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2008's Best Travel Movie Is...

If you're like us, you see travel everywhere, so of course 2008 was a marquee year for travel movies. (Let's face it, for us, everything is a travel movie! We almost went to Passaic, New Jersey because "Be Kind Rewind" told us to.) Whether you preferred Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn strung out at the ticket counter as their dream holiday vacation gets canceled in "Four Christmases," a Hawaiian vacation via "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," flying below the radar with Bond in "Quantum of Solace" or the magnificent cross-country train sequence starring the orphans of "Slumdog Millionaire," nearly every trip we saw depicted on film made us say, "Yeah, we've been there."

Well, we haven't actually been hired guns of this type, but our favorite movie trip had to have been the one undertaken by Ray and Ken, two killers sent on a mission in Martin McDonagh's "In Bruges." The exact business of the men (played by Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell) isn't clear right away, so they fall into arguing about what to do with their off hours. Ken is a guidebook slave, while Ray would much rather take a detour from the obligitory historic sites to see what the locals are up to.

Get some sleep or get a pint? Obey your scary-sounding boss's instructions or cut loose and face the consequences? It's only later that the ramifications of the pair's decisions truly become clear. The thrilling conclusion of this flick made us simultaneously want to visit Bruges and never set foot in Belgium. Ever. If you missed it in theaters, check out "In Bruges" on DVD with your (adult) relatives. It's proof that no one returns from a trip unchanged.

Related Stories:
· Belgium Travel Guide [Jaunted]
· Movie Set Travel: Quantum of Solace [Jaunted]
· A Boxing Day Vow: Next Christmas, a Luxury Hotel in Bruges [HC]

[Photo: cinemapolis.org]