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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The Winners

Just call her the giant slayer. Kathryn Bigelow and her modest little Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker beat out the behemoth box office champ Avatar for best picture, best director, best original screenplay, best editing, best sound editing, and best sound mixing. Bigelow made history, becoming the first female ever to win the award for directing.

James Cameron and company (Avatar) left with a total of three trophies: best visual effects, best art direction and best cinematography. The cinematography award seemed a little odd. After all, most of this film was computer generated, wasn’t it?

There were no real surprises in the acting categories. Best supporting actress went to Mo’nique for Precious, best supporting actor Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds, best actress was Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side, and Jeff Bridges finally won for Crazy Heart.

Up won best animated feature and best original score, while El Secreto do Sus Ojos (Argentina) won best foreign picture. The Cove won best documentary. For an expanded list of major category winners, scroll to the bottom of the article.

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Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic, and not-so-classic, movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies and TV shows such as Blood: The Last Vampire, Easy Rider and the first seasons of Hawaii Five-O and Vega$. Plus, I think some movie with lots of robots, explosions and Megan Fox also came out this week as well.

Check them out.

Movies

Blood: The Last Vampire ~ Michael Byrne, Constantine Gregory, Yasuaki Kurata (DVD and Blu-ray)

Cheri ~ Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Friend, Kathy Bates (DVD – 2009)

Easy Rider ~ Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson (Blu-ray)

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Here’s a list of new movies and tv shows coming out on DVD today. Plus, some old favorites coming out on Blu-Ray.

New Movies:

* Confessions of a Shopaholic – Isla Fisher, Leslie Bibb, and Hugh Dancy (DVD and Blu-Ray)

* Inkheart – Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, and Jim Broadbent (DVD and Blu-Ray)

* Pink Panther 2 – Steve Martin, Jeremy Irons, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno, and John Cleese (DVD and Blu-Ray)

* Waltz With Bashir – Ari Folman, Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag, and Dror Harazi

* Dragon Hunters – Forest Whitaker (Blu-Ray)

* The Code – Morgan Freeman, Antonio Banderas, and Radha Mitchell (DVD and Blu-Ray)

* Bob Funk – Rachael Leigh Cook, Amy Ryan, Grace Zabriskie, and Eddie Jemison (DVD)

* Phoebe in Wonderland – Elle Fanning, Patricia Clarkson, Felicity Huffman, and Bill Pullman (DVD)

Classic Movies:

* My Dinner with Andre (Criterion Collection) – Andre Gregory, Jean Lenauer, Wallace Shawn, and Roy Butler

* The Pianist – Adrien Brody, Frank Finlay, Thomas Kretschmann, and Maureen Lipman (Blu-Ray)

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