by Tom Leaning
Easter is just round the corner, and if you’re planning your long-weekend getaway with your caravan, motorhome or campervan and need some cinematic inspiration, we’ve compiled our 5 favourite leisure vehicle movies that will tickle your funny bones, pull at your heartstrings and definitely get your touring juices flowing.
1. About Schmidt (2002)
It’s Jack Nicholson (As Good As It Gets, A Few Good Men, The Departed) driving across middle America in a 2001 Winnebago Adventurer – what more do you want?? This modern classic comedy/drama from Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants) about a recent retiree coming to terms with his own life and relationships with his wife and estranged daughter, produces an astonishing performance from Nicholson, and keeps the eyeballs glistening throughout.
2. Snatch (2000)
“D’ya lak dags?” Do you? Well this film is full of them, as well as Brad Pitt and his caravan travelling band of “pikies”. This all-star comedy crime caper is turned up to 11 with creativity and filled to the brim with greedy gangsters all after a priceless stolen diamond while spouting unforgettable, expletive-ridden dialogue. Enjoy!
3. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
A dysfunctional family road-trip comedy to remember, and predominantly set in a classic yellow, VW Type-2 Campervan, which houses the crucible of the movie’s best comedy, and acts as a supporting cast member, with its imputent and uncontrollable bus horn and temperamental but enduring VW engine. The goal is to get the family’s young daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin), from New Mexico to California in time for a Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Do they make it in one piece? Well, after 100 minutes of masterfully comedic, cinematic moments, you can judge for yourselves.
4. Paul (2011)
The British comedic talents of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost combine to produce “a love letter to (Steven) Spielberg”, about two sci-fi geeks road-trippin’ across Arizona, ticking off America’s UFO tourist attractions, before having a close encounter with their very own extraterrestrial (Paul, voiced by Seth Rogen) near Area-51. The film’s RV of choice is a 1987 Winnebago Chieftain ‘Traveller Beagle’, which comes in handy as a getaway vehicle as they desperately try and elude federal agents, determined to retrieve their escaped alien. Spielberg fans will love the regular nods to E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and those who liked Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz will indulge in the awkward, comedic timing that Pegg and Frost are masters at.
5. Sightseers (2012)
And we leave the best for last: a disturbing but brilliant black-comedy from writer/director Ben Wheatley, which follows two lovers that take a caravan trip to Yorkshire, only to descend into a shocking rampage across national parks, killing anyone that even remotely annoys them. This ‘Brummie and Clyde’ bloody, love story tickles and chills in equal measure and bathes in the understated hilarity of Great British black comedy.
But what do we know?! Tell us YOUR favourite leisure vehicle movies in the comments below and why you love them.
