17 reviews
Boring, isn't it? Well this movie is no exception. Everyone does a good job, especially Kerri Green (as always), but the story just isn't really there. In fact the movie really isn't too bad before they get in a car. But seeing three people drive just isn't too exciting. Not that bad of a movie but try "Lucas" or "Breakfast Club" or "Goonies" instead.
Paul Tracy (Charlie Sheen) is an aide to his hero Republican US Senator Kitteredge (Raymond J. Barry) who is aiming for the White House. He meets Kitteredge for the first time and is given the task to drive his delinquent daughter Robin (Kerri Green) to be hidden away in an institution. She is sedated and he gets his roommate T.S. (Alan Ruck) to come along. She keeps trying to escape and telling them disturbing stories about the Senator. Robin and Paul fall for each other. She escapes and picks up Missy who is running away from stupid Junior. Robin is trying to find her absent mother Blanche (Sally Kellerman).
It's too bad that Kerri Green fades away after this movie. She had a couple of great movies in the 80s. I wish she got a few more opportunities. She is as cute as ever in this movie even with her crazy hairdo. The three young actors are good. The story is a little bit awkward. It's not all funny since it's a little bit of a kidnapping. The romance works only because of the two young actors.
It's too bad that Kerri Green fades away after this movie. She had a couple of great movies in the 80s. I wish she got a few more opportunities. She is as cute as ever in this movie even with her crazy hairdo. The three young actors are good. The story is a little bit awkward. It's not all funny since it's a little bit of a kidnapping. The romance works only because of the two young actors.
- SnoopyStyle
- Apr 9, 2015
- Permalink
Charlie Sheen is a Senator's aide who is assigned to take the Senator's out-of-control, teenaged daughter (Green) to a reform school/institution located a few states away. He takes along his friend (Ruck) on what turns out to be a very long and somewhat boring ride to the school. The typical misadventures occur as Green occasionally escapes from the guys, only to be caught again. Also, non-surprisingly, Green and Sheen fall in love along the way as well. It later is revealed that Green keeps escaping in part because she wants to use the trip to school to meet her mother (Kellerman), who left her when she was only a child. While this movie is not awful, there really is no real reason to watch it. Further, the idea of Sheen's character, who is supposed to be in his early 20s, falling in love with Green, who is supposed to be 16, might make some viewers a little squeamish.
I loved this movie..it's one of the funniest movies Charlie Sheen has ever done...I don't know about anyone else...but I laughed really hard. Especially the scene where he finally has had it with Kelli Green's characters shenanigans and handcuffs her to the back of the passenger seat. It kept me in stitches when it was supposed to be funny. It should be kept in mind that they were younger actors and for being that...they pulled it off. I don't know how anyone could get bored...but to each his own. I know I enjoyed it immensely.
- EloraDanu71
- Dec 29, 2001
- Permalink
I often buy old laserdiscs in search of forgotten or hidden gems.. this is the absolute dead set opposite.. im gonna make it my personal mission from this day forward to find any copy's I have of this movie and smash it as a community service.
Its a shame as it had a decent cast but they were dreadful . Sheen is tolerable but omg ruck is an absent void of charisma. Just like he was on speed.. at least in speed he was given only 3 ines of dialogue. Just terrible filming terrible script. Just avoid it chuck it in the bin and be grateful that u avoided 90 mins of absolute rubbish.
Its a shame as it had a decent cast but they were dreadful . Sheen is tolerable but omg ruck is an absent void of charisma. Just like he was on speed.. at least in speed he was given only 3 ines of dialogue. Just terrible filming terrible script. Just avoid it chuck it in the bin and be grateful that u avoided 90 mins of absolute rubbish.
- charlie-butters
- Jun 11, 2021
- Permalink
I saw this movie when I was very young and I still love it just as much. A teenage girl's, (Kerri Green), father, who is also a senator, hires Charlie Sheen, (who brings along friend, Alan Ruck, for the ride), to drive her cross-country to be institutionalized for anger management issues. Much chaos ensues on the road! Touching at times, comical at others, I definitely encourage you to check this movie out, especially if you're a big fan of 80's films. Young Charlie Sheen and Alan Ruck's performances are quite enjoyable, as well as Kerri Green's. If you're a Charlie Sheen or Alan Ruck fan, then check this movie out! Great piece of 80's film nostalgia!
- turtleracer
- Jan 5, 2005
- Permalink
Anyone else find it odd this one has never been released on any home video format? No BluRay, no DVD, not even VHS. It makes me wonder why.
