Happy Thanksgiving! In honor of turkey day this week’s Monday Pick is the John Hughes comedy road trip classic Plains, Trains, and Automobiles (1987), which stars Steve Martin and the late, great John Candy in one of his most lovable roles.

Working off the “road trip” concept pioneered first by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, Martin and Candy hit the open road in order to get home to Chicago in time for Thanksgiving.

Steve Martin stars as high-strung ad executive Neil Page who is in New York City on a business trip. After spending all day as an executive looks over the latest ad campaign, Neil signals to his fellow ad man that he has to catch a plane back to Chicago. Leaving the city at the start of rush hour begins Neil’s three daylong odyssey to make it home to his family in time.

Hughes was the quintessential master of comedy in the 1980s and this film is no exception. The laughs begin as Neil spots an empty cab on Park Avenue. He locks eyes with an un-credited Kevin Bacon who also spots the cab a block or so away.

The two men engage in a foot race in order to commandeer the cab. About to hail the cab and win, Neil trips over a large steamer trunk and falls headfirst into the street.

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By Erin Tuttle

Due Date is a film that aspires towards being a feel good comedy about two men who go on a quest and through one another ultimately learn about who they are. Todd Phillips’ follow-up to the wildly successful film, The Hangover, however, ends up being no more than a lackluster retelling of better films with a smattering of decent jokes and a deficiency of chemistry between the leads throughout. Its protagonist is Peter Highman, (Robert Downey, Jr.) a businessman on a deadline. He is attempting to reach his wife in Los Angeles before the birth of their first child.

I assume that everything that we need to know about him can be summed up from the fact that he wears a Bluetooth. Obviously, he is one of those guys. Initially traveling home appears to be a simplistic task until he is introduced to Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakas), an aspiring actor with a heart of gold and a brain equally as dense.

Once these two make eye contact, it becomes apparent that Ethan is ultimately Peter’s nemesis and the promise of comedy is made. The promise is made, however, not necessarily kept.

Through a series of coincidental events both Peter and Ethan find themselves on the “No Fly” list and if this wasn’t challenging enough, Peter‘s wallet is not in his possession. Due to this fact, Peter reluctantly teams with Ethan to drive across the country and the premise of the film is in place.

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This week on The Flickcast, Chris, Matt and Christina discuss a whole slew of new topics and revisit a few old ones. Some of the things they cover in this episode include Green Hornet casting news, Steven Spielberg’s next movie, the somewhat surprising performance of G.I. Joe, Terminator 5 news, Tim Roth playing Abomination in two other movies, the death of John Hughes and a whole lot more.

The trio also makes some great picks this week with Christina’s choice of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in honor of John Hughes, Matt’s choice of Running Scared starring Paul Walker and Chris’ favorite comic book Blackest Night, written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Ivan Reis.

Last, but certainly not least, in honor of the 20th episode, the team announced a cool contest for all the listeners of the show. So, be sure to listen to this week’s episode and then check back right here later today for all the details on how you can win some great prizes!

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Thanks for listening.

Usually, I shy away from these types of tribute videos. They normally can’t do the person in question justice or often minimize their contributions in some way. Or, they are just plain bad and poorly put together. Fortunately, that’s not the case with this particular video.

In this one, YouTube user cpfilm has put together a great set of clips from most of John Hughes’s top films of the ’80′s, set to The Who’s song Baba O’Riley which, of course, includes the very appropriate “teenage wasteland” lyrics. Among the films represented are most of the ones I found inspirational and highly amusing as a teenager growing up in the 80′s including The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Sixteen Candles.

This video took a great deal of time and effort and I, for one, appreciate what went into it and the feelings it evokes. You can say whatever you want about John Hughes and his post-80′s career, but in his prime, he made some of the most entertaining, influential and eminently quotable films of all time. For that, and much more, I raise my fist silently in the air. RIP Mr. Hughes and thanks for all the great memories.

Click through to watch the video.

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We are just getting word now that John Hughes, director of such 80s films as Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Beuller’s Day off has died of a heart attack during a morning walk today in New York City. He was 59 years old.

Hughes was an icon to many who grew up with the films of the 1980s and 1990s including The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Home Alone, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and many, many more. The story is still developing, and we plan on having more to you as it comes in.