A comedy about dishonesty and greed is nothing new (everyone's favorite: Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World) but you'll probably still get a kick out of Used Cars from 1980. This is early Robert Zemeckis (co-written with partner Bob Gale) and that's a good thing as Zemeckis has been strictly hit-and-miss of late. A protégé of Steven Spielberg (executive producer here, along with John Milius), he's gone from the often amusing Who Framed Roger Rabbit to the moderately amusing Back to the Future to the unamusing Forrest Gump and Cast Away, with mediocre side trips along the way. In terms of consistency, a rather bumpy ride (for contrast, look to the Coen brothers, who rarely—if ever—miss).
Like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Used Cars is set somewhere in the arid Southwest (the movie was shot in Mesa, Arizona). Jack Warden, doing double duty, plays twin brothers Luke and Roy L. Fuchs. The brothers—one good, one bad—own competing used car lots directly across the street from each other. Luke is the decent and fair-minded one, while brother Roy L. is a ruthless cut-throat looking to put Luke out of business. Of course Roy, with his spiffy "Auto Emporium" is successful, while Luke struggles with his dusty, run-down "New Deal" dealership.
But good-natured old Luke has an ace up his sleeve—hotshot salesman Rudy Russo (Kurt Russell). Russo is a plaid-jacketed charmer, slick and unscrupulously dishonest (when we first see him he's rolling back the mileage on a Buick). Russo is only too eager to put the pinch on anyone unfortunate enough to stumble onto the lot.
Early on he baits one of Roy's customers from across the street. A ten-dollar bill stuck to the end of some fishing line catches the eye of one Stanley Dewoski (Dan Barrows). The dimwit chases it across traffic, almost getting run over in the process, as Rudy literally reels him in ("Say, this your ten dollars?"). The rube is fairly timid—nothing like the similarly-named character Marlon Brando played in A Streetcar Named Desire—and no match for the fast-talking Rudy.
Luke, of course, doesn't condone such tricks ("You are the craziest, most irresponsible operator I've ever met") but Rudy's desperate to ink some deals. He needs some fast cash—ten thousand dollars to be exact—and he knows that means moving a lot of iron. With ten grand added to the fifty he's already got his hands on, Rudy can buy himself a Senate seat and even old Luke (who's willing to loan him the rest of the money) sees the logic in that one.
Meanwhile, a new freeway ramp is about to go up that will run right through Roy's place. Nobody's suppose to know about it, but Roy learns the news via his ties to city hall. Unable to buy his brother out, he's looking to inherit the place as Luke has a bad heart and no other relatives (his only daughter joined a commune and hasn't been seen in years).
To speed things along, merciless Roy arranges for his brother to be taken for a ride—by a demolition derby driver posing as a customer—and scared into a coronary. It's rather sadistic but fairly cartoonish as Luke gets battered along with his prized '57 Chevy. The sequence ends with the cherried-out car being flipped over back onto the lot. The pro in the driver seat is unscathed ("Twenty-four hundred, old man? I don't know, I'm going to have to think about it") but Luke, clutching his chest, won't survive the ordeal. Suddenly the lot's in jeopardy, along with Rudy's political aspirations.
If you haven't already guessed, Used Cars is a mean-spirited comedy. How much you laugh may hinge on how willing you are to buy into its dog-eat-dog spirit (Rudy's motto is "trust me", but the movie's cynical theme is that dishonesty is the rule we all live by).
Zemeckis puts the petal to the metal as Rudy ultimately goes to war against Roy L. The movie moves at a breakneck pace (if you're waiting for the film to ease up on the gas, it never really happens) following the old business adage: better to be quick than dead. The gags are piled one upon another and many (if not most) of them pay off.
Much of what works comes to us via memorable supporting characters. Gerrit Graham (who is probably best remembered for his cult role in Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise) plays another hustling salesman, who also happens to be intensely superstitious (his biggest fear: red cars). Deborah Harmon is the long-lost, estranged daughter who falls for Rudy and learns how to be just as conniving. David L. Lander and Michael McKean (Lenny and Squiggy of "Laverne and Shirley" fame) play Freddie and Eddie, a pair of techno geeks who jam into a couple of live television broadcasts so Rudy can get some free air-time (one pirate commercial features a topless Cheryl Rixon, 1980's Penthouse Pet of the Year). Former "Munster" Al Lewis puts in an appearance as a no-nonsense judge; and actor/director Alfonso Arau (Like Water for Chocolate) is Manuel, a crotch-grabbing Mexican auto wholesaler. There's even a scene-stealing dog, Toby, who gets some funny moments.
While there's much to laugh at, Used Cars does rely too often on cliché car stunts. How many times, for instance, have we seen the old car jumping over the train bit? Also, the movie loses some of its hard edge with the introduction of Harmon. Still, fans of big visual spectacle, a la 1941 (also written by Zemeckis and Gale), will be pleased as hundreds of Manuel's jalopies race across the prairie in a memorable finale. The reasons behind this are too complicated to get into (and why spoil it?) so I guess you'll just have to check out Used Cars for yourself. Worth a look. Honest.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.