Directed by: Joel Schumacher
Starring: Adam Baldwin, Max Gail, Mr. T
Other Actors of Note: Bill Maher, Gary Busey, Paul Rodriguez
Plot:The tale of a hapless group of cabbies and a rundown cab company owned by Harold. Albert comes to town with a dream of starting his own cab company but needs to motivate Harold's employees to want to make something out of themselves. It is only when Albert is kidnapped that the cabbies must decide whether or not they are loyal to Albert and his cause. Taken from www.imdb.com.
Yes, ladies Jayne Cobb himself complete with bad haircut and developing neck beard.If someone were to ask me what the 80s were like. I would tell them that personally I watched "Sesame Street", drank some juice, and took a nap as I was born in '88. But if somebody was to ask me what entertainment was like in the 80s I would say watch "D.C. Cab", it sums an entire decade of popular culture in an hour and a half.
"D.C. Cab" is the tale of Albert Hockenbarry (Adam Baldwin) a naive southern kid who has come to our nation's capitol (For those readers not in America, fuck your nation's capitol, I'm talking about ours.) to join the cab company of his late father's Vietnam War buddy Harold (Max Gale).
So meeting up with a finger-quotes "wacky" cast of characters including two musclebound brothers who always dress alike and are freakishly strong (Paul and David Barbarian), a Rastafarian (DeWayne Jessie), and Bill Maher, Paul Rodriguez, Gary Busey, and Mr. T as pretty much themselves just with different names.
The cab company is going out of business and the cabbies are a bunch of nut cases and lazy uninspired bums. So Albert decides to whip the cab company into shape with the help of Harlod and crew and fight their opposing cab company who are much more professional and walk in the local coffee shop and taunt them a lot. (Gee, I wonder if they all learn an important lesson about teamwork and believing in yourself?!)
"Woman 'outta my way, I see a box of wine with my name on it."Acting, well there is some but most of it isn't particularly earth-shattering. Adam Baldwin of "Firefly" fame reminds us that while he could act, he couldn't always act particularly well. His southern accent comes and goes a lot, perhaps if Albert had also been a mercenary he would've been okay.
One would think that a movie that involves both Mr.T and Gary Busey sharing the same screen would cause the world to explode in a mushroom cloud of giant teeth and gold chains in the shape of the word "AWESOME" but it does not. This is not to say either actor is bad, in fact they're fucking phenomenal.
Of course this was during a period when Mr.T didn't yet realize that he was a camp classic and seems to still think that he's a serious actor.
Also this was pre-1998 when Gary Busey was weird and excitable because he was breathing more cocaine than air daily, this was before he got a metal plate in his head and went Koo-koo for Jesus puffs. So while Busey is crazy as the conspiracy theory shouting nutjob Dell, he's still not making words into inspirational acronyms or chasing Adam de la Pena with burning tree limbs whilst shouting Iraqi war cries. (Though there is a scene where he runs into a strip club, grabs a hand full of dollar bills out of the g-string of a stripper who didn't pay him a fare and runs out of the club doing said Iraqi war cry, stealing a statue on the way out.)
Paul Rodriguez and Bill Maher are quite entertaining for the brief (and I do mean brief) portions of this film they are in, which is odd to me as I often forget that Bill Maher wasn't always a cynical douchebag with his head lodged so far up his own ass that he can't see that he's no longer funny. In fact Bill Maher delivers one of the finer lines in the movie when he gives a big speech about the fear that work will take over one's true passion and you can lose yourself in the process of menial work.
The real shining star here though is Charlie Barnett as the character Tyrone. Tyrone is your typical loud, obnoxious, token black guy. He wear ridiculous clothing (even by 80s standards) and even has mint green hair rollers in his natty afro. But Barnett flips the character on its side when he pulls off the afro, revealing it to be a wig and tells Albert that he learned in college that society doesn't want an intelligent black man so he gave them exactly what they want "Just another n*gger." This is the film's deeper meaning and one that's not mentioned enough, a message against racism that pops up every once in a while and is sadly overshadowed fairly often by the paint-by-numbers "believe in yourself" 80s movie message.
