Synopsis
Teenager Les Anderson thinks his life can't get any worse after he flunks his driver's exam, but he's wrong. Even though he didn't receive his license, Les refuses to break his date with the cool Mercedes Lane, and he decides to lift his family's prize luxury car for the occasion. Unfortunately, Mercedes sneaks some booze along and passes out drunk, and a confused Les makes the bad decision of enlisting his rebellious friend, Dean, to help.
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Cast
- Corey HaimLes Anderson
- Corey FeldmanDean
- Carol KaneMrs. Anderson
- Richard MasurMr. Anderson
- Heather GrahamMercedes Lane
- Michael ManasseriCharles
- Harvey MillerThe Professor
- Michael A. NicklesPaolo (as M.A. Nickles)
- Nina SiemaszkoNatalie Anderson
- Grant GoodeveNatalie's DMV Examiner
Recommendations
- 70
Los Angeles Times
Writer Neil Tolkin and director Greg Beeman, both in their theatrical feature debuts, and Haim whisk you back to that awful period in your teens when you're finishing up driver education and applying for your first license. They make you remember the shame of having to have your mother chauffeur you, dropping you off a block away from wherever you're going so nobody will know your terrible secret. [06 July 1988, p.4] - 63
Chicago Sun-Times
The first half of License to Drive, which is mostly concerned with taking the lessons and passing the test and getting the license, is very funny. The second half, which is mostly an extended chase scene in which a hapless teenager's grandfather's Cadillac is wrecked by a drunk, is much more predictable. - 50
Chicago Tribune
Beeman and Tolkin drain every trace of real life friction from the story line, pumping it up instead with the standard Hughes synthetics: kids who are preternaturally smart, sophisticated and poised (Haim's best friend, played by Corey Feldman, has a swagger that suggests Robert Mitchum at his cockiest); adults who are monstrous, cretinous and ultimately pathetic. [07 July 1988, p.3C] - 40
The New York Times
Anyone old enough to have a license is probably much too old to be amused by License to Drive. Though the plot and action never get better than a television movie of the week, the engaging cast brings much more style to the material than it deserves. [06 July 1988, p.C17] - 38
Miami Herald
License to Drive takes too much license with its nuttiness, playing wacky moments to the point where the comedy sputters. [06 July 1988, p.D6] - 20
Time Out London
Everything you've ever hated about American teenagers, their music, money, fashion sense, their values, and most of all their pin-ups, in one auto-destructive movie. - 20
TV Guide Magazine
Although the premise of getting or not getting a first driver's license is a solid-enough base for 90 minutes of teenage comedy, License to Drive misses the point on all counts. - 12
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
License to Drive, directed by Greg Beeman and written by Montreal's Neil Tolkin, is not only stupid, a virtual requirement of summer teen exploitation movies, it's also nasty: it's been designed to turn its swooning target audience into a pajama party of neurotics. [08 July 1988]
