Movies for Grownups: Summer movie staycation - Movie Features ...

Gas still costs more than milk, airlines are thinking of charging for use of those teeny restrooms and a one-week beach rental costs more than your monthly mortgage.

This might not be the best summer to pack up and go, but you can still get away from it all, if only for two hours at a time, with these great vacation-themed movies - some classics, some hidden gems:

- "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983): It started out as a John Hughes short story, and by the time director Harold Ramis and his stars, Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo were through, it became the quintessential film about life on the Holiday Road with the fam. Hughes, writing the screenplay, manages to squeeze in every imaginable trauma that awaits families in search of what Chase's Clark Griswold calls a "fun family vacation." They include, but are not limited to, breakdowns (mechanical and emotional), disastrous wrong turns, cheap motels (with vibrating beds), bunking with weird relatives, and the ultimate disillusionment that lurks at the long-awaited destination. Funny as Chase and D'Angelo are, the film belongs to the supporting cast, including Eugene Levy as the sleazy salesmen who convinces Clark to trade up to the pea-green Family Truckster station wagon, Imogene Coco as the mean-spirited Aunt Edna, John Candy as the Walley World theme park guard kidnapped by the Griswold family ... and most of all Randy Quaid as the squirrel-eating worm farmer, Cousin Eddie.

- "Mr. Hobbs Take a Vacation" (1962): Just four years after he creeped us all out in Hitchcock's "Vertigo," Jimmy Stewart headed for the beach with Maureen O'Hara in a soft-hearted family comedy that also carries a surprising amount of weight. Stewart's St. Louis businessman longs for a romantic vacation with his wife, but their getaway turns into a family reunion in a ramshackle beach house. The fun comes from Stewart's deadpan, drawling reactions to the family's increasing incursions into his plans, and his exasperation at the house's decrepit condition. The edge comes as he watches his children - two young and two grown - struggling through their stages of life, at times as if he's noticing them for the first time. And if you want to know what all the hubbub was about teen heartthrob Fabian, this is as good a place as any to watch him and try to figure that out.

- "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" (1953): Modern audiences seem to have forgotten the French comic master Jaques Tati, or they'll dismiss his brand of near-silent, deliberate physical humor as antiquated. But I recall my dad, an engineer raised in the coal fields of Pennsylvania, coming home one night in the early '60s raving about the funniest film he'd ever seen: Tati's Oscar-winning comedy "Mon Oncle." Holiday was Tati's first appearance as his character Monsieur Hulot, and we meet him heading for a weeklong vacation on the French coast. Determined to have a good time, he engages awkwardly in every activity he can - most notably a disastrous game of tennis. He finds those around him are similarly uncomfortable with the idea of leisure time, and our week with Hulot is largely spent watching hapless vacationers trying to make their "fun" time as strictly regimented as the rest of their lives.

- "My Life in Ruins" (2009): Almost universally, critics hated this unassuming little romantic comedy starring Nia Vardalos, who gave us "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." But I found it an enjoyable escape, with Vardalos charming as a disenchanted tour guide leading her last group through Greece. The tourists all fit into a neat collection of pigeon holes: the rude Americans, the surly teen, the man-hungry divorcee. And even before they set out, we are certain the Americans will chill out, the teen will crack a smile, the divorcee will discover the meaning of real love. And in that, "My Life in Ruins" plays to the hope that just about all vacationers pack along with their suntan lotion: That somewhere along the road they'll find that elusive little puzzle piece that will make them truly, enduringly happy.

- "Dirty Dancing" (1987): Patrick Swayze is a Catskills summer resort dance instructor; Jennifer Gray is the young girl smitten with him. When we were all a bit younger, we rooted for the handsome couple to overcome the bitter resistance of her father (Jerry Orbach). Now that we're parents, we kinda know just how he feels.

- "Two Weeks With Love" (1950): Ricardo Montalban is a Catskills summer resort dance instructor; Jane Powell is the young girl smitten with him. Wait a minute. This would be exactly the same plot as "Dirty Dancing," if only Jane had a father bitterly resisting their romance. Oh, wait, she does: he's played by Louis Calhearn.

- "What About Bob?" (1991): Richard Dreyfuss is the button-down psychiatrist trying to enjoy a family vacation on Lake Winnipesaukee - Bill Murray is the astonishingly needy patient who follows him there. Directed by the great Frank Oz with a story by the legendary Alvin Sargent, Bob's hilarity escalates exponentially with the good doctor's frustration - particularly as the shrink's family becomes increasingly attached to Bob (perhaps Murray's most endearing character). But the movie is also a gentle, loving evocation of family vacations, and under Oz's direction you can almost smell the pine needles and feel the spray of cold lake water.

- "Mr. Bean's Vacation" (2007): Here's another one I really, really liked - while my critic colleagues reviled it (although the film did make $184 million worldwide). But I defy you to find a more sweet-natured, crowd-pleasing comedy than Rowan Atkinson's second "Mr. Bean" feature. Clearly modeled on Tati's Hulot movie, this film finds the similarly awkward Bean heading from England to France for a vacation by the beach (in this case, Cannes). Most of Bean's misadventures occur en route including one scene - and I challenge anyone to watch this and not laugh out loud - in which Bean, desperate to raise some money, wraps a cloth around his head and lip-syncs Puccini's "O mio babbino caro."

Coming Soon to DVD:

- "Of Gods and Men" (July 5): Powerful, tragic and unforgettable, this French film tells the true story of a monastery of Trappist monks who, in the face of the 1996 Algerian civil war, must decide whether to flee to safety or stay and face the wrath of Muslim extremists. Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale are spellbinding, but the most moving element of the film is writer/director Xavier Beauvois' depiction of the tender, almost loving relationship between the monks and the local Muslim community.

- "The Lincoln Lawyer" (July 12): File this under the "too bad" heading - I felt that, at long last, Matthew McConaughey had found a role in which women could love him and men wouldn't want to punch his pretty face in. He's charming, rascally and genuinely fun to be with as a defense lawyer who specializes in representing the probably guilty. But the film barely made back its budget at the box office, so it seems unlikely we'll get to see him in the role again.

- "TCM Greatest Classic Legends: Elizabeth Taylor" (July 12): This nifty little package seems as good a way as any to bid a fond farewell to Lady Elizabeth (although I would like to have seen her towering screen achievement, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," included). She's adorable as Spencer Tracy's little girl in "Father of the Bride," sizzling as Maggie in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," sultry as a model/call girl in "Butterfield 8," and free spirited as the unwed mother who falls in love with the married Rev. Richard Burton in "The Sandpiper."

See www.aarp.org for more information. Bill Newcott is the entertainment editor for AARP The Magazine.

?

?

We ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments, spam, and other remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of CentreDaily.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

Source: http://www.centredaily.com/2011/06/15/2778580/movies-for-grownups-summer-movie.html

cody simpson karen elson marta fahrenheit 451 unicorn ray lamontagne doubt