My Chauffeur

The lovely lady was one of the brightest stars of the 1980s, bringing an irresistible presence to such other favourites as "Valley Girl", "April Fool's Day", and "Waxwork". Here she shines as Casey Meadows, a kooky free spirit hired by a limousine company. Unfortunately, she's not welcomed with open arms as the place is staffed almost exclusively by miserable, stuffy chauvinists. They do everything that they can to discourage her, including giving her the problem clients, such as an outrageous rock star. However, Casey finds that her most problematic client will be Battle (Sam Jones of the 1980 "Flash Gordon" movie), whose identity is going to come as a surprise to her. "My Chauffeur" is certainly very likable stuff. It goes far on the charms of Foreman, and while it gets very silly at times, it's nice that writer / director David Beaird gives it such a screwy quality, while toning down the kind of raunchiness to be found in many other comedies of the period. (That said, it's still an utter riot to see a drunken Jones run around nearly naked!) Among the memorable sequences are the extended episode with Penn & Teller (making their feature film debut) as Teller plays a sheik and Penn a fast talking con man, and the episode where the nutty rock singer Catfight (Leland Crooke) robs a "blue lady" (Diana Bellamy) of her panties as part of an ongoing game with his background singers. And Casey and Battle bicker a lot on their way to falling in love. The movie is very much of its time, with a catchy pop soundtrack as accompaniment. The supporting cast is very solid, with Howard Hesseman, Julius Harris, Laurie Main, and John O'Leary as some of the sour old chauvinist pigs; veterans Sean McClory, as O'Brien, and E.G. Marshall, as Witherspoon, are particularly endearing and effective. The pacing drags in places, but overall this is a very hard movie not to like, creating some good vibes for a pleasant enough 98 minutes. Seven out of 10.

This movie is almost impossible to watch. Even my old lady who picked it out wanted to turn it off after the first ten minutes, but we persevered for the full 90 minutes of occipital torture.

The chick from Valley Girl is cute but one cute girl and a lame Penn and Teller bit do not make a movie great. Why does this chick want to be a limo driver so bad. What's with the lame 80's soundtrack? Couldn't they have sprung a little extra for some tunes that people have heard on the radio? Sam Jones fan since Flash but come on man, his character is even more one dimensional than Flash. Penn and Teller, great I dig them, what will they do? Well dear friends, they will do a tired, hack, unfunny bit that would have stunk as a one minute bit, but stretch it into a 15 minute borefest. I really had to put my full weight down on my lady to keep her on the sofa during the miserable Penn and Teller portion of the film.

Finally, what really upset me most was Sam Jones' unexplained super quick face turn. I mean he is the heel all movie long. Valley Girl and Sam walk in the woods, he is still heel. Then they find a cabin and bam immediate face turn, asking Valley Girl to marry him. Just 30 seconds before he wanted her fired and showed no emotion towards her. What happened? Did the editor have to trim 20 minutes of the film where it showed Valley Girl warming Flash's heart? Avoid at all costs, even free on basic cable or Netflix. I dig Sam Jones, the Valley Girl broad, EG Marshall, and that one handed villain from Live and Let Die with the alligators but come on man, let this movie rest in piece.

Free-spirit, fast-talking Casey Meadows (Deborah Foreman) works as a lowly dishwasher. She receives a letter from wealthy benefactor Witherspoon (E.G. Marshall) hiring her as a new driver for Brentwood Limousine. Supervisor McBride (Howard Hesseman) is horrified by the change in the stuffy all-male operation. Ruthless business Battle (Sam J. Jones) is one of her clients and he gets dumped by his girlfriend.

This is a fun 80's flick. Deborah Foreman was an 80's IT girl. She is adorable doing this wide-eyed, open-hearted character. Penn and Teller do a memorable hustler and Arab sheikh combo. The drawback is mainly Sam Jones. He's not a good enough actor to dig deeper into his character but he's mostly fine. He needs to be a romantic lead but he's more of a linebacker or a villain henchman. The writing is passable for an 80's comedy. The material is elevated whenever Foreman gets to deliver a fun line.

This is a light-hearted, cute movie about a girl whose father works in a snobby, stuffy chauffeur company. Things quickly change as she joins, turns the company inside out, and falls in love with one of the customers.

Okay, so it's not THE best movie, but most people should like it. I give it a B+. It's got some good jokes, one-liners and a reasonable plot.

A woman is hired as a chauffeur for a limousine company. Her appointment causes all manner of perturbation and despair in the chauvinistic environs of this male-only club. Much to her male colleagues annoyance, she pretty much immediately makes a good impression with their clients though and gets involved with a relationship with a hard-nosed businessman who hires her as a driver. As is the way of these films, they start out getting on very badly but as time progresses a love affair emerges and the businessman learns from the error of his ways.

This 80's effort is overall pretty good fun. It's hardly going to blow your mind with its originality or anything though, as it is in essence a formulaic romantic comedy. But it has a very likable performance from Deborah Foreman underpinning it. She elevates the material up a notch or two. Appearing alongside her is Sam J. Jones, surely best known for his starring role in the earlier movie Flash Gordon (1980). There is also the first cinematic appearance of Penn and Teller, as a couple of oddballs who Foreman picks up latterly in the story. And we also have some very 80's music performed by the never popular new wave band, The Wigs. All-in-all, this is not bad for a low budget 80's comedy, it's corny but gets by on a reasonable amount of charm.