I’ve seen that is an adult story. While the teen angst I’ve come to associate so much with Hughes was gone, the anal, goofy, uptight characters were still a perfect fit for Hughes mentality. Between his knack for comedy and the extreme talents of Martin and Candy no joke is misplaced and even the most surreal situations retain their comic power.

I was a child when John Candy died and I have to say that I don’t really remember many of his performances with clarity. Watching Planes, Trains & Automobiles reminded me that Candy was a powerful comic in his heyday and his films should still be watched.

What I liked so much about Planes, Trains & Automobiles is again that it is film whose comedy doesn’t rely on the trends of its contemporary pop culture to be funny like Shrek or Murphy Brown, it finds its humor in the humanity of its characters and situations and that is what will make the film last and remain fresh for many years to come.

Director & Writer: John Hughes
Neal Page: Steve Martin
Del Griffith: John Candy
State Trooper: Michael McKean
Taxi Racer: Kevin Bacon
Car Rental Agent: Edie McClurg

Del: You know I had a feeling that when we parted ways. We would somehow wind up back together again. I've never seen a guy get picked up by his testicles before. Lucky thing for you that cop passed by when he did. Otherwise, you'd be lifting up your schnutz to tie you shoes. I'm sorry. That's terrible. Do you have any idea how glad I am I didn't kill you?
Neal: Do you have any idea how glad I'd be if you had?

I do love Ron Howard, but for some reason I was not super excited about the prospect of seeing Frost/Nixon, but I still intended to see it because I know Ron Howard makes movies worth seeing. Well, I saw Frost/Nixon today and I can safely say that I was not at all disappointed in it, in fact I was enthralled by the film.

Frost/Nixon is the tale of David Frost who is a British television personality who decides it would be good TV, and exposure for himself to get an interview with Richard Nixon post his abdication of the presidency and the difficulties he faces when he succeeds in getting that interview. For me I think that this movie fell in the same category as The Queen and I was uninterested because I felt no need for another political history lesson. However, just as The Queen surprised me in its ability to entice me Frost/Nixon grabbed me and kept me rooted to my seat without ever feeling like I was watching a history channel dramatization; instead Ron Howard managed to make me feel like I was in the room with Frost and Nixon and their associates watching a game of tennis or a tug-of-war that neither personality could afford to lose.

What I did find delightful was Frank Langella’s portrayal of Richard Nixon. I’ve had the experience of visiting the Nixon library several times as it is remarkable close to my house and have therefore seen way more of Nixon than I ever wanted to; I believe due to this when I watched Langella in the Frost/Nixon trailer I couldn’t help but feel like he was a Nixon imposter, and it bothered me. However, between the talents of Langella and Howard when I was actually watching the film in its entirety Langella became Nixon for me. I am not sure that Langella deserves an Oscar for the performance, but he definitely deserves the nomination as he somehow captures the essence of Nixon’s stubborn ruthlessness and still manages to make him empathetic and slightly likeable.

So far out of all the films that actually scored a best picture nomination this year I’d have to say that Frost/Nixon would get my vote, but I do think they Oscar’s are a forgone conclusion this year and Slumdog Millionaire will be taking home the gold.

Director: Ron Howard
Writer: Peter Morgan
Richard Nixon: Frank Langella
David Frost: Michael Sheen
James Reston, Jr: Sam Rockwell
Jack Brennan: Kevin Bacon
John Birt: Matthew Macfadyen
Bob Zelnick: Oliver Platt
Caroline Cushing: Rebecca Hall
Pat Nixon: Patty McCormack

James Reston, Jr.: You know the first and greatest sin of the deception of television is that it simplifies; it diminishes great, complex ideas, trenches of time; whole careers become reduced to a single snapshot.

If you don’t want to know the end of Friday the 13th don’t read this. I cannot discuss this film without discussing the end in detail. It wouldn’t do the film justice any other way.

I didn’t have the typical lack of knowledge most people do going into Friday the 13th; I knew the ending. How? I’ve seen Scream. Anyone that has seen the first 15 minutes of Scream knows the real ending of the film – the killer asks Drew Barrymore who the killer in Friday the 13th is and she gets is wrong. Thus she dies. From that moment on I knew that Jason was not the killer in the first Friday the 13th, but I didn’t understand. Everyone knows Jason is the killer in the hockey mask that haunts those films.

However, this knowledge did not turn me off of the film. It is the ending of Friday the 13th that makes the film worth watching – the ending is one of the most unique in the genre.

On the whole Friday the 13th is your average slasher film, I would argue that it is the start of the contemporary slasher film. A bunch of kids (including a young Kevin Bacon) go to be counselors at a quaint camp with a bloody history and in one night are picked off one by one. There are some really good scares and jump moments, but for the most part the body of the movie is really standard. The kids flirt, do drugs, have intercourse, and get slowly picked off one by one.

To tell the truth, with the exception of Kevin Bacon’s death I pretty much found the movie kind of boring – but then came the ending.

In the end Alice is the only counselor left alive and she sees a jeep drive up and Mrs. Voorhees gets out and offers to help Alice…but as it turns out Mrs. Voorhees used to work at the camp, and her son Jason drowned there. She blames the counselors for not watching him so in 1958 (the year after Jason drowned) she killed two of the counselors and the camp closed. She was never caught and when Mrs. Voorhees found out Camp Crystal Lake was reopening she decided to go after the counselors again.

The ending makes the movie. If it weren’t for the twist that the killer is not some typical psycho in a costume the first Friday the 13th would be a mere blip on the radar; however, Mrs. Voorhees, the vengeful mother makes the film unique and more than memorable.

There is a remake in the works for Friday the 13th and rumor has it that Mrs. Voorhees is out and Jason is in. I haven’t seen the second film yet to know how Jason works into the plot (because he drowned in 1958), but I heavily protest Mrs. Voorhees being totally taken out of the remake – she makes the film and makes it something worth seeing.

Director: Sean S. Cunningham
Writer: Victor Miller
Mrs. Voorhees: Betsy Palmer
Alice: Adrienne King
Marcie: Jeannine Taylor
Annie: Robbi Morgan
Jack: Kevin Bacon
Bill: Harry Crosby
Brenda: Laurie Bartram
Ned: Mark Nelson
Steve Christy: Peter Brouwer
Crazy Ralph: Walt Gorney
Barry: Willie Adams
Claudette: Debra S. Hayes
Trudy: Dorothy Kobs
Sandy: Sally Anne Golden
Jason: Ari Lehman

Pamela Voorhees: Did you know a young boy drowned the year before those two others were killed? The counselors weren't paying any attention... They were making love while that young boy drowned. His name was Jason. I was working the day that it happened. Preparing meals... here. I was the cook. Jason should've been watched. Every minute. He was... He wasn't a very good swimmer. We can go now... dear.