This is topic Used Cars (1980) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-05-2014, 09:42 PM:
 
This is a very early effort from pre-Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, who was already a big-deal director at the time.

I just decided to review it because it would have fit like a glove into this summer's slew of raunchy comedies. In fact this movie could be remade with almost no changes to the story and would probably be a hit this time, which it wasn't last time due to a botched release by Columbia - they gave it a limited release one week ahead of Paramount's AIRPLANE, which promptly buried it.

The multi-faceted story involves rival used car lots, one a shiny money machine, the other a near-disaster, which are owned by twin brothers (both played by Jack Weston). The dumpy lot employs a crafty, dishonest but sincere salesman (Kurt Russell, who is in fine R-rated form as he worked to shake his G-rated Disney image from the early '70s) who cares deeply about his boss, but whose REAL ambition is to buy his way into politics.

The other lot's owner knows his brother has a heart condition, and he wants to inherit the dumpy lot, because he has inside info that a new freeway ramp will be constructed nearby and he wants to cash in.

The supporting cast is good as well, featuring Garrett Graham as a perpetually-horny salesman, Frank McRae as a mechanic, and Deborah Harmon as the daughter of the dumpy car lot's owner, who shows up halfway through the proceedings to complicate things further. There is also a beagle dog who steals the show in a couple of the movie's best scenes.

Everyone's plans go awry of course, but not in the way you might expect, and the movie goes in every direction but straight forward.

There are way too many details to go into here, but let's just say the whole thing is great, if ridiculous, fun as long as you can handle a lot of bad language, nudity (yes, nudity in a film about used car lots) and seeing shady used car salesmen and politicians being given the comedic skewerings they probably deserve.

This movie is easily as funny as recent movies like THE HEAT, but how does it compare to AIRPLANE, which trampled it at the boxoffice? Well....as the DVD's commentary track puts it, AIRPLANE definitely has more laughs; but USED CARS has better laughs. I tend to agree with that.
 

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Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 07-06-2014, 10:42 AM:
 
Very Funny movie

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Fifty bucks never killed anybody .

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I'll tell you something. This country is going to the dogs. You know, it used to be when you bought a politician, that son of a bitch stayed bought.

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"We're fucking with the president of the United States!"

"He fucks with us, doesn't he?"

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Another thing about this movie that I hadn't really thought of before is, the nudity in it is attractive female nudity, as opposed to disgusting overweight hairy male nudity the way today's comedies frequently seem to have.
 

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Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 09-02-2014, 12:43 PM:
 
I thought this was one of Kurt Russell's best comedy performances. Some of the stunts USED CAR lots use to sell cars isn't that far fetched from this Movie.

The scene where TOBY the Beagle is trained to go under a car and play dead why the salesman pushes a big rock in front of the rear tire had the theater I was in laughing for 5 minutes. Very Funny Film...

"Don't kid me Russo,I saw my Brother Fall"

"He slipped on some 90 weight" (actually 90w would have kept him standing)
 

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