DUTCH (AL BUNDY TAKES A ROAD TRIP)

One of my two favorite Thanksgiving movies

As a pre-teen growing up, I would have one thing I'd do with my father: watch movies on television.  He introduced me to some great flicks in my lifetime, and I'll always miss him (he passed away in 2005).  

Me & my pops...back in the day

One way I keep his memory alive is by watching some of the movies we would see on special occasions.  Every Thanksgiving we'd see 2 movies, the second I'll talk about tomorrow, but the first is one of my favorites:  Dutch!

Blue collar worker crosses swords with upper class rich kid in this battle of wits!

In 1991 when Dutch was released, Married With Children was at the height of its popularity with Al Bundy (Ed O'Neil) reigning as the king of television.  Because of this popularity, Ed O'Neil was no longer known as the actor, but to this day he is seen as Al Bundy!  

Ever heard of a little show called Modern Family?  Well it's popular belief that Jay Pritchett could be an older & matured Al Bundy who has divorced Peggy and remarried.  That should tell you how popular the character is!  12 years after Married With Children ended, Modern Family airs and people automatically cry "Bundy"!

From Al to Jay...All growed up!

But I digress...

So in the movie, we have Dutch Dooley who is in love with a woman who is in the middle of a divorce from her white collar husband.  She wants to have her son over for Thanksgiving from boarding school because her husband decided he didn't want to spend time with his son.  In an effort to stay on her good side and get closer to the family, our hero volunteers to go and pick up her son, Doyle, and have a nice road trip with him to come home.  

But there's one setback: Doyle is a snob who hates his mother and wants absolutely nothing to do with her.  So from the onset there's tension...very funny tension!  The movie is pretty much about the road trip going home and the shenanigans they get involved in.  It's laugh after laugh in this family film and Ed O'Neill shows his comedy chops.  

Check out the trailer:

I watch this every year in memory of my father and still laugh when seeing it even though it's a "cheesy" 90's movie.  I recommend this as the Thanksgiving Eve movie of the night.

My Rating:

4.02854739 out of 5 stars

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

Jay