Top 5 funniest travel movies

Writer Carlie Auclair takes us on a trip down memory lane with these gut-busting travel flicks. Don’t forget to pack your sense of humour.

By Carlie Auclair [health bureau chief]

From my experience in coming across potential contenders for this article, I came to the realization that there are a large amount of movies based on the idea of travel.

Some are about kooky frat road trips while others are about serious enlightenment as a product of travel. Because of these complexities I have made the choice to narrow down the options significantly and stick to the more humorous of the contenders.

With its variety of misfortunes and mishaps travel has always held the potential for humor. Luggage can be lost; wrong planes could be boarded, and lets not forget the culture shock that takes place when one enters a foreign country.

There is hilarity lurking behind every corner when traveling and many movies have been made solely based on this. So as a way of paying homage to the hilariousness that travel can bring  I give you my top five funniest movies about travel. Enjoy!

5 Euro-Trip
Even though the humor of this movie is targeted towards the fresh out of high school crowd, I cannot deny the chuckles that escaped my mouth during this film. Based on the premise of a bunch of rambunctious high school graduates looking for some overseas fun, the story takes our characters through a labyrinth of goofy but surprisingly realistic European high jinks. The plot is overflowing with rabid soccer hooligans, drunken sex club endeavors and absinthe filled Eastern European parties; and if you look carefully you might catch the very unrecognizable cameo made by Matt Damon.

4 Airplane
This is one of those movies where the humor transcends generations and captures an audience constructed of all ages. My dad first introduced me to this movie when I was a kid and I have loved it ever since for its tongue in cheek style parody and slapstick action; and with a variety of off-the-cuff cameos from Hollywood well-known’s such as, Kareem-Abdul Jabar, Leslie Nielson, Lloyd Bridges and Leave it to Beaver’s Barbara Billingsley this movie takes you on a half-baked plane ride full of airplane fun.

3 Dumb and Dumber
Even though there is some back story to this film, basically it’s about two guys on a road trip to Aspen, Colorado determined to return a forgotten briefcase to the very lovely and very ginger Lauren Holly. The road trip is the spine of this movie because it shows how the two characters react to one another and the idiotic situations they manage to get themselves into. There’s murder by chili peppers, a van-for-scooter trade-in, a pair of very pastel tuxedos and an incident involving stomach medicine and a cup of tea. The hilarious chemistry that Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels had in the film has been attempted in many films but none could seem to duplicate the relaxed tomfoolery that these characters managed to emanate.

2 Vegas Vacation
Some of you might wonder why I chose this movie over the first Vacation. I did give it some consideration because first of all, the original Vacation was truly fantastic, but the fact that this crazy family called the Griswolds still decides to take family vacations 15 years later ups the humor ante significantly and forces me to give in. Watching Rusty, Audrey, Clark and Ellen peruse sin city with full pockets and empty brains gives good background for any Vacation film and does not fail to deliver with the laughs. The main lesson or moral of the story is that the city of Las Vegas is the beast that brings out the sinner in each character. For Clark its excessive gambling, for Ellen its Wayne Newton, for Rusty its posing as a software tycoon in Tulsa and for Audrey its exotic dancing; each character is reduced to a pile of Vegas sin, once exposed to the tantalizing temptations Vegas has to offer.

1 Planes, Trains and Automobiles
This was a pretty obvious choice for me, considering my undying love for all things John Candy and John Hughes. Like most John Hughes films Planes, Trains and Automobiles is based in the windy city of Chicago and chalked full of well-developed main characters and unlike any movie on this list, there are a few very heart warming moments. John Candy plays the bumbling shower curtain salesman, with a heart of gold, “Dell Griffith”, and Steve Martin plays the uptight, intolerant businessman “Neil Page”. Together, the two men attempt to make it home in time for the Thanksgiving holiday. This movie is the number one choice on my list because it is quirky, laugh-out loud hilarious, and truly unforgettable.