SummaryWhen the owner of a struggling used car lot is killed, it's up to the lot's hot-shot salesman (Kurt Russel) to save the property from falling into the hands of the owner's ruthless brother and used-car rival - and to fun his fledgling senate campaign.
Directed By:Robert Zemeckis
Written By:Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
Used Cars
Metascore
Generally Favorable
68
User score
Generally Favorable
7.3
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
55% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
36% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
9% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
100
Savagely funny...taken as a rancid, festering slice of Americana, it seems more potent than ever.
90
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.
User score
Generally Favorable
58% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
42% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Oct 5, 2019
10
Used Cars Is The Greatest Comedy Ever Produced. 'Did You Hear What I Said?' Used Cars Is The Greatest Comedy Ever Produced.
Feb 25, 2023
6
Almost everything about this film is not good on paper. The plot is weak and the characters are larger than life ridiculous. I would liken it to a live action cartoon at times with zemekis's usual focus on overly technical set pieces and stunts. Somehow there's enough charm from the superb cast to keep things moving along at a nice pace. A fun if a little strange slice of 1970's film culture.
80
With their unerring eye for potential, the distributors didn't release this hilarious black comedy to cinemas in Britain. Zemeckis subsequently went on to make Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and loadsa money. Infinitely more caustic than these blockbusters, Used Cars runs on a contemporary screwball motor with a slapstick chassis
75
Before director-writer Bob Zemeckis found success with blockbuster hits ROMANCING THE STONE and BACK TO THE FUTURE, he directed this raunchy, hysterically funny comedy. Kurt Russell turns in a brilliant performance.
50
There are so many different characters and story lines in the movie that it's hard to keep everything straight, and harder still to care.
40
Scripters have provided very little context or societal texture for their unmodulated tale, which disagreeably seeks to find humor in characters’ humiliation, embarrassment and even death. Nonetheless Robert Zemeckis directs with undeniable vigor, if insufficient control and discipline.
38
Used Cars is full of used characters, used ideas, and used jokes, many of which are in astonishingly bad taste.
Nov 28, 2021
5
This is a madcap comedy film, with zany characters, that made me think a little of Dumb & Dumber. Its pretty un-PC with sexist comments and the like but then it was made/released in 1980. Its a fairly light watch but no more and I wouldn't recommend it as such, no.
Production Company:
- Columbia Pictures
- A-Team
- Amblin Entertainment
Release Date:Jul 11, 1980
Duration:1 h 53 m
Rating:R
Tagline:The screen's wildest race against time is the biggest auto stampede ever!
Awards
DVD Exclusive Awards
• 1 Nomination
