Moving Violations (1985)
Picture: B- Sound:
B- Extras: B Film: B
I missed Moving Violations during its brief run in
theaters during the spring of 1985, but when I caught it on cable a
year or two later I was surprised by how much I laughed. And
whenever I'd come across it while flipping through the channels in following
years, I'd always find myself being amused and watching longer than intended.
Moving Violations is another zany '80s comedy about a
group of misfits driving authority figures crazy. It was directed by Neal
Israel and co-written by Israel and Pat Proft, who also collaborated on Police
Academy, Bachelor Party and the very underrated Real Genius. Moving
Violations isn't as smart as Real Genius; rather it's more in the
"stupid but funny" vein of Police Academy and Bachelor
Party. As Israel mentions on his audio commentary, the key to these
movies is having a laid-back smartass clash with an authoritarian who takes
himself too seriously.
The film casts Bill Murray's younger brother Joel as the
kind of witty smart aleck Bill was famous for playing early in his
career. Joel Murray plays Dana Cannon, who one day gets stopped in his
vehicle by a motorcycle cop with delusion of grandeur named Deputy Halik (James
Keach doing a great slow burn). The autocratic Halik takes an
instant disliking to smirking Dana's constant wisecracks, and the cop's
overzealous desire to punish Dana results in him and his female
motorcycle partner/lover, Deputy Morris (Lisa Hart Carroll), to get
demoted to teaching traffic school. Well guess who ends up in the
nighttime traffic class taught by Deputies Halik and Morris? That's right, perpetual class-clown Dana,
but he's hardly the only misfit.
The very amusing ensemble of Moving Violations includes helium-voiced
Jennifer Tilly as a rocket scientist who falls for Dana; Ned Eisenberg as a
Travis Bickle-style creep who loves movie violence and gore; Nedra Volz as a
senior citizen with Coke-bottle glasses who's as blind as a bat; Wendy Jo
Sperber as a hypochondriac who mistakenly and hilariously thinks an ace auto
mechanic in the class called Doc (Fred Willard) is a medical doctor;
Robert Conrad as the chief of police who's often the victim of Deputy Halik's
hapless attempts to punish Dana; and there's also a hilarious cameo by Clara
"Where's the Beef?" Peller from the famous hamburger chain TV
advertisement.
There are many very funny moments, and only falters in the last
reel with a chase sequence that's too silly for its own good. Ironically,
as I recall, Police Academy and Bachelor Party also fell apart
somewhat at the end with silly chases. Nevertheless, this is
good wacky fun, and I'm glad it's one of the many less-financially
successful Fox titles Anchor Bay has picked up to distribute on DVD. The
1.85:1 Moving Violations is presented in anamorphic widescreen enhanced
for 16 x 9 televisions (plus to look better on regular 4 X 3 sets), and the
picture and Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surround sounds
quite good for a 20-year-old film, yet the audio still shows dated
fidelity. The DVD also features an entertaining audio commentary by
director/co-writer Israel, and contains the original theatrical trailer as well
as bonus trailers for other Fox films distributed on DVD by Anchor Bay such
as License to Drive and Modern Problems. I only wish
some deleted scenes had been included. There's a photo on the back of the
DVD case showing Wendy Jo Sperber screaming next to some pigs, which
is taken from a scene that isn't in the movie. So we know
at least one deleted scene existed.
- Chuck O'Leary
