cinema de turkey day

movies and turkey day have gone hand in hand with me for years…

…it all started back in high school once i became independently mobile (i.e. got a driver’s license). back then, about five o’clock or so, JAB and i would be mentally done with family time. we’d need a break. and since there tends to be quite a few movies that get thanksgiving releases we would take advantage and roll out to check one out. it damn near became tradition for a while there. hell, one of the movies was U2’s tour documentary rattle & hum, and they had a merch table…

…i still have the shirt.

but this faded as college and girlfriend led to real jobs and wives and such. not a biggie, but i was thinking about it earlier today…and just so it’s out there for people that don’t know us personally, i don’t think either of our wives would give two shits if we wanted to go catch a movie on thanksgiving night, and seeing as how we both married awesome women who are fun to hang out with, they’d probably wanna come with and that would make it all the more fun.

but you know what i think we’re missing – thanksgiving movies. and i don’t mean movies to see on turkey day, i mean movies ABOUT turkey day. do they even exist? if you google it you get a wiki page that lists everything from spiderman to rocky but for my money there’s only three on their list that make sense, two of which i’ve seen but don’t watch on the regular…dutch, a great john hughes flick with ed o’neil (back when we all knew him only as al bundy) where a guy goes and gets his spoiled-ass step-son for thanksgiving break, and tower heist, a more recent flick with a stellar cast (matthew broderick, alan alda, casey affleck, ben stiller, eddie murphy) that fell a bit short given the heavy hitters in the cast but still enjoyable…the pinnacle scene takes place on thanksgiving during the macy’s parade, so i guess that kinda fits?

from where i sit there’s really only one – planes, trains, and automobiles – john candy. steve martin. john hughes. done – just can’t be touched. i watch it every thanksgiving…literally EVERY thanksgiving. it’ll happen this year, too. in recent years, we (shane & i) also use this time to ring in the holiday with bad santa, which the ufw just saw recently for the first time. we haven’t done it the last couple of years, but with the ufw’s kid NOT at home with us this year, and her off work on black friday, i think we might need to get back to that this year…

…yes, shane – that was an invite. text me and let’s get this set up!