"Who would have thought a Mercedes could fit in the trunk of a Cadillac?" - Les (License to Drive)
The retro hair styles are there. The funky clothes are there. The situations are classic. And then, then there is Heather Graham. I'll let you in on a secret; before there was Anne Hathaway, there was always Heather Graham for me.
Starring the "Coreys" (Corey Feldman and Corey Haim) at the peak of their buddy stardom, License to Drive is 80s comedy film-making at its best.
Les (Corey Haim) is
making plans for the weekend, confident that he will pass his driving test. His
friend Dean (Corey Feldman) is equally excited about this as Les getting his
license means freedom for them both. Add the aptly named Mercedes (Heather
Graham) to the entire situation as Les' object of beauty and desire and we have
classic scenarios of old boyfriends, car chases, crashes, and did I mention the
fact that Les fails his driving test?
The charm of License to Drive is in the story, being simply yet exciting with a barrage of events one after another. It lies in the relationship between the characters and especially between Les' family which is typical of the films from the time. There is even a hint of Ferris Bueller in the film when Les is about to sneak out of the house, "borrowing" his grandfather's Cadillac, having failed his driving test, to meet Mercedes. It's almost a little nod towards the genius of a movie that is Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Les looks at the camera and says, "An innocent girl, a harmless drive, what could possible go wrong?".
Now, being an 80s
child I do enjoy the pop songs from the time, which might not be to everyone's
taste from the new generation, but listening to songs like "Baby you can
drive my car" and " Get out of my dreams...Get into my car" was
just wonderful and a flashback into the years growing up, not to mention that
they fit in perfectly with the story.
Full of memorable dialogues like "I am so dead, they will have to bury me twice" and "To live in fear is not to live at all", License to Drive is a must have 80s screwball comedy that brings about a certain nostalgia in people from the time and also showcases, to the new generation, how more family oriented comedies were made before the bombardment of sex-comedies we have now.
Rating : 4/5
UK DVD Information: License to Drive Second Sight Films Release Date - 30th July 2012 Certificate: 12 Running Time 86 Minutes
