Review of Used Cars (1980) by Dave Kehr for Chicago Reader — 10 Feb 1997
For once a comedy in the Animal House school that knows what it's was about: the vulgarity of the gags matches the vulgarity of the subject, and this 1980 film becomes a fierce, cathartically funny celebration of the low, the cheap, the venal—in short, America.
Most of the time, I didn't know whether to laugh or shudder, and I ended up doing a lot of both. It was Steve Martin who said, “Comedy isn't pretty,” but it's Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, the writer-directors here, who prove it; this is the Dawn of the Dead of slapstick.
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This review of Used Cars (1980) was written by Dave Kehr and published by Chicago Reader on 10 Feb 1997.
Used Cars has generally received positive reviews.
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