Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976)

IMDb plot summary: Competition between privately owned Los Angeles, California ambulance companies is played for humor.

Directed by Peter Yates. Starring Bill Cosby, Raquel Welch, and Harvey Keitel.

Mother, Jugs & Speed are the nicknames of three employees at a nearly-bankrupt for-profit ambulance company. Mother, played by Bill Cosby, is the company's mainstay, while Harvey Keitel's Speed and Raquel Welch's impolitely-named Jugs are newcomers trying to establish their credentials. This film is all over the place when it comes to tone. It zigzags back and forth between being a sort of zany workplace comedy and a dark drama. The two occasionally play well together, especially in scenes where the team is working and highlighting how they find the darkly funny or absurd moments in the tragedies they have to respond to. But a lot of the time, it feels like the movie can't decide whether it wants to make commentary or just goof around with low-budget workplace shenanigans. As a result, the comedy feels hollow and the drama feels unearned. There's an interesting movie at the heart of this film, it just doesn't quite cohere for me into something that works on the whole.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Mother, Jugs & Speed < Camp Rock

Mother, Jugs & Speed > L'Age d'Or

Mother, Jugs & Speed > Liz & Dick

Mother, Jugs & Speed < Star!

Mother, Jugs & Speed > The TV Set

Mother, Jugs & Speed < Happy Gilmore

Mother, Jugs & Speed < Fish Tank

Mother, Jugs & Speed < Amazing Grace

Mother, Jugs & Speed > Do You Like Hitchcock?

Mother, Jugs & Speed > Superman

Mother, Jugs & Speed < Carol

Final spot: #2232 out of 3777, or 41%.