Mr-Fusion Take some great Tom Mankiewicz dialogue, the gritty style of Peter Yates, add a top-to-bottom great cast and you've got a recipe for success; the kind of high entertainment that's both hilarious and occasionally disarming. That's "Mother, Jugs and Speed", a movie that just screams the '70s, from its time spent pounding the L.A. nighttime streets to the great list of songs on the soundtrack. Sex-addict Larry Hagman is a highlight of the eclectic cast, but really, every person involved is an inspired choice.And on the matter of Bill Cosby, I fully admit that my exposure to the man these past 34 years has been woefully lacking. But you can't go wrong with this movie when it comes to the man's comedic timing and acting ability. Hell of a jumping-off point. I love this movie.8/10

Brandy I had never heard of this movie until I saw it on AMC(American Movie Classics)when I was sitting up late one night.It starts off as a upbeat comedy with a truly great cast (It would cost MEGA-Millions to assemble that same cast today).The movie starts out upbeat and very funny but then it turns darker when Harvey Kietel stops Larry Hagman from screwing (having sex) an unconscious college girl who has overdosed on sleeping pills, and then from there Harvey Kietel begins having a relationship with Raquel Welch, and one of the ambulance driver is shot and killed and from there this movie transforms itself from an upbeat comedy into a drama.Bill Cosby gives an outstanding performance. This movie is a jewel of acting on his part. (( I love the scene where he makes the local burger joint put peanut butter on his cheeseburger)). Bill Cosby gives a performance that it both funny in the beginning and then heart touching as his character deals with the death of his partner (great stuff from Bill) My only complaint about this film is that once it looses it comedic steam and turns serious it never regains it humor again. I would have like to seen the humor continue all the way through the movie, but it just doesn't.this movie would not be made today because of all of the racial humor, and the rape scene with Larry Hagman.that just wouldn't be allowed in one of today's films.I still recommend this movie to anyone who wants to stroll down memory lane and remember the 1970's ...... it all there the disco style music, the big hair, the clothes, and I even saw a Ford Mustang II traveling on the highway in one of the scenes and I said to myself "Oh my god, I used to drive one of those cars" (admit it...when was the last time you saw a Mustang II out on the highway.its been a while hasn't it) - although I had never seen this movie before, it still brought back lots of 1970's memories

Woodyanders Long before weary, burnt-out Nicholas Cage trolled around a crack-ravaged Hell's Kitchen in search of spiritual redemption in Martin Scorsese's hauntingly gloomy "Bringing Out the Dead" the choice happening trio of Billy Cosby, Raquel Welch and Harvey Keitel pounded an outrageously freaky, stressful and eventful Los Angeles beat as harried paramedics working for a low-rent ambulance service in this darkly humorous, often quirky and hugely underrated "M.A.S.H."-style seriocomic sleeper.Bill Cosby, prior to his sad degeneration into terminally cutesy middle-of-the-road blandness in the 80's with the lamentable "The Cosby Show," is in fine, funky form as hip, assured, sardonic crackerjack wheelman and smartaleck supreme Mother (next to the super, hard-boiled, unjustly neglected private eye picture "Hickey and Boggs" this flick rates as the coolest feature the Cos ever acted in), the phenomenally gorgeous Raquel Welch excels in an all-too-rare substantial part as stand-offish, yet still desirable dispatcher Jugs, and Harvey Keitel contributes his usual solid performance as moody ex-cop Speed. The eclectic supporting cast is likewise smack dab on the money excellent: Allen Garfield as the antsy, frazzle-nerved ambulance service owner, Larry Hagman as a smarmy, desperate libidinous loser, Bruce Davison as a naive rookie, L.Q. Jones as a laid-back local lawman, Toni Basil as a shotgun-wielding heroin addict, Dick Butkus as an amiable good ol' boy cowboy, and the ever-divine Severn Darden doing a deft reprise of his shameless shyster lawyer role from "Cisco Pike."Director Peter Yates, working from Tom Mankiewicz's sharp, brash, wildly episodic script, keeps the pace storming along at a furiously dynamic clip, staging car crashes with considerable aplomb and boldly veering the tone from hilariously raucous to alarmingly serious with frequently on-target, sometimes surprising and always genuinely eccentric results. Ralph Woolsey's glittering nighttime cinematography and the groovy, lively, pulsating soul score vividly capture the harrowing nonstop lunacy of both inner city blight and the intrinsic highly intensified pressure found in the paramedic profession. The loose, easy and funny camaraderie between Cosby, Welch and Keitel in particular really hits the spot something sweet. There's no denying that they make for a pretty unlikely threesome -- and it's the very oddballness of this engagingly flaky bunch which in turn gives the film its irresistibly off-center appeal.

JasparLamarCrabb A buried treasure to sure. MOTHER, JUGS AND SPEED is the best movie Raquel Welch ever made and for that matter, it's Bill Cosby's finest celluloid outing as well. Cosby is Mother, Harvey Keitel is Speed and Welch naturally, is Jugs. They work as EMTs for an unsavory ambulance company owner --- played with full on bluster by the reliable Allen Garfield --- along with an assortment of odd-balls including Larry Hagman as a callous, would be womanizer, Bruce Davison as a pot head, and the always goofy Valerie Curtin as the frazzled dispatcher.With it's occasionally brutal scenes --- including one ambulance call that goes especially wrong --- interwoven with a lot of laughs, MJS wants to be M*A*S*H for the EMT crowd, but it rarely reaches that level of subversiveness. It is, however, a fun and first rate piece of entertainment. The cast is excellent with Hagman standing out among the supporting players. Directed, surprisingly, by the classy Peter Yates.