Used Cars

great movie. but in order to fully appreciate it, you have to see it uncut. not that it's loaded with bad stuff, but it is an R rated movie and some of the best jokes will be trimmed for TV (unless you saw it on cable).

"That's just too fuckin' high!"

The DVD commentary is hilarious.

'Everybody likes a man who's good at his job'.
'Yeah, like Darth Vader'.

This movie was my introduction to Kurt Russell.

Love the pirate commercials. Love Jack Warden. Love everything about this movie.

Stripes and Caddyshack seem to have survived the decades, but I am constantly letting people know Used Cars even exists. So fucking funny. Netflix it immediately. Or blind buy it - ten bucks, I think.

Saw a local car commercial recently that had a superhero named G-Rock. The commercial proclaimed that "G-Rock hates on high prices". I was instantly brought back to this movie.

My favorite scene is near the end with all of the gathered in the courtroom and Kurt disguises his voice and yells at Grandpa Munster judge about 'checking it out for himself.'

Makes me smile.

Look closely and you will see Star Wars figures on Judge Munster's bench.

Jack Warden.

R.I.P.

This was the movie that I thought of when I read about him passing away, so Rest In Peace Jack Warden.

If I didn't have a stack of twenty four movies sitting on top of my TV, I'd be watching Used Cars in memorial.

"I knocked those mother fuckers on their asses!"

This film has an excellent DVD commentary, with Zemeckis showing some self-awareness ("I'm glad I made this movie then, because I know I could never make it today") and some great humour - Russell saying "You know, I always thought if you guys cast Bill Murray as the lead in this film, it would've been a hit" and Bob Gale answering "It probably would've been, Kurt! It probably would've been! That was our mistake!"

So there's no excuse not to watch this.

The film, despite its unpretentious trimmings, has quality written all over it - and with Milius and Spielberg as producers, it's no wonder.

And a truly great supporting cast - Joe Flaherty, Michael McKean, Al Lewis, David Lander....

"Now wait just a Goddamn minute. What the hell is this? Is this a 1974 Mercedes 450SL for twenty-four thousand dollars? That's too fucking high!"

Whenever I see a grossly overweight person stuffing their faces I just think:
"food giant"

I love this movie to death, and Russell's a fucking blast in the lead.

While I'm no fan of cheap, cash-in remakes that could never capture the appeal of the original, does anyone agree that Vince Vaughn could update Rudy Russo quite nicely?

No. Let Kurt do it.

There's a couple of threads for this, including this one http://www.chud.com/community/t/81654/used-cars so it was hard to choose.

 

Either way, I love this movie. This is one I grew up with, although I didn't see the uncut version until a few years ago. Watching it last night it holds up, although I admit the exploitation of women on display here gives me pause. It's not the strippers so much, or the fact that Barbara Fuchs is a non-character clutz that shows up forty minutes in, it's mostly the first commercial they shoot when everyone is all over the model. It's a little unnerving, but I understand that to be a product of 1980.

 

Kurt Russell is on fire here, talking fast and smarmy as well. The strange moral of this story, and what Barbara learns at the end, is that it's okay to lie. The movie doesn't really attempt to grapple with that, but it's okay because Russell is so likable.

 

I didn't realize until recently that Robert Zemeckis directed this and Bob Gale wrote it. I can say that Zemeckis loves having actors play multiple roles and gets a kick out of fancy makeup.

 

The tone shifts a few times, and the plot almost goes off on a few tangents, but everything comes together in the end. Funny and exciting, don't see much like this anymore.

The amorality of the entire enterprise is what gives it its juice and keeps it fresh: Rudy is probably the only cinematic character this side of Groucho Marx or W.C. Fields that could so completely engage our sympathy while trying to buy an election (and I love Flaherty's litany of all the payoffs).

 

Within a period of roughly twelve months, we had this, The In-Laws, Airplane! and Life of Brian. There's your Golden Age of Comedy right there.

Even the dog is absolutely fantastic!  That bit with Graham, the dog, and the station wagon is absolutely priceless.  So is the scene where the couple are frantically signing the contract for a car because they think their haggling over the price is causing the dealer's heart attack!

 

"See!  See!  I signed it!  I signed it!"

Among the many great things about this movie is how it becomes a full-blown Western in the third act.