{"id":3286,"date":"2007-05-29T11:59:58","date_gmt":"2007-05-29T18:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3286"},"modified":"2021-03-13T15:11:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T22:11:28","slug":"used-cars-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3286","title":{"rendered":"Used Cars (1980)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;There goes a perfectly good bumper sticker.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Used-Cars-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Used-Cars-Poster-213x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"213\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-23424\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Used-Cars-Poster-213x300.jpg 213w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Used-Cars-Poster-90x128.jpg 90w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Used-Cars-Poster.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 213px) 100vw, 213px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA used car salesman (Kurt Russell) tries to prevent his dead boss&#8217;s car lot from falling into the hands of his boss&#8217;s nefarious twin brother (Jack Warden).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Comedy<\/li>\n<li>Dick Miller Films<\/li>\n<li>Rivalry<\/li>\n<li>Salesmen<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary is not alone in his assessment of this &#8220;fast-moving, eccentric&#8221; comedy &#8212; a &#8220;properly amoral tribute to that American institution, the shyster used-car dealer who has made a genuine <em>craft<\/em>&#8230; out of fast-talking us into believing the junk he&#8217;s literally put together with spit and polish (and bubble gum) is the car of our dreams&#8221; &#8212; as<br \/>\n&#8220;imaginative&#8221;, &#8220;hilarious&#8221;, &#8220;consistently funny&#8221; and &#8220;very entertaining&#8221;. Many other critics seem to agree (see links below) &#8212; but I&#8217;m afraid I&#8217;m not one of them. More akin to <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1411\"><em>Porky&#8217;s<\/em> (1981)<\/a> than <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2315\"><em>Airplane! <\/em>(1980)<\/a>, <em>Used Cars<\/em> relies far too heavily on broad slapstick in its skewering of what is already a sure-fire target. There&#8217;s potential here for something much greater. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A few mildly amusing moments &#8212; as when a trained dog plays dead in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Dog2.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Dog2.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3284\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo. This one is only for die-hard fans of Zemeckis&#8217; comedies. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0081698\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1980\/08\/22\/archives\/used-cars-bumpercruncher-farce.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/used-cars-1980\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s409used.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/81113.html\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;There goes a perfectly good bumper sticker.&#8221; Synopsis: A used car salesman (Kurt Russell) tries to prevent his dead boss&#8217;s car lot from falling into the hands of his boss&#8217;s nefarious twin brother (Jack Warden). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Comedy Dick Miller Films Rivalry Salesmen Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: Peary is not alone in his assessment of this &#8220;fast-moving, eccentric&#8221; comedy &#8212; a &#8220;properly amoral tribute to that American institution, the shyster used-car dealer who has made a genuine&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3286\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3286"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70493,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3286\/revisions\/70493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}