License to Drive

This is from one of the Coreys' finest cinematic collaborations, 1988's License to Drive. Corey Haim is Les, our driver's license owning hopeful and Corey Feldman is Dean, Les' friend and just maybe a little more. In addition to The Coreys, the film also starred known vegatarian Carol Kane and former President of Screen Actors Guild Richard Masur as Les' parents. On a side note, Masur is also proud owner of the bitchin' and now sadly defunct "huge bifocals and mustache" look that so many Dads of the 1980's were so fond of maintaining. Heather Graham appears as drunken floozy Mercedes, the hottest girl in school, and for some reason Les' date. Nina Siemaszko also shows up as Les' sister, and for the record, while not so much of a looker back then, she's actually kinda hot now.

The first shot of the movie is similar to Nightmare on Elm Street 2 with a lone ominous school bus driving slowy, yet again, ominously through the suburbs. Anyone else notice this? Of course this bus and it's driver are outright evil from the get-go unlike the bus/driver from NOES 2 which takes a few moments for it's evil qualities to kick in. The basic story for those of you who haven't witnessed the film, Les fails his driving test, yet on the same day the aforementioned floozy Mercedes calls him up for a date. A total doofus like Les gets a potential crack at someone like Mercedes maybe twice in a lifetime, so obviously he can't miss one of those potential chances. So he borrows his Grandfather's beloved Caddy that his parents are taking care of and sets off on his date. Of course this being a movie and all, complete and utter mayhem ensues as Les faces many hardships, including an expensive attempted towing, driving around a tanked and unconscious date and even having his car stolen by a crazy, evil, drunken old coot. Eh, who am I kidding, everyone has seen this movie and knows the plot, I just really wanted to write "drunken old coot".

There are some well known songs on this soundtrack, including Billy Ocean's Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car, which is a staggering 7:37 long. There's also a DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince track which is a coincidence because the movie also features James Avery as Les' evil (a lot of evil in this movie isn't there?) driving instructor. James, of course, played Philip Banks 2 years later on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The official soundtrack was missing some tracks that were featured in the movie. I couldn't find all of the missing tracks but I've included INXS' New Sensation, plus two Sinatra tracks, Strangers in the Night, which played during Les and Mercedes' Cadillac hood dance and That's Life from the drunken old lunatic car switcheroo scene. I tried to get Nia Peeples' Trouble, but it's suprisingly hard to find Nia Peeples songs these days.

Charles, you spasticated idiot.