road trip

• 28 Days Later directed by Danny Boyle (2002)

  [6/10]

  "Essentially we have a character study of a limited number of survivors in a hopeless situation. Yes, they keep plodding on -- as many of us would hope we could do in the same situation -- but we really don't get any great epiphany about human nature in the process."

• Elizabethtown directed by Cameron Crowe (2005)

  [7/10]

  "I found Elizabethtown an enjoyable, pleasant, interesting, and funny study of Drew's developing character."

• Smoke Signals directed by Chris Eyre (1998)

  [8/10]

  "Smoke Signals succeeds on many levels: as a coming-of-age movie where two young men learn that they have more in common than they thought; as a road-trip movie; as a light comedy; and as a portrait of Native American life. Alexie successfully weaves these aspects together into a story that you can watch again and again."

• Stand by Me directed by Rob Reiner (1986)

  [8/10]

  "Rarely does a collection of child actors have so much talent bundled together, and the list of talent doesn't stop with the main characters. Stand by Me also has excellent performances by young Kiefer Sutherland and John Cusack."

• Straight Story, The directed by David Lynch (1999)

  [4/10]

  "Imagine how bored would you get driving a riding lawn mower across Iowa? Now imagine watching a movie about a 73-year-old man driving a riding lawn mower across Iowa -- a serious movie, not a comedy. Now add a folksy violin ditty on an endless 30-second loop for 110 minutes of 5 mile-per-hour lawn mower adventures and you have The Straight Story."

  Average score: 6.60