By John Corrado

Arriving just in time for American Thanksgiving, Paramount is releasing a new SteelBook Edition of Planes, Trains and Automobiles on Blu-ray this week. The John Hughes classic follows family man Neal Page (Steve Martin) as he tries to get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving, only to end up stuck on the road with shower curtain ring salesman Del Griffith (John Candy), and it’s long been a favourite of mine.

The Blu-ray itself is identical in terms of content to the editions that were put out in 2012 and 2017 for the film’s 25th and 30th anniversaries. The big draw of this release is the limited edition packaging. The SteelBook features an image of Martin and Candy waiting at the airport on the cover, under an arrivals board spelling out the title, with a burning plane ticket on the back.

I do like the cover art, and inside the case we get a full image of Martin and Candy in the burned out car spread across the front and back panels. While casual customers likely won’t feel the need to double dip if they already own the film on Blu-ray (the same disc was also included as part of the John Hughes 5-Movie Collection earlier this year), the SteelBook serves as a very nice new edition for fans of the film and physical media collectors like myself.

This release also matches the attractive SteelBook Editions of fellow Hughes classics Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful that were put out over the summer, and looks great on the shelf beside them.

Bonus Features (Blu-ray):

There are a number of archival bonus features included on the Blu-ray disc. A regular DVD and a code for a digital copy are also included in the package.

• Getting There is Half the Fun: The Story of Planes, Trains and Automobiles (16 minutes, 38 seconds)

• John Hughes: The Voice of a Generation (27 minutes, 39 seconds)

• Heartbreak and Triumph: The Legacy of John Hughes (25 minutes, 52 seconds)

• John Hughes for Adults (4 minutes, 2 seconds)

• A Tribute to John Candy (3 minutes, 1 second)

• Deleted Scene – “Airplane Food” (3 minutes, 24 seconds)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a Paramount Home Entertainment release. It’s 92 minutes and rated PG.

Street Date: November 23rd, 2021