Little Old Lady From Pasadena

So yesterday I rewatched another movie that I found amusing as a twelve-year-old boy, Moving Violations. Released in 1985, it was written and directed by the same man who did Police Academy. While this should tell you everything you need to know, I will nonetheless continue. The movie "stars" John Murray (Bill's younger brother), who does more mugging for the camera than a group of thugs working a corner bus stop. He, along with a group of other 1980s familiar faces, including Brian Backer (Mark Ratner from Fast Times), Wendie Jo Sperber (Michael J. Fox's sister in BTTF), and Nedra Volz, the housekeeper from Diff'rent Strokes (not Mrs. Garrett or the fat, manly one who looked at everyone like they were a piece of chocolate cake), all find themselves in traffic school for, you guessed it, moving violations. In said traffic school, they of course face off with a nasty police officer who has been demoted to this position in part because of the antics of Murray. Murray is supposed to be mischievious but funny, but instead he just comes across as a dick (think his brother Bill's turn as Bob, but without the psychosis). He is easily the least funny part in a movie that struggles enough for laughs. You know you're sailing in dangerous waters when the funniest part comes late in the movie, as Nedra Volz's character tells everyone they should "rip his nuts off," referring to their unscrupulous instructor. If you are having a hard time picturing her, here is a photo.
Clara Pellar, of "Where's the beef?" fame, has a cameo as Volz's friend or sister. Her main scene includes what is either an on-screen heart attack by Pellar or the world's most painful (and disturbing) orgasm. Not even Fred Willard can make this a good movie, his talents wasted by the fact his biggest laugh is supposed to come from hypochondriac Sperber mistaking him for a doctor when he is in fact a mechanic, and she winds up nude on a car lift in his garage.

Overlooked in this movie is the fact that most of these people really shouldn't be driving. Hell, Volz's character mistakes a dog for Pellar, her eyesight is so bad. To make it even more ludicrous, the postscript in the movie indicates that Murray's character had to attend traffic school 5 more times, and that in frustration, the city made him the instructor!! And now, nobody fails! I'd love to see the accident statistics in that city. Anyway, I feel that I have taken another bullet for the viewing public out there who may have been tempted to watch this movie. If I haven't persuaded you yet, maybe the actual trailer for the movie will.



PS - If I never have to see Sally Kellerman in a leather bondage outfit again, it will be too soon.

Transmission out.