D.C. Cab

D.C. Cab (1983)

Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: Joel Schumacher (yes)

Starring: Adam Baldwin, Max Gail, Charlie Barnett, Gary Busey, Mr. T

From: Universal

Here's a movie I have an odd story behind. I know this is a rather strange memory to have, but when I was only a toddler I remember this movie was on TV one night and I saw at least a few minutes of it. I never actually saw it in full until tonight. I found it at a flea market earlier in the summer and this seemed like a good time to check it out. I heard a podcast review of it a few months ago so I knew a lot of what to expect here.

There isn't too much of a plot here, at least until the second half of the movie. It's a loud and crazy film about a guy from the South (Baldwin) who goes to Washington to work for a friend of his late father; he works at a ramshackle and run-down cab company where the drivers are almost all crazy lunatics and all wish they had better jobs than the ones they have now. Once you meet everyone some things happen but I won't spoil it.

Like I said, what a loud movie, featuring a lot of yelling and chaos throughout. It's wacky and there isn't too much of a plot but it doesn't matter as it's usually quite funny so you're not too worried about how it's usually a slice of life sort of thing. There are many famous faces besides the people mentioned, as Paul Rodriguez, Marsha Warfield, Bill Maher (!), Whitman Mayo, Irene Cara as herself, and the 80's babe known as Jill Schoelen.

There are many great one-liners and it seems like a lot of this film is improvised. There are also some rather unpolitically correct moments, as in racist lines and expressions. Of course I won't repeat them here. It's rather amazing to think that the Christian T would be in that sort of movie.

What was the most memorable performance was from Busey. As I've heard, he was so high at the time, he has zero memory of working on this motion picture. Judging by his performance I have no trouble believing that. He was out of his mind the entire time and said the craziest things. He says he does not want to work on January 8^th, as it's Elvis's birthday. Or, his theory on the government having Bruce Lee's body frozen. Or saying such things as, “Tell them you're Batman” and “I'll bring my lucky rubber!” What a drug-fueled performance.

I'll be back Wednesday night.