This video came out in theatres in January 1985, but only made it to video in 1999...and is YET to be released on DVD. This situation needs to be fixed and SOON!On to the review. First, the cast list...a very young Paul Reiser, Robert Townshend, Julianne Phillips, Rick Overton, Richard Dean Anderson (McGyver!), Scott McGinnis and Paul Provenza. A great collection of comics and actors that seem to keep popping up in TV/Movies pretty frequently.
The movie is about a group of college buddies and what they're going to do over the summer, namely work. They start out as waiters, caddies, nuclear vacuum cleaner salesman, and movers. Of course, all of these fall apart and Max (Reiser) decides to start his own business...Maximum Moving ("Max...M-A-X...that's me..."). Max learns a little about life and moving from Wylie (Leo Burmeister), who decides that Max is a "tutti-frutti" name and states, "From now on, your name is CHUCK". Max hits the road with Wylie while working for Cabrizzi Bros moving, a company who doubles as a car theft ring. Once Max and his buddies go into business for themselves and steal some of the Cabrizzi's business, things get destroyed in short order.
The story is okay. The scenes along the way are hilarious. Some of the highlights:
--Woody isn't called Woody because of the toothpick
--Bryon lives with Dwight (Townshend) and decides he wants to fit in by talking about his parents "serious crib", grits that are actually Rice Crispies "snap crackle and pop rockin in my bowl...they spinnin on their heads". Then dons an afro wig at the dinner table.
--Dwight and Bryon work as caddies and insist an extremely elderly man who whiffs on a tee shot and throws his club through several car windows "...really has his sh** together"
--Roy visits a backwoods redneck family to sell them the Monty 2000, a nuclear vacumm cleaner. This is easily the funniest scene from the movie, a classic!
--Any scene with Wylie trying to "make Max a man!"
--Any moving scene with that "Body by Jake" guy...one in particular where he's moving a desk and pushing Max along with it..."heeeeeey, you're a pretty strong guy...you lift weights?"
Those are the highlights that I can recall off the top of my head after watching this movie dozens of times. This is one that you and your friends will revisit over and over...many of my college buddies still call each other "Chuck" because of this movie.
One more time. PUT THE DAMN THING OUT ON DVD ALREADY!