The Kurt Russell Blogathon – Used Cars (1980)

This is my 1st of 3 reviews for the The Kurt Russell Blogathon 2018 being hosted by Gill of WeegieMidget.

Tnx for letting me partake Gill!

“I’ll tell you something. This country is going to the dogs. You know, it used to be when you bought a politician, that son of a bitch stayed bought.” – Roy L. Fuchs

Number of Times Seen – 2 (19 Jun 2011 and 21 May 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A group of used car dealers must try and stop their rival from taking over their car lot.

My Take on it – When Gill announced this blogathon, I decided to check out one of Russell’s earliest lead roles since I didn’t really remember the film despite seeing it 7 years ago.

This was a hilarious film that had me laughing almost the entire time because it is so much fun.

Kurt Russell is great in the lead role and this is further proof of how great a lead he can be when he gets the right parts.

In addition to Russell, the supporting cast is also great and I was pleasantly surprised to see “Lenny and Squiggy” of Laverne and Shirley fame in small yet significant roles.

Jack Warden is superb in dual roles that are so different from one another.

This film is filled with lots of great pranks and antics by the characters and it is so much fun watching it all unfold.

It seems as if the actors also had such an enjoyable time making this film.

I’m not sure if they were conscious decisions, but I was so happy to see numerous references in this film that seem related to the Back to the Future Trilogy.

This makes a lot of sense being the fact that both Robert Zemekis and Bob Gale wrote this film and that trilogy.

Some of the dialogue sounded slightly familiar and the look of Roy is eerily similar to the look of Biff Tannen in his 40’s.

I really wonder of these are on purpose or just my imagination.

This was such a fun film and I look forward to eventually seeing it again at some point.

Bottom Line – Hilarious film that is so much fun. Russell is perfect in the lead role and proves how great a lead actor he can be.  The supporting cast is also great and I loved seeing Lenny and Squiggy in important small roles. The antics and pranks played by these characters are so enjoyable to watch and it seems as if they had so much fun making this film. Loved how there are numerous things that this film shares with Back to the Future trilogy since both were written by Zemekis and Gale.  I wonder how many of those things were conscious decisions.  So much fun! Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The reason Used Cars was made at Columbia Pictures was that Universal Pictures passed on it, and since the head of Columbia had once sold cars, he understood it right away. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)

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