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Mother, Jugs & Speed

Mother, Jugs & Speed

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: You'll laugh and you won't laugh....
Review: A very interesting look at a rag-tag bunch of ambulance drivers/paramedics. Great roles for Cosby, Keitel and Welch(to some degree). I really like Bruce Davison in it too. The most interesting thing is how the movie is really funny in parts, but then it takes some serious turns. I remember reading a qoute from Quentin Tarantino about how he was a fan of this. He talked about how cool it is when a movie has you laughing and laughing, and then you're not laughing(like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown). This really is a great little film from a good director-Peter Yates-who brought you such classics as BREAKING AWAY and BULLIT. Cosby is really an interesting movie actor, and if you like him here, I have to highly suggest that you try to see HICKEY AND BOGGS-starring Cosby and Robert Culp(written by Walter Hill). Tarantino also mention HICKEY AND BOGGS-it was one of the films he screened before making JACKIE BROWN. Anyway-just watch MOTHER, JUGS darnit!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A 70's Classic finally on DVD!!!!!
Review: After all these years the Peter Yates classic staring Bill Cosby, Raquel Welch, Harvey Keitel finally arrives on DVD. Take Cosby's humor, Raquel's sex appeal, Keitel's smouldering late 70's cool and one sweet ride of an ambulance, and you've got Mother, Jugs and Speed. Peter Yates' classic take on the ambulance industry in metropolitan Los Angeles gives us a little bit of everything in a quick, well paced film. Cosby's charm shines in one of his best roles i think as the cynical, no nonsense ambulance driver Mother Tucker. Just by looking at Mother's custom Rig, and patch covered jacket you get the impression that Cosby's character was not always an ambulance driver, but perhaps was once something quite differnt. Follow the F+B ambulance company and their staff of irregulars (Including Larry Hagman of Dallas Fame, and football player Dick Butkus) as they do their best to save the lives of their patients and hammer away at one another with a barrage of jokes, and one liners. They don't make comedys like this anymore where the car was just as big of a star as the trio named in the title. While normally found in the comedy section, the film does have an equal number of "dark" moments that let the viewer know that Yates wasn't just doing this for laffs and help to balance out the humor. The DVD transfer is crystal clear, and the slamming 70's soundtrack will be nostalgic for some, and new, and inventive to others. Another reviewer mentioned hearing Peter Frampton's "Show me The Way" playing in an early scene, and I always think of this film when i hear that song. Treat yourself to a 70's classic, and enjoy the ride, and pray that if you ever need the guys in white that he shows up wearing yellow sneakers with red socks, and goes by the name of Mother Tucker.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A 70's Classic finally on DVD!!!!!
Review: After all these years the Peter Yates classic staring Bill Cosby, Raquel Welch, Harvey Keitel finally arrives on DVD. Take Cosby's humor, Raquel's sex appeal, Keitel's smouldering late 70's cool and one sweet ride of an ambulance, and you've got Mother, Jugs and Speed. Peter Yates' classic take on the ambulance industry in metropolitan Los Angeles gives us a little bit of everything in a quick, well paced film. Cosby's charm shines in one of his best roles i think as the cynical, no nonsense ambulance driver Mother Tucker. Just by looking at Mother's custom Rig, and patch covered jacket you get the impression that Cosby's character was not always an ambulance driver, but perhaps was once something quite differnt. Follow the F+B ambulance company and their staff of irregulars (Including Larry Hagman of Dallas Fame, and football player Dick Butkus) as they do their best to save the lives of their patients and hammer away at one another with a barrage of jokes, and one liners. They don't make comedys like this anymore where the car was just as big of a star as the trio named in the title. While normally found in the comedy section, the film does have an equal number of "dark" moments that let the viewer know that Yates wasn't just doing this for laffs and help to balance out the humor. The DVD transfer is crystal clear, and the slamming 70's soundtrack will be nostalgic for some, and new, and inventive to others. Another reviewer mentioned hearing Peter Frampton's "Show me The Way" playing in an early scene, and I always think of this film when i hear that song. Treat yourself to a 70's classic, and enjoy the ride, and pray that if you ever need the guys in white that he shows up wearing yellow sneakers with red socks, and goes by the name of Mother Tucker.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: More like 3.5 stars; a fine, funky 70's curio
Review: Alternately ahead of its time and an unmistakable product of its era, the 1976 paramedic comedy-drama "Mother, Jugs and Speed" has finally made its way to DVD.

