Used Cars.

Review #2398: Used Cars.

Cast:

Kurt Russell (Rudy Russo), Jack Warden (Roy L. Fuchs / Luke Fuchs), Gerrit Graham (Jeff), Frank McRae (Jim), Deborah Harmon (Barbara Jane Fuchs), Joe Flaherty (Sam Slaton), David L. Lander (Freddie Paris), Michael McKean (Eddie Winslow), Michael Talbott (Mickey), Harry Northup (Carmine), Alfonso Arau (Manuel), Cheryl Rixon (Margaret), Al Lewis (Judge H. H. Harrison), Woodrow Parfrey (Mr. Chertner), and Dub Taylor (Tucker)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis (#317 - The Polar Express, #352 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit, #581 - Forrest Gump, #648 - Beowulf, #701 - Back to the Future, #747 - Back to the Future Part II, #748 - Back to the Future Part III, #1527 - Cast Away, #2229 - I Wanna Hold Your Hand)

Review: 

 “This movie is structured on a classic Frank Capra movie except that everybody lies.”

Look, sometimes movies don't get the right type of luck in reaching audiences. Or they just don't get it, who the hell knows. You might remember that Robert Zemeckis had his directorial debut with I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), that 1964 comedy involving teens and The Beatles that flopped on initial release. But Zemeckis continued on with Bob Gale on another production together two years later with Used Cars, which now had John Milius and Steven Spielberg serve as executive producers. Apparently, Milius was the one who came up with the idea of the movie with Spielberg that had thoughts of a Las Vegas used-cars salesman, which at one point had George Hamilton floated as a possible lead. Gale and Zemeckis did research at used car lots, as one does. The movie was shot around the Arizona area in the span of a month in 1979. On July 11, 1980, Used Cars was released in theaters and was a marginal success (it was made for substantially more money than Hand, for example). Apparently, the release was bumped up a month by Columbia Pictures (as led by a man that had sold cars at one point in his life) due to good test screenings, and yes, I said *good* screenings. As as a result, the movie came out just barely after the release of movies such as Airplane! (1980). The next movie directed by Zemeckis was Romancing the Stone (1984), which lit the match for his eventual breakthrough as a director. Incidentally, Used Cars (1980) was the only R-rated Zemeckis movie until Flight (2012).

I don't do car dealerships, but good god, I do love ensemble comedies. It is the kind of old-fashioned hokum that would've fit right at home in the days of Old Hollywood (as if it was an inverted A Wonderful Life), even if others might shudder at the thought of "crass" characters for a comedy. The thing is that they are *fun* and crass characters for a delightfully exploitative movie. What, have you never thought about a used car salesman going into politics? (as opposed to 70-year-olds running for president again and again) It wasn't like the previous decade was a normal one, what with people becoming president without the voters being involved. It is a barrage of crude brilliance that could only come from people who wanted to blaze a trail of humor at all costs and played it extremely cool in the process. Sometimes I wonder what makes Kurt Russell so good that he could've had his own fan club. I think it just is the fact that he seems to have the swagger to pull off nearly any performance with no sense of bullshitting you. He can do the action movie hero type (as one loves), he could do drama (I see Miracle [2004] every year), and most importantly, he can do comedy. Of course, this was his first film in five years, having moved away from Disney productions after The Strongest Man in the World (1975) that saw him do television and even play Elvis. With this movie, you need someone with a cocksure attitude, and you get that in spades with Russell, who is tremendously devious and tremendously funny for what clearly should've been the role to help see Russell as a legitimate talent*. He just rolls the hustle on his mind with no hesitation and the confidence that arrives in slippery likability, where one loves to watch what harebrained idea that he wants to peddle next. His time spent with Harmon is probably the only time he tries to really be honest (well, as much as one can when being around a dead person for a good chunk of the film), and even then it is still funny to see him squirm in chicanery. But the real focus is on folks you see around Russell like the superstitious (and funny) Graham or the slippery McRae or the lesser-shown McKean & Lander (who at that time were paired together on TV with Laverne & Shirley) in tech hijinks. But of course, Warden and his double role (for a time, one of them dies and is buried in an Edsel that is both touching and amusing) helps to seal the film as a real treat. He practically seems like the kid in a candy store in grousing humor that plays off the whole "one guy looks like this, the other guy acts like this" thing that makes me smile every time I see him on screen (one line in particular stands out about the "country going to the dogs" because when a politician was bought, they would stay bought). The cut-in sequences (where the boys decide the best way to raise awareness for their dealership is illegal cut-in commercials) are special standouts in ludicrous energy and audacity*, but the real show-stopper is the climax involving plenty of cars that might as well have been a cattle drive like Red River (1948) with such rousing spectacle and lunacy on display. In total, one doesn't see a cop out in a movie that looks at people and sees grifters all in line. As a whole, the screwy logic on display in salesmanship and outright lies to fill a hustle has managed to age spectacularly well for a movie that definitely deserved better in its time. But four decades (and a half) is still plenty of good milage for a director who got even better from here, so check it out.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

*He also tried to have a baseball career but suffered an injury. Is this the third film of the trinity of movies that people didn't get in the 1980s with The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China? Or would Tango & Cash make it a square? At least Escape from New York got him to righteous status.

