Fandango’s Best Road Trip Movies — From “Thelma & Louise” to “Vacation”

As families plan their summer schedules, there’s almost sure to be a road trip. You might want to take a look at Fandango’s list of the greatest road trip movies to help you decide what you do and don’t want to include. From “Thelma & Louise” to “Zombieland,” “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure,” “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle,” “Lost in America,” and “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” the list has action and adventure, comedy, and romance. My list would omit “joe Dirt,” “The Guilt Trip,” “Wild Hogs,” “Identity Thief,” “Vacation,” “Crossroads,” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Road Chip” but I was glad to see choices like “Sideways,” “It Happened One Night,” “Nebraska,” and “Midnight Run,” four of the all-time greats. I’d add “The Sure Thing,” “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” “The Daytrippers,” “Smoke Signals.” “O, Brother Where Art Thou?,” and the two “Trip” movies with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon (another one is coming!). I often say that the single most popular theme in stories is a journey, from The Odyssey to “The Wizard of Oz,” and “The Jungle Book.” There’s a reason for that — a journey separates us from the usual and familiar and intensifies our responses. And it provides us with unlimited opportunities for risk, adventure, lessons learned, and new friends, sometimes even romance.