Since it's dang near impossible to find Thanksgiving movies made the same way Christmas movies are made, I thought I'd celebrate the holiday by offering up some recommendations that involve at least one scene of people eating the big meal.


This film, starring Steve Martin and John Candy, reworks The Odd Couple template pitting one clean, finicky character with a slovenly partner. Neal Page (Martin) yearns to get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving dinner. Along the way, his life gets entangled with the bumbling but likable shower curtain ring salesman Del Griffith (Candy). There is little about this movie that is complicated or multidimensional. Hughes’ script is little more than a well crafted situation comedy. This understood, the key to why this film is so successful is Hughes’ talent for character and Martin and Candy’s undeniable perfect on screen pairing.



The Thanksgiving scene is at the end of the film during a dream sequence.

A broad audience was introduced to the Coen Brothers with the release of this perfect comedy. I always felt this film never received the credit it deserved. Wonderfully written and cleverly acted, this movie delivers on every level. The wacky plot involves a unreformed thief (Nicholas Cage, in what I consider to be his best performance) and his cop wife (Holly Hunter) who kidnap a rich man's baby son when they realize they're infertile. The plot doesn't sound fun but the movie is one of the great comedic thrills available. This is one of those movies I'd love to be able to go back and watch for the first time again just for the sheer enjoyment of it.



The Thanksgiving scene is in the middle of the film where Norman Osborn finally identifies Peter Parker as the webslinger.

Possibly the best super hero movie of all time. Sam Raimi's controlled direction along with the tight script from David Koepp (Panic Room) centers this movie and keeps it from teetering into being a ridiculous joke like Tim Burton's Batman. Thanks to Koepp's sharp writing, Raimi is able to treat his subject with a wink but otherwise seriously. Raimi's goofy inclinations come through in a bombastic performance by J. K. Simmons as the bellowing J. Jonah Jameson but otherwise he keeps his quirkiness at bay.

Spider-Man may not be the coolest of superheroes but he is easily the most likable. Tobey Maguire trades in on this charisma and gives an "aw shucks" vibe to the young hero.

This is a movie that is good for the whole family. Spider-Man isn't cursed by depression (The Dark Knight) or a violent temperament (X-Men). He's just a confused young man with some sorrows to deal with. Thanks to this, of all super heroes, he's probably the most human.

Labels: movie recommendations