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

They Live

They Live

I saw John Carpenter’s They Live for the first time while stationed in Wildflecken, Germany. I watched a lot of movies back in the day. It was a good way to blow off steam at the end of a long work day when I wasn’t seeing the sights or otherwise touring the landscapes and scenes of Europe.

They Live has no famous 80’s background music. Filmed during what I call the black hole of music in 1988, I doubt if the sound track would be as good as that of Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, or Footloose. Instead this move was tracked with the electronic sounds of old Carpenter himself. The only real pop culture was probably just the same ol’ LA scene as in most movies of the time; palm trees, cityscape and flannel shirts.

Rowdy Roddy Piper plays George Playa, a homeless man who wonders into LA looking for work. He sports a great mullet and is busting out of his cloths, wrastlin’ style. The writers ensured his first job is on a construction site where he gets a few shirtless scenes to keep the movie campy. While on the site he meets Frank a character well played by Keith David.

George and Frank don’t trust each other, but it’s clear that they should definitely resolve their issues and save the world. As the tension mounts between them, an unholy mystery is forming at the nearby church. The homeless wonderers join others at an outdoor homeless gypsy camp and become aware of the strange late night events at the church. Meanwhile, a weird hacking of the television channel is warning observers that someone is controlling them.

Out of nowhere the police come and destroy the camp, church and some suspicious characters from the church.  However in an even more campy twist, we find the parishioners are smuggling …wait for it…SUNGLASSES. After the police raid the church George goes back in and discovers a magic box of Ray Ban or Vuarnet Wayfarer knockoffs. Don those catch me kiss me shades and not only will the ladies be hunting you down, but you can actually see the aliens who are enslaving us. Oh yea, the subliminal “OBEY”, “NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT” and “MARRY AND REPRODUCE” message are revealed in magazines, bill boards and signs.

Only after a lengthy knockdown, drag out, butt kickin’ scene do George and Keith begin to see eye to eye. In fact, George practically knocks Frank out before forcing glasses on his face to see things from his point of view.  After that the tension is gone and they can get down to a good old fashioned friendship while they save the world.

This movie is rated R and rightly so as swearing is peppered throughout. It actually makes it through 92 of 93 minutes before the first and only nude scene arrives and pretty much unexpected. Fun movie, good times, see They Live.