Classic Road Race Comedy

critic_at_large

Somehow this movie came and went on DVD and I missed out.   My loss.

This is one of the great outlaw road race comedies - better than Cannonball

Run, better than most of the Smokey and the Bandit movies.  Time-warp

yourself back to America in 1976 with its national 55 mile-per-hour speed

limit and a recent history of gas rationing, and you will better appreciate

the spirit of this film.  The incomparable Raul Julia is superb as the ringer Italian race car driver hired to win for the Ferrari team. Norman Burton

defines for generations the frustrated cop role in this film, and a youthful

Garey Busey tears up the screen as a rebel hick in a Camaro.  I still get a

chill when I see the Cobra and Ferrari tearing down the Long Beach flood

control channels with no speed limits, lots of water and smooth concrete,

and the California sun shining down, and I still can't visit the Queen Mary

without seeing the Gumball Rally finish line and the lovely young insurance

policy hired by Michael Sarrizin.  Mindless fun, but like a Sunday drive up

the coast, well-worth the trip.  And if you find an extra copy of the DVD,

please send it my way!!!

score /10

critic_at_large 24 August 2002

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0147544/