Wyatt Russell was born to Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn on July 10, 1986, eight days after “Big Trouble in Little China,” his pop’s third and lamentably final big-screen collaboration with John Carpenter, bombed at the box office. The martial arts action-fantasy movie didn’t seriously damage Russell’s career, but it did alter its trajectory a tad. Just about everything after “Big Trouble in Little China” was a two-hander or an ensemble piece. Though he could still mess around in nonsense like “Overboard” and “Captain Ron,” he couldn’t dominate a movie with a broad, endearingly dopey hero like Jack Burton anymore.
Kurt Russell has many different modes, but I grew up with a preference for his swaggering himbos, guys who were so supremely confident in their capabilities that, like Wile E. Coyote, they didn’t realize how far off the edge of the cliff they’d run. Watching a lug like Burton scramble out of (or deeper into) trouble was a joy. And while Jack might’ve been the ne plus ultra of his risible protagonists, I think Rudy Russo in “Used Cars” is every bit his dim-bulb equal.
Somewhat surprisingly, Wyatt Russell, who was born six years and one whole day after that raucous dark comedy opened to lousy business in 1980, agrees. In fact, it’s his favorite Kurt Russell movie.
Everything about Used Cards is ‘perfect’ to Wyatt Russell
When Kurt and Wyatt Russell dropped by “The Dan Patrick Show” last December to promote the MonsterVerse streaming series “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” Russell revealed that he considers the Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale cult classic to be his papa’s peak. Why “Used Cars?” According to Wyatt:
“I mean, I could quote every line from the movie. It’s weird, ‘Used Cars’ has come up on this little press tour we’re doing like 100 times. Because it was Bob Zemeckis’ second movie, it was my favorite movie of his, it’s the closest to his humor, to my dad’s humor that I know. It’s just –- everything about that movie to me is perfect.”
Kurt wasn’t about to quibble with his son’s preference. As he told Patrick:
“[C]haracter-wise I had fun every day. I mean, it was just a blast. And those guys, Bob Zemeckis and Bob Gale and all the cast guys too, people that were in the show, Deborah [Harmon], it was just one of those things. I learned a lot about comedy and how comedy is made by the people who were involved with that show. I didn’t really know that much about comedy .[..] but these guys created comedy. They were fantastic.”
For whatever reason, the gleefully profane prankster in Zemeckis went on permanent vacation after that movie. Once he hit the blockbuster big-time with “Back to the Future” in 1985, he became much more interested in making pricey event movies. Though he did return to his dark comedy roots with 1992’s underrated “Death Becomes Her,” he’s pouring most of his creative energies into formal experiments nowadays –- which would be fine if they were so tonally bland.
Maybe the imp in Zemeckis will return one day. If so, perhaps he can find room for both Russells to make absolutely clowns of themselves.
