D. C. CAB

US, 1983, 99 minutes, Colour.
Max Gail, Adam Baldwin, Mr T, Gary Busey, Irene Cara.
Directed by Joel Schumacher.

D.C. Cab is a very raucous comedy - a bit too raucous for non American tastes. It shows a group of almost has-beens working for a taxi service in the American capital - and failing by comparison with more enterprising groups. The company is the usual gallery of misfits and oddballs, American style. This group eventually gets together, challenged by a young man with vision (played by Adam Baldwin of My Bodyguard) and things get going really well. However, it is all complicated by two precocious children of an ambassador being kidnapped with the hero - and it's the taxis to the rescue. There is a great deal of literal knockabout comedy and a look at the sidelights of the American capital (emphasising its predominantly black population).

The film was written and directed by writer-director Joel Schumacher (The Competition, The Incredible Shrinking Woman). He presents a lot of situation comedy television style, farcical situations, verbal humour. The cast ranges from a loud Gary Busey to a peculiar (less violent than in Rocky and the A-Team) Mr. T. There are African Americans, Spanish-speaking Americans, a great range of misfits. They are presented fairly sympathetically and the moral of this '80s story is that people who used to be anti-heroes and heroines or outcasts and misfits can make something of themselves and be successful Americans. It is all in the post-Rocky vein. There are quite a number of amusing visual and verbal gags - but it is of limited appeal. It's the kind of feature that is seen by executives as a possible pilot for a subsequent television series.