The Van

Moviecut—Chevy Van

source: Chevy Van

The Van

One of those so bad it's good kind of movies. A simple story about a boy and his super groovy decked out 70's style van. What teenage boy wouldn't love his own van complete with waterbed, eight track tape player and...toaster! Watch Bobby have countless adventures in his * set on wheels. Look for the take out waitress who dosn't have time for a joint but has time for....a quickie! Bad dialog, bad acting, bad camera work and bad music. Bad, bad, bad! A must!

Simple-minded but good-natured drive-in movie about a simple-minded but good-natured high school graduate who has dreams of owning the coolest custom van in the world to use as his "ballroom". Bobby, our hero, spends his entire savings to acquire the vehicle of his dreams. Joint sharing and love making quickly commence with girls Bobby has picked up at the local pizza parlor, but he finds out much responsibility, danger and heartache come with being the owner of such a mechanical marvel. The Van is a guilty pleasure of mine. It captures the laid back mid 70's mood and has enough unintentional humor to put it into the "so bad it's good" category.

this film is one of lifes little pleasures...................and it is a must see for fans of the street car flick, its about a teenager who blows his entire college savings on a coustom chevy van as a way to lure girls in for wild sex parties. there are 2 versions of this film the edited version and the original version, unfortunately the edited version is the only one that remains in circulation. the original version included several nudity scenes,and some pot smoking scenes. the re-released version has all those scenes removed. however there is some great 1970's music in this film - and its funny to watch --- I never knew Danny DeVito was ever that Young. this is a fun movie and its a perfect break(getaway)from the period dramas and war movies that I love so well. The most memoriable thing about this film is it's theme song. --- even if you dislike this film, you will still find yourself walking around for several days singing the theme song.

The plot, as much as there is one, is about a guy buying a van to get laid, then getting laid. That's pretty much it. The main character has a goofy grin on his face 90% of the time and the music is painfully literal, but you know what, this is a cute 70's time capsule with the fashion, locations, cars, and hairstyles. Not gonna win any awards, but still worth a late night watch.

The Van benefits from having a very strongly established setting. As important as Minnesota is to Fargo, summertime in the 70's is what transported me into this story. It's just a kid trying to get laid with his generation's version of a tricked out whip. No big whoop. The comedy is pretty silly at times, but for the most part, I enjoyed the fact that this was written before the age of irony. Similar recommendations: Gas Pump Girls and The Cheerleaders. I would have liked it to be a bit raunchier, but there's no reason to complain. Just a bit of fun.

It may seem like a dumb sex comedy from the 70's but it's more like a window to the decade of decadence.This movie has it all!Sex,pot smoking,a car wash,super-cool vans,cool clothes,a pimp,hookers,van racing,the continuous playing of Chevy Van and other Sammy Johns songs and more!If you want to know what people were really doing in the 70's,get this movie.It will make you want to go FUN TRUCKIN'.

...this is, above all else, the typical Crown International Pictures drive-in (read "passion pit") programmer. The 1975 Sammy Johns hit record "Chevy Van" is heard repeatedly on the soundtrack (this movie has even been reissued with the title CHEVY VAN), despite the film's title vehicle being a Dodge. Danny DeVito makes only six minutes of on-screen appearance, but countless VHS reissues falsely credit him as the star of the flick. The movie is a comparatively sexist morality tale -- will Bobby find sexual satisfaction through the one-night-stand his customised van facilitates, or must he wait until Tina, the girl of his dreams, gives him the time of day? Still, it is representative of the prevailing carnal dream of male American high schoolers of the time, and on that basis alone THE VAN has, almost in spite of itself, become an artifact of the period that must be referenced in any honest retrospective of the period's popular American cinema...