Moving Violations

Every now and then, completely without warning, a movie that I watched a long time ago will suddenly pop into my head and demand attention.

One such film is Moving Violations (1985).

Moving Violations is an archetypical 80's comedy. The good guys are sassy and nice, and the bad guys are mean and unpleasant. Standard fare, no doubt about it, but there is more.

The writing is excellent, and not just the jokes, but the whole affair.

In a nutshell the plot is this; a motley group of people are sentenced to attend a week of traffic school or they loose their drivers licenses for ever. Between a corrupt judge and a sadistic macho cop, the task becomes a lot harder, shenanigans ensue. As I said, 80's comedy.

One if the things that exemplify the good writing is that everything that goes wrong with the macho cops life is his own fault. Sure he get's goaded from time to time, but his problems are all his own fault. He's the villain not a victim, and this makes the whole affair a lot more enjoyable.

Since this is a comedy, there are a lot of happenings that make little sense or are just glossed over, but the overall humor and cleverness of the film makes it so that you don't really care.

The characters themselves aren't anything groundbreaking. Standard fare, except the lovable little granny who's practically blind. And I mean mistake a passenger jet for a bus levels of blind. She's in fact a good example of the comedy-logic the movie employs. In her case, no amount of traffic school should save her license, when her eyesight is so abysmal. Still it doesn't matter, the ride is much too fun to care.

As for the actors, some became big, some didn't, all do a decent job. The most interesting name in the cast list is John Murray, brother of Bill Murray. You immediately see the resemblance, and I'd say it's shame John hasn't done much acting, but their styles are pretty similar, so we haven't actually lost that much.

As I write this, I'm trying to analyze the best and the worst, but it's hard. Moving Violations isn't one of the greats, it's not even one of the overlooked greats, but it is solid and it just works. Sure, if you don't like 80's comedies or you're just not in the mood, you're not going to have a good time, but that's more on you than on the film.

I can't really find any faults worth mentioning. It's a silly, at time dumb, but thoroughly enjoyable comedy. Enough said.

I recommend it.

That's all for now, so until next we meet, have a great week!