*One scene has a naked lady in it, as one does when packed with an R-rating. Just be ready for breasts, as they say.

Radioland Murders.

Review #2241: Radioland Murders.

Cast: 

Brian Benben (Roger Henderson), Mary Stuart Masterson (Penny Henderson), Scott Michael Campbell (Billy Budge), Michael Lerner (Lieutenant Cross), Ned Beatty (General Walt Whalen), Brion James (Bernie King), Stephen Tobolowsky (Max Applewhite), Michael McKean (Rick Rochester), Corbin Bernsen (Dexter Morris), Bobcat Goldthwait (Wild Writer), Anita Morris (Claudette Katzenback), Jeffrey Tambor (Walt Whalen Jr), Larry Miller (Herman Katzenback), Christopher Lloyd (Zoltan), Harvey Korman (Jules Cogley), and Dylan Baker (Detective Jasper) Directed by Mel Smith.

Review: 

Believe it or not, I have had this film very, very, very loosely on the radar for years. Here's a good question for you folks: would you believe that this film had George Lucas as a writer? Among the fifteen films where he has been credited as a writer (story or otherwise), it probably goes without saying this is the most obscure of the group. Lucas thought of the story for the film around the time he had developed American Graffiti, which if one remembers was released in 1973 (Lucas equated the friendship had in the film between the kids and the disc jockey to a phenomenon that Radioland would explore further when it comes to radio infused with fantasy). The co-writers of that film in Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck were asked by Lucas to work on the script for the film, which in the mind of Lucas was meant to be aimed as a homage to films such as Who Done It (the Abbott and Costello film from 1942); strangely enough, if one looks up this film on Wikipedia, it lists two other films involving murders at a radio station. The success of films such as Star Wars (1977) among other things kept Lucas busy, but eventually he came back to the idea of a film based on his interests in old-time radio, once stating that "You can trace radio back to the old storytellers around the fire. It's been lost over the years." By the time of the 1990s, one could utilize computer technology for their films, and this apparently is one that really used it to distinct usage, such as the sights in the exterior of the main building the film takes place to go along with select interior walls to go with a certain shot for the climax. Jeff Reno and Ron Osborn (best known for their work on the TV show Moonlighting) were hired to deliver re-writes to the script, evidently under the request of Universal Pictures. The director was Mel Smith, who had done plenty of work within sketch comedy in his native England prior to directing his first film with The Tall Guy (1989), which Lucas liked. The result was a production that had plenty of rushed work near its ending stages, with Lucas apparently doing some unit work alongside Smith. One description of the film was "cinematic pickup sticks." The film, once budgeted for $10 million that eventually rose to $15 million as a Lucasfilm production for Universal, came and went into theaters to incredibly small audience turnout. Smith directed three further films before his death in 2013 at the age of 60, most notably with Bean (1997).

Why don't we be a little nice for a moment when it comes to a movie now three decades old: there are gags in it that are worth a chuckle (heh, radio will never die...), and it is actually a bit interesting to figure what is an special effect in a movie that one wouldn't expect to need many effects, which make for a curious eye (or what have you) on the chase at times. It looks like a radio production for worthwhile decor. One gets a slight chuckle at seeing George Burns basically play himself for one last film bit (incidentally, Burns, playing a 100-year-old comedian for a bit, would die in 1996 at the age of 100). Now, where were we? You don't usually see it happen, but this is one of those sad, sad, sad times where you can see just where a film is about to die that makes one really understand the meaning of "death by a thousand cuts". I feared it would happen late in the 108-minute runtime but nope, this is a movie that either ropes you in with its barrage of slapstick and zany nature or makes you internally scream for it to shut up and breathe. It tries to be quick in pace with its 1939 setting that tries to make one interested in the workings of its radio trappings and the growing murder mystery...and it really strains credibility once you wonder why it couldn't just have been one or the other instead of this miserable mishmash. See, one really wants to like these people and the strange quirks that come with a soundman being played by the most lucid actor possible in Lloyd or the goofy military-stylings of Beatty...and then one gets to the leads and finds the charm levels are essentially right down the tube. It doesn't seem particularly fair to denigrate Masterson (then known for roles such as Immediate Family [1989]) and Benben (the then star of the HBO sitcom Dream On), because surely, they were at least game to do the gags with quick timing and the routine I'm sure you would expect of a once burning romance. But with Benben and his preening mugging in a role that is meant to be funny in its comedy of circumstance (get it? he happens to be around when murders keep happening? eh?!), you can't craft a winner when essentially stuck in a pit with a plastic spoon when Masterson is essentially left adrift to try and match. The sitcom-level dynamic just comes off as noise bereft of life. Even seeing Lerner there makes one sad because if you're going to see someone play a familiar role, you sure as hell want it to be in something more rewarding (Goldthwait somehow makes his performance in Scrooged seem subtle). Campbell isn't even on the level of a goofy Baker while poor Tobolowsky is merely ordinary until the film remembers it has a mystery to solve. By the time the film lumbers to the end of who did what and why to go with how and where it will go, you are gladder that it has ceased transmission. In trying to capture what one thinks the screwball was all about in the realm of rapid-fire construction, being outclassed by previous throwback attempts like Oscar (1991) is a sad state of mind to be in. With middling interest in characters that don't win one's attention for an overcooked script, one can only find pity within a film that never really had a chance.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Next up: Hell, come on down Dutch.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Review #879: Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Cast:
Steve Martin (Neal Page), John Candy (Del Griffith), Laila Robins (Susan Page), Michael McKean (State Trooper), Kevin Bacon (Taxi Racer), Dylan Baker (Owen), Olivia Burnette (Marti Page), and Larry Hankin (Doobie) Directed by John Hughes (#046 - The Breakfast Club, #207 - Ferris Bueller's Day Off, #249 - Sixteen Candles, and #643 - Uncle Buck)

