Moving Violations

Moving Violations is a rip tickling slapstick movie; the kind that's not really made anymore. We saw a lot of these types of movies in the 60's and 70's with Going Bananas, the Canon Ball Run, Airplane, and others, but not too of them lately. For the new generation of movie goers, you might be familiar with Not Another Teen Movie. They are close, but not quite the same.

Moving Violations stars John Murray, the wise cracking brother of Bill Murray. He does a great job of playing the wise cracking Dana Cannon. He's a mild mannered landscaper by day and the laid back hero we all dreamed we'd one day be before becoming part of the system. The alluring NASA rocket scientist Amy Hopkins played by Jennifer Tilly is his traffic school love interest.

James Keach plays Deputy Halik, a tough nose cop with an equally tough sidekick Deputy Morris. Halik just wants to write tickets and be "the man". The duo are primarily responsible for pulling over the many colorful characters who commit traffic violations. Once pulled over, the offenders' cars are impounded pending graduation of a nearly impossible to pass traffic school. Add to that Halik's unrelenting harassment of the ever cool Dana.

Though Halik and Morris are a love interest, Halik has another lover; Judge Hendersen played by Sally Kellerman. Not only do they sneak romance behind Morris' back, Halik and Henderson also hatch a nasty scheme aimed at the already suffering lot of students. It's ironic and funny to see a Frank Burns style character having a secret romance with a former "Hot Lips Hulahan".

Some of the funny scenes include a romance in a NASA anti-gravity chamber, Halik's destruction of a car he thinks belongs to Dana, two "where's the beef" ladies trying to drive with their exaggerated old age maladies, a misunderstanding about what a certain doctor is actually a doctor of and more make this film knee slapping hilarious.

Other great and funny characters include a puppeteer played by Brian Bake of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the late Wendie Jo Sperber of Bosom Buddies and 8 Simple Rules, Red Willard, a very young Don Cheadle of Hotel Rwanda, Traitor and Iron Man 2 and many actors of the time.

Great and cheesy songs track this classic with guitar solo, drum machine, and synthesizer laced rhythms. Believable extras sport awesomely coiffed punk and new wave hairdos. Suede Members Only jackets, a few Ford Pintos, a VW Cabriolet, some defunct airlines like PanAm, TWA and other brands of the time co-star to make this hilarious movie successful.

Though there is no nudity, adult situations definitely give this movie a mature theme. Definitely requires adult supervision