Ill-advised starring vehicle for the king of motorcycle jumping, Evel Knievel. It's pretty campy, and can occasionally be amusing. But overall it's quite the bore. Evel Knievel is hired to do a jump in Mexico, and his promoter, Leslie Nielsen, plans on getting him killed so he can smuggle a boatload of cocaine into the US in Evel's coffin (which he assumes the border guards will be too respectful to ransack). There's almost no action until the last 20 minutes. At least the action at that point is decent (though apparently Evel was forced to use a stuntman to perform most of the riding). To classics fans, the film is probably more notable because it contains the penultimate performance by Gene Kelly (Red Buttons is also in it). His final performance was in Xanadu. Viva Knievel! is the only film Kelly appeared in which is even more lowly rated than Xanadu. Actually, much of the plot revolves around Kelly, as the son whom he sent off to be raised elsewhere is reunited with him. Kelly kind of ignores the boy because his wife died in childbirth, but Evel eventually sets him straight. There's also a romantic subplot involving a feminist photographer, Lauren Hutton, who is sent to photograph Evel's "last jump". Of course she ends up falling for the uber-masculine motorcyclist.
Review of Viva Knievel!