I wrote this movie. It was my first major film, and I went to the set to visit while they were shooting it in Arkansas. Charlie Sheen, who had just starred in "Platoon" told me he loved the script, but what they were shooting was .. well, let's just say rewritten. I thought he was exaggerating, until I told my friends to meet me at the Egyptian theater in Hollywood for the opening weekend. 3000 seat theater - and only 8 people attended the 8 p.m. show. I hated it. I hated the reviews it got, it made me decide that if my movie was going to get screwed up, I was going to direct it, and at least I'd be responsible for it. So, for better or worse, that's what I've been doing since then. However, I have some nostalgia for this piece - its genesis was seeing Senator Moynihan's daughter dancing on a bar in Cambridge when I went to college. The original story was about a Senator's daughter who is ruining his re-election bid by staging protests. He decides to send her to a reform school and assigns his young up and coming assistant to do the job. His roommate is a stringer for a Washington rag, and he begs to come along. Along the way the daughter escapes multiple times, but mainly wants to find her mom - who abandoned her father. She thinks its because the mom agrees with her politics; I thought Dabney Coleman would have been the perfect Senator. It runs out her mom was just 'getting high' too much when she was in college, got pregnant and didn't want to have a family. Depressed with the truth, the daughter decides to shape up and take reform school in stride. By the end, she's transformed the Senator's assistant, who's fallen in love with her and won't let her compromise her principles. There's a twist at the end, but basically it was a rip off of my former boss Robert Towne's brilliant take on "The Last Detail." This was my "Last Detail." Sorry it's not better than it is, but now you know the truth. Rich Martini
- RJPMartini
- Sep 11, 2006
- Permalink
3 rising stars of the 80's
This movie almost end Alan Ruck career,Kerri green vanished from the hollywood,...
The plot was wierd and arkward,soo 80's.some of the comedic matiriels does a great job
Not suprised if this was forgotten,if weren't for the cast,this would have been way worse
The plot was messy,a enjoyable one but nothing left in mind after watching this
Kerri Green did a decent job on portrait a wierdo and she looks cute with a "bad hair day" as usual (the toughest role of the movie)
Alan Ruck and sheen complete their task,it would be unfair to gave this under 5 cause this cost them a career but the one to blame was the dir and the writer did a mess on this.
I remember this movie fondly.A close friend of mine had begged me to see this so I did-it's not bad! Three for the road is actually very funny in parts and most people who like road movies will probebly like this. The humer is there and the cast creates lots of fun antics and cheeky dialogue. If I had one criticism it's that the ovie plays it to safe and doesn't really do anything unique-a couple of times it DID begin to drag. I wouldn't call this any great shakes in the comedy department but it's fun, a light breezy movie that's certainly not awful.
Released in 1987, "Three for the Road" stars Charlie Sheen & Alan Ruck as an ambitious political aide and his best friend assigned to delivering a senator's rebellious daughter to a reform institution down south (Kerri Green). The 16 year-old just wants to see her mother whom she hasn't seen in eight years (Sally Kellerman). Blair Tefkin plays a southern gal who hooks up with the trio while Raymond J. Barry plays the teenager's father, a pompous senator.
Like my title blurb says, this is just a fun 80's road flick that hits all the check boxes: Great cast, characters you care about, entertaining situations and antics on the road, a fitting 80's soundtrack, a satisfying conclusion and quality women. As far as that last one goes, Kerri was 19 during filming, which qualifies for a woman, and Blair's just an all-around whoa-man, not to mention Kellerman. Lastly, the movie doesn't wear out its welcome at a mere 88 minutes. For all these reasons, "Three for the Road" breaks the threshold of greatness, as far as amusing road flicks go.
The film was shot in Hot Springs and Little Rock, Arkansas, and is still not available on DVD as of this writing, although it's available on VHS (via sellers on the internet).
GRADE: A-
Like my title blurb says, this is just a fun 80's road flick that hits all the check boxes: Great cast, characters you care about, entertaining situations and antics on the road, a fitting 80's soundtrack, a satisfying conclusion and quality women. As far as that last one goes, Kerri was 19 during filming, which qualifies for a woman, and Blair's just an all-around whoa-man, not to mention Kellerman. Lastly, the movie doesn't wear out its welcome at a mere 88 minutes. For all these reasons, "Three for the Road" breaks the threshold of greatness, as far as amusing road flicks go.
