DC Cab
Sometimes thereâs something to be said for certain types of movies (namely comedies) where itâs quickly obvious that there was absolutely no script whatsoever and they then instead chose to derive their humor from that of their actors literally adlibbing their dialogue and comedy bits almost every step of the way with the directorâs role usually being to provide his performers with their âscenarioâ from which to work off of and then try to piece it all together in the editing room afterwards. The most famous example of this remains Caddyshack where early on director Harold Ramis would throw out the intended âcoming of ageâ comedy drama screenplay and instead relied upon his âguest starsâ to come up with their own hilarious storyline as filming went on and thus created a masterpiece in the process. Certainly others in the film industry took note of this and figured that in making a comedy, if you wind up packing the cast with enough verified comedy talent, even the worst concepts (as scripted) can be redeemed by just tearing up the screenplay itself and letting the actors (performers) have at it when the camera rolls. This appears to have been the case with this 1983 comedy that was directed by one Joel Schumacher, a guy whom (besides destroying Tim Burtonâs Batman universe) would go on to direct a number of undisputed classics up to and including Lost Boys and Falling Down but as should be pointed out, Schumacher always excelled more as a director than as a writer and seeing how this early effort of his as a director also credited him as the writer, the final result definitely reflects that kind of movie where whenever the actors didnât feel right with the scripted material, Schumacher was more than ready and willing to trash it in favor of letting them do their own thing on camera. To that end, Schumacher would load up his cast with several notable stand up comics and personalities in order to carry this whole thing with the power of their own improv abilities. The filmâs story? A young man (Adam âAnimal Motherâ Baldwin, still in the ingenue stage of his career) comes to Washington D.C. following his fatherâs passing in order to meet up with his old manâs Vietnam war buddy (Max Gail, known in the pop culture canon as Mojo on Barney Miller and little else) who owns and operates a taxicab company in the nationâs capital which is considered to be the worst in town. And with good reason: the yellow cabs are all rusted out, broken down pieces of shit, none of the cabbies have a special license to do pickups or drop-offs at the airport (i.e. they make less money), the company is under constant fire to be shut down by the cityâs transit inspector and the cabbies sometimes go so far as to make themselves unavailable for fares because they are too busy taking part in some kind of a bizarre game where they chase themselves around the city all while wearing weird looking masks (as in the opening scene) which makes absolutely no sense but yet is somehow funny. The cabbies themselves (who seem to spend all of their free time hanging around the depot acting like lunatic children) are basically a complete set of misfits who also make up the majority of the main ensemble cast that the whole enterprise sinks or swims on in order to make the movie work. How is this ensemble? Well, it doesnât have the depth of Mad World nor the colorful variety of Cannonball, but for what itâs worth itâs probably the most mongrel lineup ever assembled for a wide range ensemble comedy, starting with 80s icon Mr. T as Samson whom, despite being pretty much âpart of the crowdâ here, was prominently featured in all of the advertising and posters as if he were the star (due to the popularity at the time of A-Team) but at least he gets his fair share of âMr. T momentsâ including throwing a hooker and her client out of his cab (âMy cab ainât no hotel room!â) and giving a speech about pride and self respect in front of The Lincoln Memorial. Then there is Charlie Barnett (a black stand up comic who infamously lost out to Eddie Murphy for a spot on Saturday Night Live before dying in 1996 of AIDS related to heroin addiction) as the âangry blackâ cabbie who gets some of the edgier moments in the film (including liberal use of the N word) and who nonetheless becomes best friends with the Baldwin character in the process, Marsha Warfield as whom is said to be the best driver in the company if only she didnât get robbed once a week (by the same guy in the same spot), Bill Maher (a long way off from his comic pundit position on Politically Incorrect) acting at times like heâs in a completely different movie than everyone else with his wry, detached style that also somehow seems like he gets less to do than everyone else, Paul Rodriguez as the wanna be ladiesâ man of the crew, always dressed in a fancy suit even as he finds himself having trouble hooking up with girls when they find out that heâs just a cabbie (or as he says to Baldwin when he earns his taxi license, âWelcome to the wonderful world of minimum wage!â), Whitman Mayo (Shady Grady from Sanford and Son) as the homeless guy who sleeps in a junked cab just outside the depot but is still treated like an employee and member of the family, The Barbarian Brothers doing their mildly funny schtick of being two muscle bound twin brothers who constantly argue with each other (or ramming their respective cabs into each other) and of course best of all Gary Busey as Dell with Busey set almost completely loose on camera and allowed to do seemingly anything he wanted and that includes everything that comes out of his mouth (including some borderline racist stuff). In fact, if itâs anybodyâs movie, itâs Buseyâs as he comes up with some completely random and hilarious bits (âWhatâs the worst thing about oral sex? The view! Hahahaha!!â) not to mention acting like a maniac in general and making most of the professional comedians look lost by comparison. It might be the only known instance of a single member of an ensemble almost entirely redeeming the movie itself. From constantly hitting on the ownerâs wife to ripping off the panties from a topless waitress at a gentlemenâs club after stiffing him on a fare, Busey benefits from a number of key scenes which depicts the cabbies all together hanging out and then allows him to steal those same scenes from the rest of his co stars (as opposed to someone like Maher who doesnât even seem to be there half the time and just phones it in). The other major scenes depict Baldwinâs kid riding around with the various characters while in training and basically doing little else besides laughing out loud at their different routines. As the film approaches its climax, we get a sloppily thrown together crisis situation involving a kidnapping of the children of an ambassador and the way in which the cabbies not only get involved, but also turn out to be the only ones who can manage a rescue attempt. But at least as random and contrived (not to mention badly done at times) in its execution as it is, the film still remembers that itâs a comedy first and foremost and doesnât allow this aspect of the story to descend into serious melodrama of any kind (since the bad guys are smartly portrayed as being bumbling idiots as well). While many aspects of the film wouldnât be done today most notably the aforementioned bits of political incorrectness primarily from the Busey and Barnett characters, Schumacher still directs everything with a sure hand that undoubtedly extended into postproduction in the editing room, making sure that the whole thing maintains a brisk pace and that all of the bits that made the final cut are at least funny and donât wear out their welcome before moving on to the next scene (or the next routine so to speak) and the one major development that is part of anything that even resembles a plot for the movie (the company comes into some money which allows them to renovate the cabs and the depot and gives the cabbies themselves some self respect) occurs at about the midway point which allows the various characters to go off on new tangents given the overall change in the story dynamic. In the end, what we have here is a misfit ensemble comedy which is directed far better than it ever deserved to be and managed to lure viewers in thinking that it was all about Mr. T being the star only for them to be subjected to the insane comedic stylings of one Mr. Gary BuseyâŚ
8/10