Moving Violations

In the early to mid 80's, Neal Isreal looked as though he might be the new king of comedy. He and his writing partner at the time, Pat Proft, were the minds who brought us the original Police Academy. The movie was a hit and they kept the hits coming the following year with Bachelor Party, with Isreal directing. Isreal's lucky streak hit a major speed bump the following year however with 1985's Moving Violations.

Hoping to capture the same success they had with Police Academy, Isreal and Proft wrote a script that basically just replaced a police academy with a driver's ed course. A group of horrible drivers lose their licenses and have their cars impounded. A judge, Sally Kellerman, sentences them to a night time traffic school that they must pass before they can get their licenses and cars back. The ringleader of the group is Dana, John Murray, a wisecracking landscaper. Dana knows he's in trouble when he finds out that the instructor, James Keach, is the same man who ticketed him and has been demoted to teaching the course because of the way he handled Dana's violation.

The course is set up to make it impossible to pass. The group does some an investigating and uncover a plot between the disgraced instructor and the judge. If everyone fails the course, the judge and instructor can sell off their vehicles and pocket the cash. The group hatch a scheme to expose the plot and get their licenses and cars back.

This movie is kind of a who's who of celebrity siblings. You have Bill Murray's brother John, Stacy Keach's brother James, and Meg Tilley's sister Jennifer as Amy, a ditzy rocket scientist. The whole cast is pretty great in this, especially Murray. You can tell he's kind of mimicking his brother, but it doesn't matter because it works for the part and he's really funny. I'm surprised he didn't have more of a career after this. His only appearance after was playing his real life brother's brother in Scrooged. Also really funny in this are Fred Willard as an auto mechanic and Amy Jo Sperber as a hypochondriac. And look for Don Cheadle in a blink and you'll miss it role as a burger joint employee. Even Clara Peller, the "where's the beef" lady, shows up.

I think this is a pretty funny flick. Proft was able to bounce back and become a cowriter with the Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahms, David Zucker team on the Naked Gun movies. Isreal wasn't so lucky and mostly worked in television after. Which is a shame because he had a knack for low brow humor.

It was available on dvd, but is now out of print.