Weekend Movie Discussion: Black Nativity, Homefront, Oldboy, and The Top 5 Thanksgiving Day Films

Happy late Thanksgiving everyone!

Here's one: Quickly, off the top of your head, what are the best Thanksgiving movies?

Takes a moment doesn't it. Hard to think of which are actually Christmas films. Indicative of the holiday sadly. Fact is a lot of people wait until Thanksgiving just so they can kick off the Christmas movie season. Poor forlorn holiday that it is, we go from Halloween to thinking about Christmas with nary a thought towards the pilgrim fest. Perhaps if we didn't largely celebrate by stuffing ourselves and watching football games. Well I haven't forgotten the holiday and that's why I shall have a top 5 list of Thanksgiving day films at the end of the column. But first, shall we get down to business?

3. As if to bring home my point, Black Nativity opened last night. There was a time when I unquestioningly watched any film with Forest Whitaker in it. I was young, naive, and liked the film Species (for, lets face it, the only real reason a teenage boy would). Then I started to see other... Things. End of the day he is a great actor, but not one that screams must watch for me. And neither does this particular adaptation. But who knows. Lesser things have been watched by me late night on TBS.

Alright it was the Twilight Zone reboot. His huffing and puffing like an asthmatic in a dust storm drove me up the walls.

2. Homefront. Let's face it, I think we all want to watch James Franco get his butt kicked by Jason Statham. It's a given. 

1. Then we have Spike Lee's remake of Oldboy. Amazing cast. Looks absolutely bizarre. Why wouldn't I want to see it?

Now onto the main course (Thanksgiving... It's a food joke):

Top 5 Thanksgiving Films

5. Son in Law  

Don't hate me for this one, but I don't inherently think of Pauly Shore as evil. I loved him when I was a kid and as far as I'm concerned, he has two films that are still watchable. The other being Encino Man.

5. Bean 

The older the movie gets, the more I like the sequel better. Bean was of course Mr. Bean's first movie where he visits America. It's painful, as the show always is, but using some of the same gags that played out in the show, its replay value is greatly diminished. Still anytime you have a man fishing for a watch, with his head, in a turkey, we're all winners.

5. Addams Family Values 

For the second one in a row, I must say that the sequel far outweighs the original as AFV was superior in every way to the first film and is still hilarious. The Thanksgiving day play is sure to get your dark side chuckling.

5. Home For The Holidays 

I'm not sure there's a more accurate depiction of family at Thanksgiving than is demonstrated in this film. There are classic lines, but the drama wins out here.

1. Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Let's face it, there's really only one number one Thanksgiving film, and puts all others at a distant last place (waits for everyone to get the four 5's and to applaud inwardly his cleverness...) at that's Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. John Hughes clearly had a thing for Thanksgiving, as Dutch featured the day as well. But there is something special and timeless about the comedy in PTAA. It's a film that, like the holiday it showcases, always begs for another serving. 

Obviously this weekend is about coming together (Well, food really) so I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with the people you like best, and your family.*

*Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's like a bad joke from a 70's stand up comedian. What do you want from me, it's a holiday weekend?