The film was shot in Hot Springs and Little Rock, Arkansas, and is still not available on DVD as of this writing, although it's available on VHS (via sellers on the internet).
GRADE: A-
If you're looking for a simple road comedy, this should suit you pretty good. It doesn't lapse too much into road film cliches, aside from getting drunk in hotel rooms and hitching rides with wackos, it covers a little bit of new ground. Sheen is trying to kiss up to a senator, so he agrees to drive his wild-child daughter to a reform school a few states away. Of course, she rebels and takes off at any chance she can get, which is the difference from other road trip films. Green sets in motion most of the laughs when she bolts, causing Sheen and Ruck to chase after and end up having their mishaps. A good cast of veteran actors mix well together, with this an odd choice for Sheen after "Platoon", Ruck following up "Ferris..." and Tefkin nets some chuckles with her spunky southern belle. But unfortunately this is the last we saw of the cute Kerri Green. She had a good hot streak going with "Goonies", "Lucas" (which she ironically did with Sheen) and then this. For whatever reason she disappeared, as did most of the cast because even though this wasn't awful, it didn't make a dime and was mostly forgotten. Some may not be into some of the silliness that occurs (the reform school break was a little far fetched) but there may be enough going on to entertain some. A strange footnote is that the film never addresses that Sheen's 21-year-old character has the hots for Green's 16-year-old one. Can you say jailbait? Nonetheless the film is a pretty good adventure. Also ironic that 13 years after this, Ruck and Sheen will be reuniting on "Spin City" this fall. Strange how things work out sometimes.
- mark.waltz
- Aug 13, 2022
- Permalink
I saw this film in 1987, or maybe it was 1988, and my friends and I laughed hysterically because this film is so awful! It's one of those movies that are so bad they are hilarious. Favorite line: Sally Kellerman telling her ex-husband, "You so much as breathe a word of this, and I'll have your d*** in a pencil sharpener!" I also found one scene to be disturbing...a black man who is hauling a load of live chickens stops to help, and ends up with his truck @ chickens tumbling down a steep hill. While the main characters speed off, this poor man has lost his truck and his chickens. The main characters then laugh. Alan Ruck ("Spin City") sarcastically declares that he feels sorry for "those chickens." This film is a disaster, directed by the brilliant B.W.L. Norton ("More American Graffiti," "Baby: Secret Of The Lost Legend.") This movie seems to try to recapture the spirit of the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby "road" movies, but fails miserably. When this came out on video, I decided to watch it again, thinking that I might have missed something. I watched the video with my mom. My mom, approaching her sixties, said that this was the kind of movie kids used to watch back in the 40's and 50's. Enough said. NOTE: Alot of people are mistaken. This film was made and shelved BEFORE Charlie Sheen starred in Oliver Stone's "Platoon." It was only released after "Platoon" was a hit.
Sure I might have been 8yrs old when I first saw it. By the time I could relate to some subject matter there the movie was for me. It's entertained me and comforted me. Crazy to think of this movie that way but it did. It made me not feel so alone and I could relate to feeling the daughter had. No one in my day to day life back then could do that. Not in the 80s and 90s like today. Another great Charlie sheen flick! Dude, who wrote this movie I read ur review. This movie Re written like you said, it still changed my life in a positive way through many decades. I've made so many friends watch it through the years! I still watch it every November. I am in my 40s now. My kid knows the movie well. Thank you for sharing your talent. You captured thousands of my movie watching hours and the number continues to grow.
- rosierose008
- Jan 14, 2024
- Permalink
Maybe I'm just not used to teen comedies, especially those from the eighties. And 'Three for the Road' is one hell of an example.
I wanted to see it because I couldn't think of something better to do. I just had to find a way to spend my afternoon. The first twenty minutes were great, but then you've come to realise that the whole movie is about three people with only one destiny: to get the little freaky girl into the mental institution...
On this trip, a lot of crazy things happen. Robin Kitteredge (Kerri Green) is not fond of this idea, and she does absolutely EVERYTHING to avoid that she and the two men who are assigned the job of delivering her will arrive save and well at Ashcroft Institute. In the middle of this mess, TS (Alan Ruck) falls in love with Missy and Paul (Charlie Sheen) - of course - gets a serious crush on little nasty Robin. Happy end! (Or what did you expect?) My favorite part is where Paul and TS are running in the woods, wearing nothing but their underwear.
I wanted to see it because I couldn't think of something better to do. I just had to find a way to spend my afternoon. The first twenty minutes were great, but then you've come to realise that the whole movie is about three people with only one destiny: to get the little freaky girl into the mental institution...
