Production Year: 1980 - Comedy - Director: Robert Zemeckis - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Joe Flaherty, Michael McKean, David L. Lander, Kurt Russell, Gerrit Graham, Frank McRae, Deborah Harmon, Jack Warden, Alfonso Arau more
Jack Warden stars as Luke and Roy L. Fuchs--feuding used car-selling twin brothers who square off in an outrageous, all-out attempt to put each other out of business. Rudy Russo... more
Used Cars [DVD] [1980]
Used Cars, the 1980 film by director Robert Zemeckis, gives no indication of things to ... more
come in his career (Back to the Future,Contact,Forrest Gump), but it is representative of a certain cynical humour he shared early on with writer-partner Bob Gale. K...
Used Cars [DVD] [1980]
Used Cars, the 1980 film by director Robert Zemeckis, gives no indication of things to ... more
come in his career (Back to the Future,Contact,Forrest Gump), but it is representative of a certain cynical humour he shared early on with writer-partner Bob Gale. K...
Used Cars DVD
There full-throttle laughs as all-out war erupts between two competing car shops run by ... more
bickering brothers Luke and Roy Fuchs after Luke's top used car salesman Rudy Russo (Russell) decides to run for the state Senate. For Roy no dirty trick is off-li...
Used Cars
Jack Warden - (Bulworth, Mighty Aphrodite) is brilliant in a double role as two feuding ... more
brothers Luke and Roy L. Fuchs, who own competing car lots and more trying to drive each other out of business. Rudy Russo (Kurt Russell - Breakdown, Backdraft) is Luke's ace salesman, a charming and conniving cheat and liar who is merely in training for his true ambition - politics. In one of Rudy's most outrageous advertising plays, he hires a model (Penthouse Pet of the Year Cheryl Rixon) to strip on television, and they all wind up in a crazy automobile stampede involving 200 vintage cars in a high-speed chase that becomes a free-for-all demolition derby.
Production Year: 1999 - Comedy - Director: Paul Weitz - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Jason Biggs, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Chris Klein, Seann William Scott, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Eugene Levy
Production Year: 2004 - Comedy - Director: John Hay - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jimi Mistry, Kate Miles, Dougray Scott
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
A review by eve6kicksass on Used Cars (DVD) October 18th, 2003
Author's product rating:
Did you enjoy it?
Loved it
Story
Outstanding
Characters / Performances
Outstanding
Special Effects
Standard
How does it compare to similar films?
Outstanding
Advantages:
those who love Kurt Russell and Robert Zemeckis have to check this out
Disadvantages:
Somewhat dated, but nothing else
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Fast and hysterical from the word go, this hardly remembered 1980 comedy from the writing team of Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis (who later made BACK TO THE FUTURE) is a genuine trip...and a great way to spend a night in front of the TV with anyone your with to have some great laughs. I saw this on Sky Tv a few days ago, and can't believe I've never seen it until now, let alone heard of it, and this film I think definately does deserve a resurfacing for the modern audience, and I will explain exactly why a little later.
The tagline for the film when it was released says it all really: "Estimated Laugh Count: 287 City, 410 Highway. Use these numbers only for comparison! Your actual laughs may vary depending upon how you feel about used car salesman, nude women, specatacular car stunts, and the President of the United States." (In this case, Prez Jimmy Carter, lol). Kurt Russell, in his first adult film role (!), plays used car salesman Rudy Russo who will do ANYTHING to sell a car. He works for Luke Fuchs, a man with a bad heart but a warm, irresistable personality. Luke's brother Roy (both of the Fuchs are played by veteren Jack Warden) owns a much more profitable dealership right across the way. Roy has been determined to get a hold of Luke's property so he can expand...and ends up hiring one of his workers to "test-drive" a car with Luke...ending up in Luke dying of a hard attack.
Sorry, wait a minute, getting a little ahead of myself here...lol. Alright, Russo wants to run for the Senate and needs some quick cash, and Luke (in the beginning) agrees to it, on one condition: that Roy will NEVER take control of his dealership. So when poor Luke gets a heart attack and passes on, what is Russo to do? He lets everyone know that Luke has gone to Florida on vacation, while at the same time Roy is trying to prove that his brother died. Next problem: how does Russo get the money for getting into politics? Answer: let's draw customers in by using television advertising. Of course, this kind of tv advertising involves a woman flashing her breasts. Next day, the dealership is packed.
The laughs are mainly coming out how Russell and Warden battle each other with their customer-getting schemes...Fuchs trys a circus, while Russo hires strippers to dance on top of the cars!!! Things become quite complicated for Russell though, when the Fuchs' long-lost daughter (a charming Deborah Harmon) shows up. With everything that's going on at this point, Russell has no idea what to say....instead, he ends up falling in love. The funniest sequence of the film (for me) is when when Russo and his cronies take over the National TV circuit and show a commercial during the Presidential speech!!! Let me put it this way, Russo's buddy Jeff (Gerrit Graham) dresses up like a cowboy, goes over to Roy Fuch's dealership, and says on TV, "$4900 for this worthless piece of sh*t!! That Mother F*cker is just way too much!!" He then fires a shotgun several times at the car, and that's not the only one he manages to ruin.
