Sometimes I should maybe listen to other people's opinions. IMDb reviewer "croc (DRM) from United Kingdom" gave this an extremely negative review stating that he was excruciatingly bored by it but in his description he said it was dominated by "lengthy car (and the odd motorcycle and plane) chases in which a whole load of cars crash, burn, fly up in the air and roll over a few times.". Wow, I thought "This sounds like my kind of movie". I love car chase films and if it is dominated by car chases and filmed in picturesque Arizona and Nevada I thought "How bad could it really be?" so when I saw it cheap I decided to give it a try.
So after viewing the film how bad was it? Insanely, incredibly, unbelievably bad. As bad as your mind will be able to comprehend. Fortunately though, it's so incompetent in all areas that after a while I couldn't look away and I actually laughed pretty hard on several occasions. It's not the best example of a film that's "so bad it's good" but it's worth a shot if you like torturing yourself with some of the worst crap ever produced.
The plot involves a mob couple who have split, played by John Philip Law and Britt Ekland. When the wife (Britt Ekland) is granted custody of their young son, the bitter husband (John Philip Law) sends a team to "kidnap" him and take him back. The wife then hires some alcoholic down and out friend to track down and bring the kid back. He accomplishes this with great success, taking some female employee of John Philip Law hostage with him. The rest of the film involves them getting chased by the mobster's goons (by plane, usually) and a dozen police cars.
The first car chase is composed entirely of about 40% stock footage from some other film, another 40% is cops talking about the chase over their radios in cars and helicopters with only static white voids visible out their windows and the other 20% is taken up by an astonishingly bad actor making pained expressions while turning the steering wheel of a static vehicle. There is zero continuity in the chase footage. They don't even have a car which matches the one used in the stock footage because you never even see the characters enter or exit the vehicle. In fact, there is not a single attempt to make it look like they were really there. In many shots you can see there is one driver and no passenger in the car, but we are meant to believe there are 2 passengers. I don't know what film the chase footage is from, but judging by the cars I would guess it's mid 1970's, not 1989 when this film was made. It's filmed in rolling farmland which could be virtually anywhere in the United States EXCEPT the desert in the South West, where this is supposed to take place. We are supposed to believe it's just outside Las Vegas.
Along the line there are, double crosses, the husband and wife manage to shoot each other dead, the boy decides that neither of his parents really love him and that the guy hired to return him to his mother and his female hostage would make better parents, who conveniently happen to fall in love with each other. More chase scenes composed of stock footage which completely ignore any form of continuity ensue. The pre-teen son steals a motorcycle at one point and there's a lengthy bike chase where it's clearly visible that an adult is riding it. John Philip Law's character gives narration, even after his death. The bad guys manage to find the good guys no matter where they go because "nobody can hide for too long in the desert". Given the sheer size of the desert in the American Southwest and all the mountain ranges, I somehow think it would be just a little harder than that.
As for the acting, it's all appalling. I find it hard to pick a central character because there really isn't any. Britt Ekland and John Philip Law do nothing but sit around and never leave the one location. The three who get the most screen time are Roy Summerset, Joanne Watkins and Chance Michael Corbitt (the kid). They are all dire, but the scary thing is that the kid is probably the least irritating of the three which is an amazement. Roy Summerset and Joanne Watkins have very little other acting credits to their resume which hardly came as a surprise, they have the acting talent of your average joe randomly picked up off the street. Summerset's pained expressions while turning the steering wheel of a static car are priceless While it's not the best example of a "so bad it's good" film, it's so incompetent in every area that if you watch it with some friends and some beers you'll have a hell of a good time poking fun at it. If you see it cheap, hell why not just buy it? It's poorly written, poorly directed, poorly acted and amateurish in every way.
So after viewing the film how bad was it? Insanely, incredibly, unbelievably bad. As bad as your mind will be able to comprehend. Fortunately though, it's so incompetent in all areas that after a while I couldn't look away and I actually laughed pretty hard on several occasions. It's not the best example of a film that's "so bad it's good" but it's worth a shot if you like torturing yourself with some of the worst crap ever produced.
The plot involves a mob couple who have split, played by John Philip Law and Britt Ekland. When the wife (Britt Ekland) is granted custody of their young son, the bitter husband (John Philip Law) sends a team to "kidnap" him and take him back. The wife then hires some alcoholic down and out friend to track down and bring the kid back. He accomplishes this with great success, taking some female employee of John Philip Law hostage with him. The rest of the film involves them getting chased by the mobster's goons (by plane, usually) and a dozen police cars.
The first car chase is composed entirely of about 40% stock footage from some other film, another 40% is cops talking about the chase over their radios in cars and helicopters with only static white voids visible out their windows and the other 20% is taken up by an astonishingly bad actor making pained expressions while turning the steering wheel of a static vehicle. There is zero continuity in the chase footage. They don't even have a car which matches the one used in the stock footage because you never even see the characters enter or exit the vehicle. In fact, there is not a single attempt to make it look like they were really there. In many shots you can see there is one driver and no passenger in the car, but we are meant to believe there are 2 passengers. I don't know what film the chase footage is from, but judging by the cars I would guess it's mid 1970's, not 1989 when this film was made. It's filmed in rolling farmland which could be virtually anywhere in the United States EXCEPT the desert in the South West, where this is supposed to take place. We are supposed to believe it's just outside Las Vegas.
Along the line there are, double crosses, the husband and wife manage to shoot each other dead, the boy decides that neither of his parents really love him and that the guy hired to return him to his mother and his female hostage would make better parents, who conveniently happen to fall in love with each other. More chase scenes composed of stock footage which completely ignore any form of continuity ensue. The pre-teen son steals a motorcycle at one point and there's a lengthy bike chase where it's clearly visible that an adult is riding it. John Philip Law's character gives narration, even after his death. The bad guys manage to find the good guys no matter where they go because "nobody can hide for too long in the desert". Given the sheer size of the desert in the American Southwest and all the mountain ranges, I somehow think it would be just a little harder than that.
As for the acting, it's all appalling. I find it hard to pick a central character because there really isn't any. Britt Ekland and John Philip Law do nothing but sit around and never leave the one location. The three who get the most screen time are Roy Summerset, Joanne Watkins and Chance Michael Corbitt (the kid). They are all dire, but the scary thing is that the kid is probably the least irritating of the three which is an amazement. Roy Summerset and Joanne Watkins have very little other acting credits to their resume which hardly came as a surprise, they have the acting talent of your average joe randomly picked up off the street. Summerset's pained expressions while turning the steering wheel of a static car are priceless While it's not the best example of a "so bad it's good" film, it's so incompetent in every area that if you watch it with some friends and some beers you'll have a hell of a good time poking fun at it. If you see it cheap, hell why not just buy it? It's poorly written, poorly directed, poorly acted and amateurish in every way.