What makes a great Travel Film? One with adventure, exploration, self discovery? There are many out there but here are some of my personal favorites.
Movies
Two buddies set out on a low-budget road trip that will take them around the world in this independent comedy drama. Charlie and Cliff are two close friends whowork together selling bathroom supplies. Charlie loves to travel and spends as much time as he can seeing the world on the cheap; Cliff, however, gets nervous about the prospect of going far away from home, and while he often promises to tag along with Charlie, he never does it. However, when Charlie proposes that they go to Thailand for the annual Full Moon Party, the request coincides with the passing of Cliff's old buddy Paul. Paul had been planning a global journey at the time of his death, and Cliff decides to honor his friend's wishes by scattering Paul's ashes in the four corners of the earth. With two weeks available, Charlie and Cliff set out to visit as many nations as humanly possible, scamming room and board whenever they can, and releasing a bit of Paul's remains at every stop. Shot on locations around the world with a minimal crew and locals playing themselves at most stops, Last Stop for Paul was written and directed by Neil Mandt.
An adrenaline-drenched, seductive thriller from the director of Trainspotting. Richard, a young American backpacker, is willing to risk his life for just one thing: that mind-blowing rush you can only get from braving the ultimate adventure. But on a secret, deceptively perfect beach, Richard will discover that “heaven on earth” can instantly change into a jungle of seduction and danger. Co-starring sexy newcomer Virginie Ledoyen, this “journey to the unexpected, full of surprises, twists and turns, love and romance, lust and desire” (Maria Sallas, GEMS) explores the hidden perils and dark places that lurk just beyond the shores of paradise…
All that Neal Page wants to do is to get home for Thanksgiving. His flight has been cancelled due to bad weather, so he decides on other means of transport. As well as bad luck, Neal is blessed with the presence of Del Griffith, Shower Curtain Ring Salesman and all-around blabbermouth, who is never short of advice, conversation, bad jokes, or company. And when he decides that he is going the same direction as Neal....
The Motorcycle Diaries is an adaptation of a journal written by Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna when he was 23 years old. He and his friend, Alberto Granado are typical college students who, seeking fun and adventure before graduation, decide to travel across Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela in order to do their medical residency at a leper colony. Beginning as a buddy/road movie in which Ernesto and Alberto are looking for chicks, fun and adventure before they must grow up and have a more serious life. As is said in the film itself, it's about "two lives running parallel for a while." The two best friends start off with the same goals and aspirations, but by the time the film is over, it's clear what each man's destiny has become.
Scotty Thomas (Scott Mechlowicz) just graduated from high school when his girlfriend drops him. Brokenhearted, he emails Mieke, an Internet pen pal in Berlin, Germany, with whom he has been corresponding for years. Scotty always thought that Mieke was a German boy's name. Mieke (Jessica Boehrs) is flying to America and wants to get together with Scotty. Scotty's friend Cooper (Jacob Pitts) convinces him that Mieke wants a boyfriend and Scotty freaks out and emails Mieke never to write again. Scotty discovers that Mieke is a cute girl and even though he has never met her, she may be `The One'. Scotty and Cooper fly to London en route to Berlin to meet Mieke. They get together in Paris with their high school twin friends, Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Jamie (Travis Wester). They have a wild and wacky trip across Europe going to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and finally Rome.
A man who planned to marry his high school sweetheart, buy a house with a white picket fence, and raise a family kisses his dreams of suburban bliss goodbye in order to travel through a hundred mile section of Central and South American jungle known as the Darien Gap in this adventure starring Christopher Masterson, Brooke Burns, Johnny Messner, and James Duval. Jason Buchanan.
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Bob Harris is an American film actor, far past his prime. He visits Tokyo to appear in commercials, and he meets Charlotte, the young wife of a visiting photographer. Bored and weary, Bob and Charlotte make ideal if improbable traveling companions. Charlotte is looking for "her place in life," and Bob is tolerating a mediocre stateside marriage. Both separately and together, they live the experience of the American in Tokyo. Bob and Charlotte suffer both confusion and hilarity due to the cultural and language differences between themselves and the Japanese. As the relationship between Bob and Charlotte deepens, they come to the realization that their visits to Japan, and one another, must soon end. Or must they?
The Griswold family, father Clark W., wife Ellen, daughter Audrey and son Rusty, set out in high spirit to spend their vacation driving cross-country from Chicago to a glorious climax in Walley World on the West Coast. The trip which Clark planned down to the minute, slowly loses its smoothness from the moment the first grain of sand gets in. A meeting with constantly-in-debt, simple-minded cousin Eddie results in the Griswold family giving cantankerous aunt Edna a lift to Phoenix. Of course, the Griswolds receive one strike of bad luck after another, and when they finally arrive at Walley World, they have to find out that the park is closed for maintenance. But Clark promised his beloved family the best vacation ever...
Louise invites Thelma, an unhappy and emotionally abused housewife, to go on a road trip to Mexico. Thelma’s obnoxious husband forbids her to go, but fed up, she goes anyway. Along the way, the two stop at a bar. Thelma has an innocent flirtation with a man, but things get out of hand when he attempts to rape her in the parking lot. Louise intervenes with a gun in hand, and he backs off. As she and Thelma are leaving, the guy becomes verbally abusive and insulting. An enraged Louise, a former rape victim, shoots and kills him, even though she could have walked away. Thelma is horrified but will not abandon her friend, and the two take off in Louise’s car. On the run and out of money, the girls stop at a gas station. Unknown to Louise, Thelma goes in and robs it, making her a full-blown criminal. While heading for Mexico, the two commit a string of robberies, blow up a redneck trucker's semi, and imprison a cop in the trunk of his patrol car. The police are in hot pursuit, but a sympathetic detective suspects that the parking lot killing may have been provoked. He wants to get to the girls before they are seriously hurt.
Ryan Bingham is a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles and just after he's met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams. Ryan Bingham's job is to fire people from theirs. The anguish, hostility, and despair of his "clients" has left him falsely compassionate, living out of a suitcase, and loving every second of it. When his boss hires arrogant young Natalie, she develops a method of video conferencing that will allow termination without ever leaving the office - essentially threatening the existence Ryan so cherishes. Determined to show the naive girl the error of her logic, Ryan takes her on one of his cross country firing expeditions, but as she starts to realize the disheartening realities of her profession, he begins to see the downfalls to his way of life.
Having just carried out a particularly difficult hit in London, two hitmen seek shelter in Bruges, Belgium, only to find their views on life and death permanently altered by their interactions with the locals, the tourists, and a film crew. Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Ralph Fiennes star in an action comedy from director Martin McDonagh.
