Product Details

• Actors: Kurt Russell, Jack Warden, Gerrit Graham, Frank McRae, Deborah Harmon
• Directors: Robert Zemeckis
• Writers: Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
• Producers: Bob Gale, John G. Wilson, John Milius, Steven Spielberg
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: February 5, 2002
• Run Time: 113 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005UEQX
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,688 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #67 in	Movies & TV > Comedy > Black Comedy
  #75 in	Movies & TV > Comedy > Satire

• For more information about "Used Cars" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video
This 1980 film by director Robert Zemeckis gives no indication of things to come in his career (Contact, Forrest Gump), but it is representative of a certain cynical humor he shared early on with writer-partner Bob Gale. Kurt Russell and Jack Warden star in a sketchy comedy about competing used-car salesmen who resort to outrageous tactics to lure customers away from each other. The jokes, like the characters, are intentionally recycled, self-conscious comic fodder from a baby-boomer's lifetime (such as Gale's or Zemeckis's) of immersion in pop culture. That makes Used Cars more pastiche than original (the film's title itself suggests that), but as such it has some good, if vaguely familiar, laughs in it. Russell, particularly, is very funny as a practiced con man. --Tom Keogh

Product Description
A hilarious comic salute to those super salesmen whose persuasive pitches transform rattling wrecks into pre-owned dream cars. Jack Warden is brilliant in a double role as two feuding brothers Luke and Roy L. Fuchs, who own competing car lots and are trying to drive each other out of business. Rudy Russo (Kurt Russell) is Luke's ace salesman, a charming and conniving cheat and liar who is merely in training for his true ambition?politics. In one of Rudy's most outrageous advertising ploys, he hires a model (Penthouse Pet of the Year Cheryl Rixon) to strip on television, and they all wind up in a crazy automobile stampede involving 200 vintage cars in a high-speed chase that becomes a free-for-all demolition derby.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars They Say [Money] Never Killed Anyone, but You'll Die Laughing..., March 20, 2002

By	George McAdams (Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

...when you listen to the audio commentary by Robert Zemeckis, Kurt Russell and Bob Gale!

This movie has such little redeeming social qualities, one is almost tempted to never acknowledge having seen it, must less acknowledge that you laughed yourself silly when you saw it in 1980, but I've got to confess. Not only did I enjoy it the first 10 times I saw it, but now with the audio commentary by Zemeckis, Russell and Gale you will have your sides hurting from all your laughing.

While Kurt Russell is the star of the movie and he gives a memorable performance, it's Jack Warden in the duo role of competing auto car dealership owners who steals it. I've never seen Warden give a bad performance, and in this movie you get two great performances. However, he's not the only actor who gives an over-the-top performance:

Gerrit Graham as the suspicious co-conspirator/salesman is about as disrespectable a salesman as one would ever find, with a libido that would make one hesitant about introducing him to ones sister.

Frank McRae plays Jim the mechanic, who along with the beagle that plays Toby, rounds out a cast of true misfits

This DVD normally would be rated 4 stars, but with the audio commentary by Kemeckis, Russell and Gale you can multiply those by a 1.25 factor for a full 5 stars.

One note: DO NOT TRY TO EAT OR DRINK WHILE LISTENING TO THE AUDIO COMMENTARY, cause you'll be laughing so hard you might accidentally choke on your food.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gut busting classic!, June 9, 2004

By	Joseph W. Hayes "snake" (mobile, alabama United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

BEHOLD! PERHAPS THE GREATEST COMEDY EVER MADE,USED CARS IS A MUST HAVE ON DVD.I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY THE BONUS FEATURES ARE NOT LISTED ABOVE SO HERE THEY GO:VINTAGE ADVERTISING GALLERY,AUDIO COMMENTARY:ZEMECKIS,GALE,RUSSELL, OUTTAKES,RADIO @ TV PROMOS,PRODUCTION NOTES AND A COOL THING FOR TRUE FANS OF RUSSELL,A TV AD FOR THE ACTUAL CAR LOT,WITH THE REAL OWNER INTRODUCING RUSSELL WHO THEN GIVES A SALES PITCH FOR A CAR ON THE LOT!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime Insanity in a Used Car Lot!, August 6, 2003

By	Benjamin J Burgraff - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

USED CARS was director Robert Zemeckis' follow-up to the sweet, sentimental I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND, and, as he joked in his audio commentary, he wanted to cut loose, swear, and do something supremely tasteless as a follow-up. He succeeded magnificently!

This is a wild tribute to corruption, deceit, and dishonesty, in a field second only to politics in tarnished reputations! Kurt Russell is the crooked head salesman in a broken-down car lot, saving money to buy a seat in Congress "where the really BIG kickback money is". His boss, sweet-natured Luke Fuchs (Jack Warden), has a bad heart and a twin brother, truly nasty Roy Fuchs (also Warden, who is wonderful in the dual roles) running a competing used car lot across the highway. Evil Fuchs NEEDS his brother's dealership, as a state highway is about to be built over his lot, so he has an employee pose as a customer, and 'try out' one of Luke's cars with the old man in the car. After the test drive from Hell, Luke stumbles inside his trailer, and dies from a heart attack.

Russell realizes any hope to raise enough cash to run for office would be shattered with Fuch's death, so he and his fellow employees bury the old man and his car in the lot, and fibs that Fuchs had left town on vacation. Then Fuchs' daughter, Barbara (Deborah Harmon) arrives, and things get sticky!

The film becomes a live-action Warner Bros. cartoon, as 'good guy' Russell and 'bad guy' Warden try scheme after scheme to ruin the other...Warden offers a carnival in his lot, Russell offers strippers...Warden does TV commercials, Russell brings in two disreputable cable guys ('Lenny and Squiggy' Michael McKean and David L. Lander) to break into a Presidential address with an 'R'-rated ad that would leave the FCC in apoplexy! This insanity builds to an epic climax, as hundreds of junkyard cars, driven by Driver's Ed students, race to fill Russell's car lot, and prevent a court-ruled closing.

The cast is matchless; in addition to Russell, Warden, and Harmon, outrageous humor is provided by Gerrit Graham (who gleefully shotguns Warden's cars in another 'illegal' TV spot), and Frank McRae, as a mechanic you DON'T want to disagree with. And don't forget a certain dog, who outperforms nearly everyone in the cast!

This is the ONLY 'R'-rated film Zemeckis has ever directed (the BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy and FORREST GUMP are among his later triumphs), yet USED CARS was a commercial failure when first released, despite rave reviews. AIRPLANE! came out at the same time, and, unfortunately, the public wasn't interested in watching TWO 'over-the-top' comedies. So USED CARS languished, until video and dvd reintroduced it to a new generation.

It's growing status a a cult classic is perhaps the BEST proof the "Crime Pays" in USED CARS!