D.C. Cab

Long before he had a hard on for John Grisham and wrecking the Batman franchise, even before he was making movies with brat packers, Joel Schumacher was making silly comedies. One of those was 1983's D.C. Cab.

His sophmore effort, following The Incredible Shrinking Woman, is your basic snobs vs. slobs scenario that was huge during this time period. Albert Hockenberry, Adam Baldwin, moves to Washington D.C. with dreams of becoming of a cab driver. Man, don't you miss the 80's when dreams seemed kind of small. He hopes to work for his dad's Army buddy Harold's, Max Gail, struggling cab company, D.C. Cab. Harold has Albert do ride alongs with his drivers to help him prepare for his cab license exam. It's an odd crew, consisting mostly of famous stand up comics like Charlie Barnett, Paul Rodriguez, Bill Maher, and Marsha Warfield. Mr. T, Gary Busey, and the Barabrian Brothers round out the other drivers.

This isn't all about Albert becoming a cabbie, but there's a lot of different storylines that run throughout the movie. Everything from a missing violin to a kidnapping to an Irene Cara obsession. Some might look at it as a mess, but I think it works. It's not well structured, but it is enjoyable. It reminds me a lot of Car Wash, one of Schumacher's earliest scripts.

The cast is good, but it's Barnett and Busey who really steal the show. This was marketed as a Mr. T film, since he was huge at the time, but he's really a minor character.

It may not be the most polished film but there are a lot of laughs.

It's available on dvd.