This is one of my favourite movies to watch at Christmas.

Plot In A Paragraph: Dutch Dooley (The brilliant Ed O'Neill) goes on a cross country road trip to pick up his girl friends obnoxious twelve year old son Doyle (who is refusing to come home for Thanksgiving) from boarding school.

I don't understand why this movie flopped as bad as it did, I for one love it, as do both of my kids 16 and 9.

Ed O'Neill is as brilliant as he always is (this was released at the height of his TV show "Married With Children" popularity) to some he'll always be Al Bundy, but there is more to O'Neill than that. He is an absolute delight here. Ethan Embry is excellent as both sides to Doyle, it's always nice to see the lovely JoBeth Williams and Christopher McDonald is at his sleazy best whilst an attractive Ari Meyers leaves a lasting impression as Brock.

Beautiful shot showing some great scenic shots of America this has a lot of laughs, I still laugh out loud at certain parts of this movie over twenty years later.

Brash working-class Dutch Dooley (Ed O'Neill) attends a high-class party with girlfriend Natalie Standish (JoBeth Williams). She doesn't get along with her rich ex-husband Reed (Christopher McDonald). He's abandoning Thanksgiving with their son Doyle (Ethan Embry) to go to London. Dutch volunteers to drive him home to Chicago from his boarding school in Georgia. He's looking to befriend Doyle who turns out to be an entitled brat disliked by the other kids and a spoiled snob just like his dad. It's a crazy road trip with hookers Brock (Ari Meyers) and Hailey (Elizabeth Daily).

John Hughes is trying to write an odd couple road trip. The problem is that neither of these characters are that appealing. Ed O'Neill needs to dial back his brash working stiff mantra and his gruff mannerisms. Somebody should play the straight man and Dutch should probably be that guy. He doesn't have to be a nice guy but he should be some sort of mentor. Once the hookers show up especially with a very young one, the movie's family creds are put in doubt. The comedy suffers from its lack of likability.

To get to know his girlfriend's son (Ethan Embry),a working-class good guy (Ed O'Neill) volunteers to pick him up from a prep school -- only to learn that her son is not the nicest kid.

This film has an impressive pedigree. The director, Peter Faiman, is not well known, but he was the director of "Crocodile Dundee", which makes him a small legend. And the writer was John Hughes, a giant in the industry.

"Dutch" received extremely poor reviews from critics, where it has a 14% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 3.7 out of 10 from 21 reviews. It was also a flop at the box office, grossing less than $5 million compared to its $17 million budget. Despite poor reception from critics, the film has garnered a cult following (as is common for Hughes films).