Used Cars
Added after I wrote what follows: I just found this on the IMDb while checking a few points. It was apparently the tagline for the movie (and this poster attests) and I think it says more about the movie than any review ever could:
“Estimated Laugh Count: 287 City, 410 Highway. Use these numbers only for comparison. Your actual laughs may vary depending on how you feel about used car salesmen, nude women, spectacular car stunts, and the President of the United States.”
I don’t quite know why I ever thought this early feature by Robert Zemeckis would be less than entertaining, afterall, the literally perfect Back to the Future came only a couple of years later. I’m now even more anxious to see his even earlier stuff like I Wanna Hold Your Hand, even his shorts, because in this movie, even at this early stage, just about everything I love about Zemeckis as a director is practically fully formed. The whole thing opens with a long shot, perhaps not as ambitious as the stuff he’d pull off in the feather and mirror shots of Forrest Gump or Contact but interesting nonetheless. The actors turn in completely reliable performances on all counts (including one Grandpa Munster as possibly the funniest screen judge ever). The screenplay is tight. You get Jack Warden playing two characters. And in addition to some terrific effects sequences – again, nothing to compare to his later work, but a handful of explosions go a long way in an 80s comedy – the whole thing is every bit as slick as anything he’s done since. Really the only thing missing is the Alan Silvestri score.
In short, colour me impressed, I really didn’t expect as much as this movie has to offer from pre-Delorean Zemeckis.. The “high prices” ad scene is worth the price of admission/rental/purchase/whatever alone, it’s as pant-wettingly funny as anything Groening, MacFarlane or Parker/Stone can come up with today.