If this movie sounds somewhat crude to you, well it is...though I think it is way funnier (and better) than many of todays crude comedies (like DUMB & DUMBER, uggh). The advantage that this film does have in terms of the rudeness is that it is all so good-natured that you probably won't even mind. Russell is charming, funny, and completely irresistable as Russo; if you loved him in OVERBOARD and CAPTAIN RON, then you'll surely love him in this! Warden is terrific, too, as his nemesis, though USED CARS also has an unbelievable supporting cast. David L. Lander and Michael McKean (who played Squiggy and Lenny, respectively, in the TV show LAVERNE & SHIRLEY) are great as two of Russell's partners in TV hijacking; Frank McRae is also great as a mechanic who will sometimes say "Oh, just get in the MF'ing car" just to make you spin the car around the block. Last of all is Alfonso Arau (who later had a riotous supporting role in Zemeckis' ROMANCING THE STONE) as a friend of Russell's who sells him 500 cars near the end of the film....with the drivers (to take back to Russo's lot) all driver's ed students in high school!!! Talk about going into overdrive lol!
What I just mentioned is just another advantage of what USED CARS has over so many other comedies today: a well-executed, twisty plot. You have no idea the whole time where exactly the story is going, which only makes you more surprised as you just laugh and not think about it. And believe me, everything I mentioned in this opinion doesn't even come close to everything that happens in this film. It truly is a wonderful blend of craziness, silliness, and hilarity; it even throws in some car chases and a terrific fight between Graham and Warden that will have you doubled over with laughter.
The film was directed by Zemeckis, and executive produced by John Milus (who later directed CONAN THE BARBARIAN) and Steven Speilberg. That's right Spielberg helped get this film, one of Zemeckis' first, off the ground. Ever since I watched USED CARS, I'm still trying to figure out how this movie become a huge commercial failure; though one clue I discovered was that it came out the same week as AIRPLANE!, which had far more advertising to make it more profitable. In any case, this film is practically unheard of today, and I think it's a real shame. I encourage all of you who want to see a great comedy, this is one to definately look for. And Just Remember: $50 never killed anybody!!!! Thanks for reading, and looking forward to reading all your Comments!! Cheers!!! :)))))))
Advantages: Kurt Russell is brilliant Disadvantages: Nothing
Used cars is one of Robert Zemeckis' early classics, before he hit the 'Forrest Gump' more serious drama path. It tells the story of two brothers who own pieces of land opposite each other, both with there own car sales, while one is successful the other one struggles to sell anything. Apart from that is for his fast talking salesman Kurt Russell who can sell a piece of junk to anyone. It is a comedy which also contains bits of action sequences to ... ...the men although I did enjoy it. 'Rudy' Kurt Russells character goes to all sorts of extremes to keep the business going including switching off a huge football game to put on there advert and escorting a mile of cars to the yard. It is a feel good movie and well worth watching for a bit of light entertainment. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Evil Brig! Disadvantages: Standard 70's BBC special effects
...you get John Pertwee at his best, a Tardis that can't be used as this is part of the "confined to Earth by The Timelords" storyline. and we also get lots of good looks at Bessie (The Doctors great car) which always used to make me happy.
The great thing with these dvd are you can watch the story, then watch it again with information text and commentary on to learn more about the background & filming of the episodes....
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: brilliant family film with comedy and romance Disadvantages: should make one from someone elses point of view as well
...We were in the car on the way back home from Disney, as well as having my cousin's wedding the following day and me and my sisters were getting rather bored in the car. We decided to watch a DVDusing our portable DVD player and after a lot of arguing over which one to watch we chose this (which was rather fitting as we had a wedding the following). It was a great choice of DVD as it such an enjoyable and funny film with great acting and a great cast which comes together to make this film Father of The Bride not only original and a great watch but also really suitable for all the family and anyone of all ages.
The plot:
The general idea of this film is about a wedding and in an original and rather unique way it shows the wedding from the perspective of the father of the bride (played by Steve Martin). It starts at the end...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: good learning process Disadvantages: bit pricey
...Brought this DVD for part of my Hubby's Christmas box, he's into Top Gear and other car programmes such as this, by the time he got around to putting this DVD on, I was well and truly hooked on car shows, so had no problems with watching it.
Actually a very interesting DVD, which instead of just showing you flash cars, not only few can afford, this DVD gives some very useful tips and information.
The basics are, that presenter Mike Brewer and a mechanic genius friend of his, have a £1000, starting fund, with this, they have to purchase a scrap, or near scrap sporty or classic car, from local papers, small adds column etc, and do it up as best they can,
Mike tends to be the man, who job it is to go out and get the best deals he can for spare parts, whilst the mechanic sets to work on the car, they are given one week to complete...
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Jack Warden stars as Luke and Roy L. Fuchs--feuding used car-selling twin brothers who square off in an outrageous, all-out attempt to put each other out of business. Rudy Russo (Kurt Russell), Luke's star salesman, is doing all the lying and cheating that he can in the name of the cause, but only in preparation for what he feels is his true calling--a career in politics! You'll howl at the proceedings, which involve strippers on television and a 200-car chase that turns into a full-on demolition derby. Director Robert Zemeckis (BACK TO THE FUTURE, CAST AWAY) also assembled a first-rate supporting cast (featuring Michael McKean, Joe Flaherty, and Gerritt Graham) for this raunchy, action-packed, and hilarious cult favorite.
Special Features: Trailer - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer, 2. TV Spots, Filmographies
Aspect Ratio: 1.85 Wide Screen
Sound: Mono
Dubbing Sound: Mono English
Professional reviews
Review: "...A foul-mouthed, bumper-crunching farce....It wipes out THE BLUES BROTHERS, CADDYSHACK...and just about every other recent comedy..." (New York Times, p.C10, 22/08/1980)
![Used Cars [DVD] [1980]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78526037.jpg)
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