The “Two Coreys” strike again thanks to the Anchor Bay release of License to Drive – the 1988 teen comedy that was full of 80’s fashions, music, and clichés.
The movie starred Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, the teen actors who teamed up in other 80’s classics like The Lost Boys, and featured a then unknown Heather Graham – in her feature film debut.
License to Drive was panned by critics in the 80’s and is still just as painful to sit through even with the sense of nostalgia for days gone by that it brings to the screen.
Its story, a kind of PG-13 Porky’s, is the simple tale of loser high school boy Les Anderson, played by Haim, who longs for his driver’s license so that he can achieve a dream date with the hottest girl in school, Mercedes, played by Graham. Rounding out the trio and adding a ton of problems to Les’ plans is his best friend Dean, overacted as normal by Corey Feldman.
Les’ dreams are further complicated when he actually fails his driving test, a fear of every teenage guy growing up in the 80’s, and is forced with the dilemma – should a good son be bad and take the family’s prized 1973 Cadillac to fulfill his teenage dreams. Of course, Les, with the help of Feldman’s persuasion, makes the only choice a guy in his shoes could make and the rest of the movie is a night of mayhem and comedy.
License to Drive main menu
Naturally, everything goes wrong for Les while he struggles to maintain his charm and wanted James Dean image. Feldman’s own plans work against his friend’s dream and Les’ dream date has had a little too much to drink putting a further damper on the evening.
Added into this out of control mix are drag racers, militants, police and their pesky roadblocks, car thefts, and Les’ very angry father, played by a great Richard Masur, and his very pregnant mother, played by the quirky and always funny Carol Kane. Other than that, the movie doesn’t have much to offer in way of plot or substance.
Like many of the teen comedies of the 80’s, License to Drive isn’t a shining example of a Hollywood classic movie or a movie with any real reason to remember it.<!--page-->
It features a time where films didn’t worry about being too politically correct – as seen through the underage drinking in the film and the criminal nature of some of the trouble the Coreys find.
What it does have going is a heavy wave of 80’s nostalgia that will appeal to any teenager that came out of the decade. The movie is loaded with 80’s fashions, such as rolled jean shorts and that hot Miami Vice look, and classic bad jokes, such as the amount of times Mercedes’ name is used as the punch line to one of Feldman’s jokes. The music also will bring back memories, but now you find yourself wondering what it was you liked about the music of the 80’s.
License to Drive Special Features
The movie also still appeals to teens, although in a more goofball way, thanks to its universal story of the wanting to belong to the cool group at school, date the hot girl, and gain the teenage independence that can only come from a driver’s license - the Holy Grail of adolescences. Those reasons make License to Drive still a fun movie to watch as long as you know what you are getting into and what to expect.
You can’t expect Shakespeare from the Two Coreys and you can’t even expect good acting. What you will get is some laughs, although stupid, and some entertaining memories of a time when you didn’t have to worry about coming up with a mortgage payment at the end of the month.
For those reasons I would recommend this movie to any child of the 80’s. I would also recommend it to any teenager who wants to know what mom and dad might have been like before they got so old and boring.
Haim, Graham, Feldman in 80's glory
The movie comes with a few special features including a deleted scene, and commentary with Beeman and writer Neil Tolkin. The main feature on the DVD is the interviews with Feldman and Haim. It also has theatrical trailer and television spots.
In the interviews, both actors talk about how they tried to avoid the label of Two Coreys, which they now seem to embrace, and compare it to “Beatlemania” – a bit of a stretch in my book. They also talk about memories of making the film, such as a young Heather Graham, and how the director let them improve and worked with their ideas. Other than that, the interviews don’t have much to offer except a “wow look at them now” curiosity.
License to Drive will be available at Amazon on May 3. There is no word on when it will be released on DVD in the UK.
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