10 Great Travel Race Movies
Lists: Slow travel is well and good. But there's something irresistible about a great travel race movie. World Hum Travel Movie Clubbers Eva Holland and Eli Ellison share their favorite vicarious thrill rides.
9) Midnight Run
Disgraced ex-cop turned bounty hunter Jack Walsh (De Niro—who else?) has a simple task: to get white-collar criminal Jonathan Mardukas (straight man Charles Grodin) from New York to Los Angeles. The only things stopping him? The mob, the FBI and Mardukas himself—oh, and a tight deadline. The pair hit Amtrak, airports and everything in between, in a race that will remind you how well De Niro was doing comedy years before Ben Stiller came along.
Kevin Fay 09.12.08 | 12:18 PM ET
Good stuff, guys. But you forgot “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.” Have you seen it? It’s really funny, and so, so weird.
slipstream 09.12.08 | 4:19 PM ET
Burt Reynolds is the man Smokey and the Bandit is a great race scene. I have him as the voice on my GPS that I got from Navtones.com. He often helps me escape from tricky situations now!
Eli 09.12.08 | 5:03 PM ET
Thanks, Kevin. I have seen Mad World and it was a tough call between that and Great Race. At the time, the latter just seemed to fit better, but I could go either way.
I’ll let Eva tell you all about her favorite Mad World remake: Rat Race.
Eva Holland 09.13.08 | 1:02 AM ET
Ooh, don’t even get me started on Rat Race!
It takes 2nd place in my list of All-Time Worst Movies To Be Stuck Watching On A Long Distance Bus Ride With The Sound On.
(The first was Jeepers Creepers. In Turkish.)
Sub 10.02.08 | 3:16 PM ET
Midnight run is classic! Rat Race is fun, not the greatest movie, but it does boast 3 Oscar winners.
Torah 10.04.08 | 4:36 PM ET
Yeah, I’d like to back up Kevin and say that “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” is missing. I’m not so sure what people have against Rat Race though; I thought it was quite humorous.
In my personal opinion, I think my favorite movie in the list is Death Race 2000.