Movie review: ‘Used Cars’

FloridaGator80
A promotional photograph from the movie “Used Cars.”

The 1980s saw the beginning of the explosion of the loud, gross-out, profane and over-the-top adult comedy, from teens to adults acting badly. The more puerile the humor, the better. As a 20-something, I loved them and saw each one in the theater (HBO was in its infancy and the videotape was about to explode onto the scene. Today, I still love them. I believe “Porky’s” (click here to read my review), “Police Academy” and “The Hollywood Knights” (click here to read my review) was part of the inspiration for later franchises (say, “American Pie” – click here for my look at franchises), and still there’s a mostly forgotten gem called “Used Cars” that will leave you on the floor. It is sharp, snappy and insults highbrows to no end. It’s my kind of film from start to finish.

‘Used Cars’
(1980; 113 minutes; rated R; directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Kurt Russell, Jack Warden and Gerrit Graham)

TRUST HIM (TO BE FUNNY!)

(NOTE: I expanded this review with additional opinion and trivia and updated links on July 31, 2015. I again expanded it on July 24, 2020. I again expanded it on Oct. 6, 2023. I again expanded it on May 30, 2026.)

It’s always great to go back and watch a film you know without a doubt is fall-down funny. It’s even better when that film is even funnier than you remember. For myself, “Used Cars” fits that bill unequivocally after I just watched it again for the first time 15 years (that was my original writing and I watched it yet again as I expanded this review more than a year later and then again more than five years later).

Not only does “Used Cars” offer creativity and excellent comedic acting and timing, it also uses well-known TV actors – “Lenny” and “Squiggy” from “Laverne & Shirley” – and a blast furnace full of profanity that is the almost surreal icing on this cake.

As a two-time Oscar nominee, Jack Warden does the twin-bit playing a pair of brothers on literal opposite sides of the street and manages to be soft and human as the good brother and then blusteringly outrageous as the evil twin. Plus, his work isn’t the best acting job here.

A promotional photograph from the movie “Used Cars.”

In “Used Cars,” former Disney teen star Kurt Russell is the garrulous, smooth hyper-salesman “Rudy Russo.” He wants to become a crooked politician to become even more crooked rich.

As the film opens, he’s stuck at the “New Deal” used car lot doing things like baiting customers with money tied to a fishing rod’s string. He’s working hard to come up with the cash “contribution” to the local party machine for the election nomination that will land him a jackpot of corruption.

A promotional photograph from the movie “Used Cars.”

Enter Warden, who plays both the owner of the used car lot and his evil twin brother who has the competing lot across the street. The sleazy brother uses a driving trick to kill Russell’s boss with a heart attack. Russell and the guys at New Deal then band together to save it, even as the owner’s daughter has come back into his life and into the picture.

The film is a great series of vignettes of comedy, from the early scene of burying Warden in an Edsel to hide the fact that he died to the two times New Deal’s tech geniuses ( “Lenny” and “Squiggy”) hijack live TV signals – once during a football game and the second during a speech by President Carter. They use the free TV time as live commercials for the car lot and the results are remarkable.

Heck, even “Toby” the dog is funny as well disgusting (canine urination is a staple of funny, just watch WeTV today) and the director has been quoted as saying the pooch was the meanest he ever worked with. Good job, Peanuts (that’s “Toby’s” real name)!

Although the supporting cast does an outstanding job, including Al Lewis, who was “Grandpa Munster” in “The Munsters,” it’s Russell who rules the roost. In one scene with Deborah Harmon, who plays “Barbara Fuchs” (the good Warden’s daughter), he just gives the punch line (“Don’t ask me. I’m just a farmer!”) and both are near-hysterical. You laugh simply because you KNOW it was dirty and hilarious.

So, here’s my look at the cast:

  • A promotional photograph from the movie “Used Cars.”

    A Golden Globe nominee (not for this one) and a Primetime Emmy nominee, Russell just keeps coming at you throughout the film. From a disco dancing scene with strippers on top of the New Deal used cars to just sitting in a courtroom mouthing the word “lie” to Harmon as she’s being questioned by the judge played by Lewis, you just want the movie to go on and on. The best part is that Russell’s character is loyal and doesn’t turn his back on his used car lot buddies even when he has the chance of his lifetime. Kurt was nominated for an Oscar for “Silkwood” and was nominated for an Emmy for the tee-vee movie “Elvis,” in which he played the title character. I enjoyed his work in in the classic cult fav “Escape from New York” (click here to read my review), the underrated “Captain Ron” with Martin Short and May Kay Place and he was in several Quentin Tarantino films including “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” (click here to read my review).

  • A promotional photograph from the movie “Used Cars.”

    Nearly matching Russell’s effort is co-star Gerrit Graham, who plays psychotically superstitious salesman “Jeff,” who believes it’s the worst luck in the world to be in, much less sell, a red car. The red car quirk plays havoc in the TV football scene as well as in the climax of “Used Cars.” Graham had a somewhat prolific career in movies and TV and notched 129 acting credits since his first in 1968, but he hasn’t had an acting credit since 2012.

