Used Cars

Zemeckis and Gale’s movie is really a more restless and visually high-spirited version of the W. C. Fields comedies.

Director/co-writer Robert Zemeckis has undeniable energy and flair, but it's being misspent on pretexts and situations that seem inexcusably gratuitous and snide.

Most of the time, I didn't know whether to laugh or shudder, and I ended up doing a lot of both.

What might have looked like a great idea on paper has been tackled by filmmakers who haven't expanded it much beyond the one joke inherent in the premise.

Used Cars runs on a contemporary screwball motor with a slapstick chassis.

Used Cars was written, directed, and produced by the team of Bob Zemeckis and Bob Gale, two young filmmakers who seem to be higher on kinetic energy than on structure and comedic instinct.

Used Cars improves substantially as it progresses...

Everything one would expect from an R-rated comedy from the early ’80s is present and accounted for: gratuitous T&A, profanity that flies like poetry, then-timely potshots at famous figures, and plenty of impressive vehicular stuntwork.

It has some raunchy fun pillaging used car salesmen as untrustworthy.

Featuring a great turn from Kurt Russell, Used Cars is both a brilliantly funny comedy and a good reminder of just how interesting a writer-director Robert Zemeckis used to be.