A Look Back At 80’s Classic “License to Drive” And News On The Remake!

 Who can forget getting their driver’s license? Getting your driver’s license meant freedom. It was a turning point in most teenagers lives but what about if you didn’t get it? You passed your road test but you failed the knowledge test! Well, that’s exactly what happens to Les Anderson played by Corey Haim in the 1988 movie “License to drive”.

Les desperately wants his license. He doesn’t want to have to ride the bus to school anymore but most of all he wants it so he can impress girls. Well there is one girl in particular that he wants to impress. She is Mercedes Lane played by Heather Graham. Mercedes already has a boyfriend though. Les notices that her boyfriend is older and he drives a Ferrari. This motivates him even more to get his license. One night he and his friends are at a party that Mercedes and her boyfriend are at to. Les and his friends watch as Mercedes and her boyfriend get into a heated argument. To make her boyfriend jealous she tells him that she has a date with another guy. Her boyfriend doesn’t believe her so she looks for the nearest guy she can find and guess who it is! Mercedes grabs Les and gives him that “play along with me” look as she “reminds” him about their date on Saturday. Les goes with it and her boyfriend storms out, Mercedes thanks Les for helping her and then she disappears through the crowd of people.

  The next day Les’s dad picks him up from school in his Grandpa’s car. Since his dad knows Les is trying for his license soon he tells Les he can drive the car with his supervision. Before they switch drivers Les notices Mercedes is walking down the street ahead of them. Les begs his dad to let him drive the car by himself so he can impress her. He tells his dad all he wants to do is drive up, maybe say hi and then come right back. His dad gives in and steps out so Les can go and see Mercedes. Les pulls up and reminds her about him helping her out at the party last night. Mercedes remembers and then asks Les if he could give her a ride to her friend’s house. Wanting to impress her he tells her no problem, the only thing is her friend lives across town! After Les drops off Mercedes he quickly backtracks and finds his not so happy dad walking home. Despite his dad tearing a strip off him, Les is feeling pretty happy because he gave Mercedes his phone number when he dropped her off. However, his happiness is short-lived. The next day when he goes for his license, he fails the knowledge test and doesn’t get it.

 Too ashamed to let his friends Dean played by Corey Feldman and Charles played by Micheal Manasseri know he failed, he tells them he got his license. A lie he also tells his parents. However, his parents find out and ground him for 2 weeks. This, of course, ruins the already made plans with his friends. So when he gets a call from Mercedes seeing if he’s still going to take her out on a date, Les can’t pass up the opportunity. He tells her he will be by to pick her up soon. Then after making sure his parents are both sound asleep, he sneaks out of the house. He quietly rolls his grandpa’s Cadillac Sedan de Villa out of the garage and then he’s off to get Mercedes. From there one bad decision leads to another and his dream date turns into any kid that steals his grandpa’s car worst nightmare.

 I don’t want to give away to much of the movie if you haven’t seen it but this is a movie I have always loved and found really funny. If you haven’t seen it then I suggest you watch it if you can. License to drive was written by Neil Tolkin and directed by Greg Beeman. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox and released on July 6th, 1988. It grossed over 20 million at the North American box office and has become a cult classic.