  • A promotional photograph from the movie “Used Cars.”

    A two-time Oscar nominee, Warden does a great job playing the opposing personalities of the “Fuchs” brothers “Luke” (good) and “Roy L.” (bad). He certainly acts in this film and is not saddled with the crap he had in the execrable “Dirty Work” (click here to read my review) with Norm MacDonald. Warden’s sterling career of 164 acting credits with the last in 2000 includes as the better ones “All the President’s Men” (click here to read my review), “12 Angry Men,” “Being There” and “While You Were Sleeping” with Sandra Bullock (click here to read my review). Warden passed in 2006 at the age of 85 of heart and kidney failure. He was nominated for Oscars for 1975’s “Shampoo” with Warren Beatty and “Heaven Can Wait” three years later, also with Beatty. Warden was nominated for three Primetime Emmys, including for the football-themed movie “Brian’s Song,” in which he portrayed legendary Chicago Bears owner and head coach George Halas.

  • A promotional photograph from the movie “Used Cars.”

    Harmon was also seen in another fall-down funny film, “Bachelor Party” (click here to read my review), as the bride-to-be’s cousin who wants to sabotage Tom Hanks’ wedding plans. She’s basically solid here, but she doesn’t have as much to work with as most of the rest of the cast. She did a bunch of TV series episodes in the 1980s, but she hasn’t had an acting credit since 2002, when she was on an episode of “Malcolm in the Middle.”

  • A promotional photograph from the movie “Used Cars.”

    Russell and Graham have a buddy at the car lot and its burly Frank McRae, who plays “Jim” the mechanic and plays a central figure in all the hijinks. McRae easily holds his own with the others. McRae, who had a very brief stint as a defensive player in the NFL, has had some memorable roles including as a security guard with John Candy in “National Lampoon’s Vacation” as well as a teacher in “Red Dawn” (click here to read my review), a cop in “48 Hrs.” and TV shots including “Magnum P.I.” and “The Rockford Files.” I liked his effort in “Dillinger” (click here to read my review) with Warren Oates and he died at 80 of a heart attack in 2021.

  • A promotional photograph from the movie “Used Cars.”

    For Oscar nominee (not for this one) Michael McKean and David L. Lander, the former “Lenny” and “Squiggy” playing “Eddie Winslow” and “Freddie Paris” respectively, they are the nerdy tech guys who are twisted enough to hang with this crowd (although Russell has to remind them how they have to leave the office, “Guys, the back door. It’s still light outside.”). In fact, they are so high-tech that Lander has himself installed a pacemaker in McKean’s chest (another wonderful vignette). Both actors do a wonderful job and it would have been nice to see a little bit more of them – not too much, though. McKean was nominated for Original Song – along with Annette O’Toole – for “A Mighty Wind.” Lander died of multiple sclerosis at 72 in 2020.

  • A promotional photograph from the movie “Used Cars.”

    “The Munsters” veteran Lewis’ “Judge H.H. Harrison” is just as odd as anyone else in the film, especially when he uses his fingers to walk up a model of a gallows while presiding from the bench, which is one of several execution device models on his court bench (an electric chair, guillotine and stocks round out the lethal group). Lewis died at 82 in 2006.

The f-bombs fly frequently on this airline (an early front-runner in the most f-bomb category until the 1990s saw carpet-bombings in films with the word and Martin Scorsese fell in love with Joe Pesci), but the rest draws attention even more.

A promotional photograph from the movie “Used Cars.”

After all is considered, the single funniest scene is where the guys hijack the TV broadcast of President Carter’s speech. Graham, dressed as “Marshal Lucky,” shoots up the bad Warden’s used cars and then blasts one with dynamite after commenting on its price, “That’s too #$^%ing high!” Graham puts you on the floor with this one. It is truly not to be missed.

“Used Cars” was the 56th ranked film at theaters with $11.7 million in ticket sales in 1980, according to Box Office Mojo. It was made on a budget of $8 million, according to Wiki. The No. 1 film was “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back” with $209.3 million. Here are the other films from that year that I have reviewed:

Additional cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Warden’s birth name was John Warden Lebzelter Jr. and his nickname was “Johnny Costello;” Lander’s birth name was David Leonard Landau; Russell’s middle name is Vogel; and Lewis’ birth name was Alexander Meister.
  • Graham isn’t one of Hollywood’s micro-men who stand about 5-5 and pretend otherwise. He’s 6-foot-2.
  • Betty Thomas, who is better known for directing such efforts as “The Late Shift” (click here for my review), “Doctor Doolittle” and “28 Days,” has a bit part here.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “The T-Birds’ white convertible and the Scorpion’s black Mercury (w/flames) from Grease (1978) are two of the cars that Rudy Russo palms off on the driver ed. teacher.”
  • Harmon left Hollywood and became a real estate agent – and she isn’t related to Mark Harmon.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “On the judge’s desk there is a mini gallows. When he pushes the button a small doll can be seen being hung. The doll is a Han Solo Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) action figure.”
  • Click here for IMDb.com’s extensive trivia page about the film.

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