On this trip, a lot of crazy things happen. Robin Kitteredge (Kerri Green) is not fond of this idea, and she does absolutely EVERYTHING to avoid that she and the two men who are assigned the job of delivering her will arrive save and well at Ashcroft Institute. In the middle of this mess, TS (Alan Ruck) falls in love with Missy and Paul (Charlie Sheen) - of course - gets a serious crush on little nasty Robin. Happy end! (Or what did you expect?) My favorite part is where Paul and TS are running in the woods, wearing nothing but their underwear.
- Hawks_Girl
- Jun 22, 2000
- Permalink
I don't think anyone is watching this movie looking for superior writing and acting, but if you want wild and wacky adventures this is pretty good.
We keep moving down the road, crossing state lines. Lots of wild car chases and stunts, with some excellent work by drivers who really have to be careful what they're doing. The best car chase of the entire movie involves Junior's car, and wait until you see how that ends!
It's not all wild action. There are a couple of sweet scenes involving Paul and Robin.
Many laws are broken and one disaster after another gives us a really wild ending. Only in the movies!
Seriously? Charlie Sheen is someone who can be trusted with an important job? Well, at this stage in his career he is quite believable as a proper, professional yuppie. Sheen is totally different from anything else I have ever seen him in, except maybe "Wall Street", but it has been a while so I don't even remember. So proper and responsible. So nice when the situation calls for it. And then he ends up in situations Charlie Harper could have easily found himself in. I'm not sure he's that good when he has to be angry, but he gets the job done.
I've never heard of Kerri Green but it's a shame. She was quite good, really, given the material. Robin is actually a sweet and misunderstood girl, but wait until you see what she gets away with in a fine restaurant just because she's a senator's daughter. And then it's time to spend the night in a motel. That's when the real fun begins, but not before we get to see Robin in her underwear. I assume it's underwear, because why would she have a swimsuit?
I know Alan Ruck best as a womanizing jerk in "Spin City" but he is so different here and much more likable.
Not a great role for James Avery, who was praised so highly in Will Smith's Oscar speech, only a couple of years before he became Uncle Phil. But pretty good. And if you disliked his behavior ... well, Robin is clumsy.
Sally Kellerman is actually pretty good but is this movie truly worthy of someone who starred in one of the greatest of all films?
Is this family friendly? Cleaned up for TV, maybe it's acceptable for older kids. You can't be too mature and still appreciate this. How convenient that some of the worst language in the movie was probably bleeped out by car horns and such.
It's a fun adventure if your expectations aren't too high.
We keep moving down the road, crossing state lines. Lots of wild car chases and stunts, with some excellent work by drivers who really have to be careful what they're doing. The best car chase of the entire movie involves Junior's car, and wait until you see how that ends!
It's not all wild action. There are a couple of sweet scenes involving Paul and Robin.
Many laws are broken and one disaster after another gives us a really wild ending. Only in the movies!
Seriously? Charlie Sheen is someone who can be trusted with an important job? Well, at this stage in his career he is quite believable as a proper, professional yuppie. Sheen is totally different from anything else I have ever seen him in, except maybe "Wall Street", but it has been a while so I don't even remember. So proper and responsible. So nice when the situation calls for it. And then he ends up in situations Charlie Harper could have easily found himself in. I'm not sure he's that good when he has to be angry, but he gets the job done.
I've never heard of Kerri Green but it's a shame. She was quite good, really, given the material. Robin is actually a sweet and misunderstood girl, but wait until you see what she gets away with in a fine restaurant just because she's a senator's daughter. And then it's time to spend the night in a motel. That's when the real fun begins, but not before we get to see Robin in her underwear. I assume it's underwear, because why would she have a swimsuit?
I know Alan Ruck best as a womanizing jerk in "Spin City" but he is so different here and much more likable.
Not a great role for James Avery, who was praised so highly in Will Smith's Oscar speech, only a couple of years before he became Uncle Phil. But pretty good. And if you disliked his behavior ... well, Robin is clumsy.
Sally Kellerman is actually pretty good but is this movie truly worthy of someone who starred in one of the greatest of all films?
Is this family friendly? Cleaned up for TV, maybe it's acceptable for older kids. You can't be too mature and still appreciate this. How convenient that some of the worst language in the movie was probably bleeped out by car horns and such.
It's a fun adventure if your expectations aren't too high.
- vchimpanzee
- May 21, 2018
- Permalink