RV Movies

Aside from getting ready for the RV's arrival, what else have I been doing in anticipation? I have been watching movies that feature RVs. There are not many and they are all comedies. The top of the RV movies is the movie with the title. RV, starring Robin Williams. This movie is one of the funniest and the RV is like a character in the film. The scene of Robin Williams dumping the sewage tanks for the first time with the help of two want to be helpful RVer onlookers is one of the funniest - and to those who have no real experience around RVs sets up a lot of concerns in those considering spending some time in an RV. This was foremost in my thoughts when I first went out looking at RVs and had to ask the salesman if what I saw in the movie is what really happens. The answer - for the most part - is no.

There are a few movies on my must see RV movie list. The oldest of them is The Long, Long Trailer staring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez. While the characters are very close to being Lucy and Ricky from I Love Lucy, they are named Tasi and Nicky in the movie - but everything that you might expect from I Love Lucy goes on in this RV movie. Putting it on recently I had to laugh right off at the scene of the two going to a travel trailer show and looking for the trailer in person that they had their hearts set on from the brochure. Just as it was when my wife and I went to look at the Roadtrek 170 that we had seen online and in a sales video, when the two of them get to walk into this small trailer up close there is barely room to pass each other and it is about five steps from front to back. As Tasi (Lucy) says, "Oh darn, it looked so big in the brochure!" That is exactly how we felt when we went into the smallest of the Roadtrek's - the 170 model. And then as the movie progresses and they buy a large trailer instead, there are the rocks. I have read a number of references to the rocks in RV forums and once you see the movie the rocks will stick in your mind as well. Tasi (Lucy) decides to collect a rock from every place that they visit, but she does not take a small, put in your pocket rock, she takes a large ten inch diameter rock - and the rocks add up. When the trailer must make it up and down a very steep mountain road, the rocks get loose! As my wife talks about what she wants to put in the trailer - cans of soup keep getting mentioned, I turn to her and say "Lucy, remember the rocks!" She knows exactly what I am referring to. This old film shows up on Turner Classic movies every so often and it is on DVD.

Another must see RV movie is Albert Brook's film, Lost in America. Albert's character and his wife take off to "find themselves" after leaving lucrative careers (sounds like me again) and buy an RV to go on the road "just like Easy Rider". All of their money is with them in cash as their "next egg". Well, you can guess what can happen and it does. The RV has a prominent part of this movie but it is not as central is the RV in The Long, Long Trailer or RV. Never the less, the movie is hysterical. See it with your wife - some day you too may need to have her repeat over and over again, "Remember the nest egg! Remember the nest egg!"

There is a recent movie that I had to see the first week it opened that I was told features an RV. It is called Paul. The character, Paul, is a space alien - an Area 51 space alien - who through a series of circumstances goes on a road trip across the US southwest with two guys form England. The road trip happens in an RV. The movie is both silly and very funny, but other than a short scene at an RV park the RV does not play much of a role in the film. Funny though.

There is another movie about RVs that no one remembers. It is an old movie starring James Caan named Slither. No not that one. There is a movie just a few years old also named Slither and that movie has nothing to do with RVs and nothing to do with the movie of the same name made in 1973. The Slither that I am talking about takes place when motor home RVs were novel and rare to see on the road. The characters are in an RV and being followed by an ominous RV with occupants unknown. I remember bits and pieces of this movie and I have not seen it since the 1970's but I recall that RV's in the movie were referred to as "Rec Vs" and this was spoken about throughout the movie. The film is a comedy adventure film. It never seems to play on cable or TV. There is a VHS tape of the film but no DVD. I would love to see this one again!

Now if you have never seen the movie, RV, and would like to here is a Youtube link for the full-length movie. I have nothing to do with it being there and I only pass along the link that is there to be found through Google... For your entertainment, RV...

Our Roadtrek arrives soon...