This uneven but underappreciated little B-movie drew obvious influence from the blood-and-pranks mixture of Robert Altman's "MASH," but you can also see its darkly comic influence on contemporary fare such as "Six Feet Under" and "Bringing out the Dead," and it poked fun at zip-ups gone wrong 20 years before "There's Something About Mary."

Bill Cosby and Harvey Keitel play Southern California ambulance drivers forced to contend with all manner of accidents and injuries, both amusing and tragic. The all-over-the-map cast also includes Raquel Welch, Allen Garfield, Dick Butkus, Bruce Davison, L.Q. Jones, Larry Hagman (as a creepy lech whose antics haven't aged well) and even Allan Warnick, the kid from the records room in "Chinatown."

With its gritty, widescreen look and those awesome blue lens flares so common to the period, "Mother" is a fine, funky 70's curio. Welch and Keitel (who had just been replaced by Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now") are stiff but the rest of the pre-Carter administration cast seems to be having fun, particularly Cosby, as the glib, laconic Mother. It's a bit strange to see the sitcom star playing an anti-hero, but his cool, sneaky performance breezily anchors the movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A MUST for paramedics and EMTs
Review: An extremely dated and ridiculous portrayal of paramedics and EMTs working on ambulances, MOTHER JUGS AND SPEED is nevertheless a hoot! You'll love a young Bill Cosby, Harvey Keitel, and Raquel Welch. I used to show this film in my medical ethics class to teach the students what NOT to do---they LOVED it. You'll probably have to be in the ambulance business to understand the irony and recognize the inside jokes and situations in the film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lightweight Dark Comedy
Review: At the very least "Mother,Jugs & Speed" employs one of the more eclectic casts from a seventies film. Aside from Bill Cosby, Raquel Welch, and Harvey Keitel the cast includes Allen Garfield, Larry Hagman, Bruce Davison, and Dick Butkus. The film is consistently engaging and funny. That said the comic elements do do not always mix well with the tragic ones. The film also pushes the envelope as to what you can do in a "PG" film. A couple of scenes come to mind where one of the EMTs tries to take advantage of an OD case and another where Cosby is receiving a massage with vibrators. Cosby is fine as the wisecracking Mother, Welch's range does not extend much beyond one of her pin-up posters as Jugs, and Keitel isn't really given much to do as Speed. Standing out in the cast are Hagman as the libidinous Murdoch and Garfield as the owner of the third-rate ambulance company. I think director Peter Yates and sciptwriter Tom Mankiewicz were shooting for bigger game, a dark comedy on the level of "M*A*SH*" or "The Hospital" but fall a little short. Instead they've delivered a pleasant diversion.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazingly funny
Review: But...No one ever talks about the fat lady on the gurney...that scene is worth her weight! Watch as they are lifting her on it, and you will see her Jiggling with laughter! dont forget when she goes down the stairs or the when she falls from the ceiling you see her friend wearing the same Studded hat Stevie
Wonder wore in 1973...I am a huge fan and notice that. I also notice how funny Cosby delivers his lines..."Turn the Machine off!' or please, not in mixed company...its hilarious!! I also love when he falls over the tires trying to be slick! A Great film with moments that must be seen!
Enjoy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: How do I love Jugs, let me count the ways
Review: I could spend countless words proclaiming the greatness of this film as one of the great urban street comedies of the 70's but just watch the film and it will speak for itself.
I do want to mention that the director of this cinematic gem also directed a little number called "Krull" which is to high fantasy what "Mother, Jugs, and Speed" is to the world of high-brow comedy.
Plus it gave us Lysette Anthony.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Clasic Movie
Review: I haven't seen this movie in over twenty years. I glad that I found it. I put it in the VCR as soon as it arrived. Bill Cosby like you've never seen him before.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A very enjoyable movie about EMT work!
Review: I think this movie is one of Bill Cosby's funniest and best. He plays an fun loving Emergency Medical Tech (EMT) worker who works by his own rules. He drinks his beer, jams his Brother Johnsons tape loudly and scares nuns. The movie does have some very funny moments (like the runaway gurney with the lady strapped to it). Rachael Welch, Harvey Keitel, and Larry Hagman all play fine supporting roles in this movie. Hagman is espically hilirious as an hot to trot driver. I agree with another reviewer who said that this movie shows EMT work in its earliest beginnings. Basically, they were running from call to call dealing with all kinds of different patients and situations. I also like this movie because it was filmed on location in Venice, Culver City, and Los Angeles California. This movie is one gems from the early 1970's. I recommend it highly to anyone.


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