Movies for the Trip

Years ago I bought a Brookstone portable projector for use as a multimedia device while performing music. Little did I know that it would become one of our most popular camping tools. Needless to say, it’s coming with us on this trip. Hoping to capture the feel of the old drive-in movies in our RV.

We try to keep things educational during the school year (Cosmos, Planet Earth, etc) but this summer we’re going blockbuster. We’ve seen most of the kid-oriented Spielberg/Lucas and Pixar/Dreamworks stuff. The kids are growing out of Disney and are developing broader tastes and an immunity to foul language. We tried to put together a collection that gives a good introduction to “genres” like scifi, music, fantasy, comedy, westerns, gangster, heist, etc. Here’s what we’ve got on tap (note: we are pretty hooked on the 70s/80s/90s):

• Amadeus (still one of the best music movies out there)
• Close Encounters (since we’re visiting Devils’ Tower)
• Total Recall (Veerhoven is weird, but I love this movie)
• Ferris Bueller (was a good teen flick, should hold up)
• Rocky (why are 70s soundtracks so great?)
• Vacation (a bit raunchy but we’re ok with it)
• Sound of Music (necessary)
• Gladiator (pretty incredible movie)
• Ray (another great music movie)
• The Princess Bride (ahh, Manny Patinkin)
• Wargames (classic Cold War film)
• Austin Powers (kids have been clamoring for it)
• Cast Away (not much is said, but so good)
• Treasure Island (yes there are non-Johnny Depp pirate movies)
• Stand By Me (great coming-of-age film)
• Tombstone (favorite western)
• The Untouchables (great gangster flick)
• Ladyhawke (overlooked 80s fantasy movie)
• Godzilla (monster-disaster-sploitation)
• Star Trek (1-4, if we can get up to speed)
• Tremors (campy horror movie about landsharks)
• The Sting (classic heist)
• The Avengers (beloved Superhero movie)
• Shawshank Redemption (re-watchable jailbreak film)
• Braveheart (“historical” war reenactment)
• Jumanji/RV (two-for-one DVD; horrible reviews, curious nevertheless)
• The Mummy (Eva loves Brendan Fraser, end of story)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (shot in Utah and New Mexico)
• Fletch (harmless, quotable PI movie)
• The Matrix (ultimate headtrippy scifi)

Last but certainly not least, we have Ken Burns’s National Parks DVD series. We’ve already watched a few episodes and we are hooked.

In case anyone is wondering whether we have a filter, here are the movies that were asked for but rejected when making this list:

• Alien, Aliens
• A Nightmare on Elm Street
• Monty Python’s Life of Brian and the Meaning of Life
• Poltergeist
• Excalibur

p.s., I ran across this 1987 hidden gem when looking for good national parks movies… anyone seen it? Can’t believe I played six degrees of Kevin Bacon all those years without knowing it existed.