Review:
When it comes to great buddy films and great holiday films, this one will likely spring to mind. Martin and Candy are a great duo, in part because of how easy they seem to portray their roles, along with having some wonderful chemistry. But like other good comedies, there is also a good edge of drama as well, with a great sense of realness and charm within itself. Sure, there are good funny scenes (such as when the two learn about being robbed), but there are also good dramatic scenes, such at the motel and even near the end as well. The story structure is a familiar one, but it is executed in a fresh manner. The timing is excellent, with gags and secondary characters that serve their purposes well. It uses its scenery (mostly with snow) nicely, where everything seems real and looks real too. It's not a movie with mere caricatures, as both are equally likable in their own way, contributing their own kinds of emotion that makes for a film filled with depth. In short, this is a fine film that keeps itself in check, with Martin and Candy providing for many highlights that make for an excellent film.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Short Circuit 2.

Review #376: Short Circuit 2.

Cast
Tim Blaney (Johnny 5), Fisher Stevens (Ben Jahrvi), Michael McKean (Fred Ritter), Cynthia Gibb (Sandy Banatoni), Jack Weston (Oscar Baldwin), David Hemblen (Jones), and Don Lake (Manic Mike) Directed by Kenneth Johnson.

Review
Well, what do you know, I'm reviewing another sequel to a film long ago here, 288 reviews ago and 473 days to be exact, which was (#088) Short Circuit. It had some creativity, and while it didn't exactly make me laugh a lot or really be any good, it had a spark of entertainment, for all its weirdness. And so, once again, the qeustion is asked is does this film live up to the first one? Eh...yea. Johnny 5 is allright, once again having some decent lines as...a person robot? Made weirder by the fact he is actually declared a citizen at the end, I'm not kidding. Fisher Stevens is back once again, in a way promoted from sidekick to Steve Guttenburg to mostly-main character. Guttenburg and Sheedy from the first film don't appear (though it is explained they are in Montana. Okay?), and the depth (or there little of) is replaced with...comedy. Strangely enough, the film has a revenge sub plot and even tries to be tear-inducing at one point. In the end, the film isn't horrible, it's just...okay.

BTW: If you have any questions about this site or just about the reviews, just ask on this post, any questions at all. Please.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: This Is Spinal Tap.

Review #108: This Is Spinal Tap.

Cast
Michael McKean (David St. Hubbins), Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel), Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls), Rob Reiner (Marty Di Bergi), Tony Hendra (Ian Faith), R.J. Parnell (Mick Shrimpton, drummer), David Kaff (Viv Savage), June Chadwick (Jeanine Pettibone), Bruno Kirby (Tommy Pischedda, limo driver), Ed Begley, Jr. (John "Stumpy" Pepys), Danny Kortchmar (Ronnie Pudding), Fran Drescher (Bobbi Flekman), Patrick Macnee (Sir Denis Eton-Hogg) Directed by Rob Reiner.

Review
This is the essential rockumentary, that is the lesson you've learned after watching this movie (Also to power your things up to 11). The film has decent acting (you really can't have bad acting in a rockumentary), but it's most important thing that it has is its music. Two words: So Cool...It's a film that satarizes other rock bands and while not being very smart and all, it makes up for it by being enjoyable and just plain awesome. Actually, it's not just "plain", it's rocking awesome. It's cool, funny, rocking, 11venating, and most of all cool.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 11 stars.