Product Reviews
John Hughes re-works his already over-used formulas from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and Uncle Buck in this bald-faced rip-off directed by Peter Faiman. Ed O'Neill stars as working stiff Dutch Dooley. Dutch is in love with Natalie (JoBeth Williams), who is recovering from a failed marriage to the priggish Reed (Christopher McDonald). Her 13-year-old son Doyle (Ethan Randall) blames Natalie for the break-up of the marriage. Doyle is an effete and snobbish rich kid betraying inflections of William F. Buckley. When he refuses to join his mother for Thanksgiving, Dutch heads off to Doyle's Atlanta boarding school to kidnap him and force him to go on a ride to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with his mother. Doyle hates Dutch for his loutish working-class ways, but when the vengeful teenager destroys Dutch's car, the two must join forces to get to Chicago by any means necessary. Along the way the two learn to love and respect each other. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
Product Notes
Ed O'Neill of "Modern Family" stars as Dutch Dooley, a working-class good guy who's the new boyfriend of a wealthy big shot's ex-wife. But when the woman's spoiled son (Ethan Randall of Can't Hardly Wait and Sweet Home Alabama in one of his first film roles) refuses to come home from his Southern prep school for Thanksgiving, Dutch volunteers to pick the bratty boy up for a road trip back to Chicago that quickly goes hilariously wrong. From fireworks fiascos to hitchhiking with hookers, can a man who's really just a grown-up kid find a way to bring out the child in a little jerk? Christopher McDonald (Happy Gilmore), E.G. Daily (Valley Girl) and JoBeth Williams (The Big Chill) co-star in this comedy hit written and produced by John Hughes (Home Alone, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) and directed by Peter Faiman ('Crocodile' Dundee) about two strangers about to become best friends - with the scars to prove it!