License To Drive

This is one of the classic "Corey and Corey" movies, others being "Lost Boys" and "Dream A Little Dream".

The movie starts with a wonderfully surreal dream sequence on a school bus. Very reminiscent (in style) of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, it has the kids chained and manacled inside a dirty, smoky bus with the windows so dirty that they can't even see out. After breaking out of the bus Corey Haim's character wakes up to the reality of yet another missed sombre drivers ed lesson.

The film revolves around a teenagers utter 'need' for their drivers license and the radical difference it makes to their quality of life. When Corey's character 'Les' falls in love with a girl called Mercedes who is clearly out of his league (played by Heather Graham who recently starred in Austin Powers II)...

...And he believes that only a driving license will be the factor that makes the difference between success or failure in this endevour.

-Of course it naturally follows that he fails the drivers theory exam because of his sleeping through all the lessons and is forced to pretend that he had obtained his license.

The bulk of the movie concerns the night that follows where things go from bad to worse followed by positively nightmarish as Les struggles to get himself out of progressively worse situations that he finds himself and his Grandfather's precious Caddy up to their necks in.

It's reminiscent of "Adventures in Babysitting" and "Mystery Date" -- which has a very similar feel to "License to Drive", starring a young Ethan Hawke.

Full of wonderfully funky characters and situations, "License to drive" is yet another fresh and light movie that defines the era and teaches any of the pitiful 90's 'teen movies' a thing or two about fun and not taking themselves too seriously.

Memorable scenes include his flawlessly executed drivers practical exam with the ball-breaker examiner who wants him to parallel park in a space that seems smaller than the car in a hellishly busy street:-

Driving Examiner: "Okay Mr Anderson, I want you to parallel park there..."

Les: "There?!!!"

Driving Examiner: "What, am I speaking greek? -yes THERE!"

Richard Masur who also starred in "Risky Business", "My Science Project" and "The Thing" plays Les's father in such classic style that he makes his character one of the most memorable of the movie.