Just picked up the recent DVD release of the 1980 comedy “Used Cars”. Anyone else like this movie? I loved it when it first came out, and even after 25 years it’s still very funny.
This is very much in the tradition of “CaddyShack” and “Stripes”. It’s about a car dealership full of totally amoral workers. Hijinks ensue. Lenny and Squiggy make an appearance as genius hackers, as does Joe Flaherty as a sleazy lawyer. Kurt Russell is excellent as a complete sleazebag car salesman with a heart of go… no, not gold. Maybe rusty tin. There’s a heart there somewhere, sort of.
Not to be missed: The car lot boys hijack a microwave relay and insert their homemade car commercials illegally into several broadcasts - each more hilarious than the previous one.
Oh, and it was written by Bob Zemeckis and Bob Gale - the guys responsible for “Back to the Future” and “Forrest Gump”. Although if Forrest showed up on this lot, he probably would have wound up buried in an Edsel or something.
I liked the mechanic who was always dozing off with the blowtorch in his hand running full blast. (Even better was how accustomed to it Kurt Russell was: he’d walk over and turn it off like he was switching off a light).
That same mechanic had a great bowlederized phrase (that I use to this day) for registering surprise: “Jesus Palomino!”
Oh, yeah, great flick. I loved the part where the salesmen had strippers dancing on the hoods of cars, and were letting the clients sign contracts for the cars on the still-gyrating backsides of the strippers.
At the time there was a place that had a bunch of rooms with big screen tvs, couches and they sold concessions like a movie theate. You and your friends could rent a movie, and a room to watch it in for a pretty resonable price.