One would think that a movie that involves both Mr.T and Gary Busey sharing the same screen would cause the world to explode in a mushroom cloud of giant teeth and gold chains in the shape of the word "AWESOME" but it does not. This is not to say either actor is bad, in fact they're fucking phenomenal.
Of course this was during a period when Mr.T didn't yet realize that he was a camp classic and seems to still think that he's a serious actor.
Also this was pre-1998 when Gary Busey was weird and excitable because he was breathing more cocaine than air daily, this was before he got a metal plate in his head and went Koo-koo for Jesus puffs. So while Busey is crazy as the conspiracy theory shouting nutjob Dell, he's still not making words into inspirational acronyms or chasing Adam de la Pena with burning tree limbs whilst shouting Iraqi war cries. (Though there is a scene where he runs into a strip club, grabs a hand full of dollar bills out of the g-string of a stripper who didn't pay him a fare and runs out of the club doing said Iraqi war cry, stealing a statue on the way out.)
Paul Rodriguez and Bill Maher are quite entertaining for the brief (and I do mean brief) portions of this film they are in, which is odd to me as I often forget that Bill Maher wasn't always a cynical douchebag with his head lodged so far up his own ass that he can't see that he's no longer funny. In fact Bill Maher delivers one of the finer lines in the movie when he gives a big speech about the fear that work will take over one's true passion and you can lose yourself in the process of menial work.
The real shining star here though is Charlie Barnett as the character Tyrone. Tyrone is your typical loud, obnoxious, token black guy. He wear ridiculous clothing (even by 80s standards) and even has mint green hair rollers in his natty afro. But Barnett flips the character on its side when he pulls off the afro, revealing it to be a wig and tells Albert that he learned in college that society doesn't want an intelligent black man so he gave them exactly what they want "Just another n*gger." This is the film's deeper meaning and one that's not mentioned enough, a message against racism that pops up every once in a while and is sadly overshadowed fairly often by the paint-by-numbers "believe in yourself" 80s movie message.
"Anointed by Busey" coming this fall to UPN.Story-wise "D.C. Cab" manages to be completely innovative whilst still doing the same old shit we'd seen a thousand times. The score by Giorgio Morodor (who did the soundtrack for Scarface) is VERY 80s and yes, there is a fixing stuff up montage which involves the cast painting something, looking up at a sign and clapping, and doing synchronized jumping jacks for no apparent reason all to synthesizer.
Some of the jokes are brilliantly written and staged. When Mr.T and the Barbarian brothers break into a farmhouse where they believe kidnappers are hiding they disturb a family's dinner. "Sorry, wrong house" Mr.T apologizes as they walk back out through the windows they broke in through.
And naturally any line of Busey's is pure gold, but my personal favorite is: "Bruce Lee ain't dead you know. They got him frozen in carbonite down under Chatsworth. They're gonna melt him down as soon as the economy gets better."
There are certainly several bizarre moments that can only be found in 80s movies, like the fact that Harold has somehow smuggled home a flamethrower from Vietnam or when Mr.T pulls up in a gold plated checker cab to impress a group of neighborhood kids enthralled with a drug dealer's convertible hot rod.
But perhaps this is "D.C. Cab's" charm. It is an 80s movie in every sense of the word and many parallels can be drawn between it and the Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez film "Repo Man" released only a year later. It's a fun movie that delights in being over-the-top while still delivering a message.
*Image speaks for itself*"D.C. Cab" isn't the best movie you'll ever see. It's a campy, cheesy, 80s film with a lot of cliches. But it also does a lot of things that movies in that era didn't and doesn't have the cult status it really deserves.
I give "D.C. Cab" a 4 out of 5. Rent if not buy this movie.
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