From writer Edward Clinton and director John Schlesinger ("Midnight Cowboy") comes this offbeat collection of character driven vignettes. It's overall quite engaging and it's too bad that the film was a major flop upon its initial release. The cast is excellent and the movie is generally amusing, the kind of thing that should generate some smiles if no outright belly laughs.
The main story thread is that of a tiny Florida town named Ticlaw, whose only real claim to fame that they can make is a safari park (including a water skiing elephant) operated by mayor / entrepreneur Kirby Calo (William Devane). When the government creates a brand spanking new freeway, but neglects to put in an exit leading to Ticlaw, Calo and the various citizens resort to some desperate measures to ensure tourist traffic - such as painting the town pink. As this goes on, we're introduced to an assortment of people who each have their own reasons for travelling to Florida. Among them are a pair of bank robbers (George Dzundza and Joe Grifasi), a waitress transporting her mothers' ashes (Beverly D'Angelo) and a copy machine repairman / wannabe children's' book author (Beau Bridges), a veteran nun and a novice one (Geraldine Page and Deborah Rush), a dentist and his family (Howard Hesseman, Teri Garr, Jenn Thompson and Peter Billingsley) in an RV, an old ad man and his alcoholic wife (Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy) and a truck driver & wannabe country & western songwriter (Paul Jabara, who does co-write some of the songs for the soundtrack).
One of the delights here is in checking out a cast just FULL of familiar faces - in addition to those mentioned, David Rasche, Daniel Stern, Celia Weston, Frances Lee McCain, Jerry Hardin, John Ashton, Frances Bay, Nancy Parsons, Leo Burmester, Jeffrey Combs, and an uncredited Anne Ramsey all turn up as well. There are enough lively and amusing moments to make for decent entertainment, as well as an ingratiating mixture of satire and slapstick. Schlesinger proves himself quite capable of handling comedy on a grand scale and keeps things interesting throughout, allowing the large cast time to create some memorable and endearing characters. While watching, the viewer will be intrigued to see how all of these people will meet, and what their fates will be. Plus, you just can't help but root for Calo and his crazy comrades, no matter what their methods might be.
Overall, "Honky Tonk Freeway" is good fun, is punctuated by some catchy songs, and has enough spirit to make it watchable for a decently paced 107 minutes. Another review here describes it as "Hal Needham meets Robert Altman", which is a very good way to put it indeed. Hopefully more comedy fans can discover it and lift it out of obscurity.
Seven out of 10.
