Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

In 2015 - remember when - the US government outlawed gasoline, only allowing the elite, the military and law enforcement to use it. No one is allowed to own or use a car and those who go against the law are called Burners, who are policed by the DVC (the Department of Vehicle Control).Red (Darren McGavin, Carl Kolchak himself) is a Burner who loves his 1980 Trans Am. His son, Cameron, has no interest in cars and continually gets upset at his father for breaking the law.Another Burner is working with a Senator to make civilian use of cars legal again, but as he's on his way, a DVC squad led by McBain (Doug McClure, SST: Death Flight, TV's The Virginian) intercepts him. Dolan, one of the crazier DVC members, blows the guy up with a grenade launcher. Shana, another team member, is upset about this and how the matter has been handled.Red keeps trying to get Cameron into cars, including having him watch a race between him and Indy, a Burner who races a Mustang. But Cameron is more into Indy's daughter Jill, who shows him how to drive a dune buggy. While the two older men race, they run afoul of the DVC.Cameron and Jill have better plans - they go to a barn to have sex. Of course, the DVC attack them, kicking Cameron's wimpy ass and stealing Jill. It's up to the two Burners to save her.Shana helps them out and Cameron and Jill use Red's Firebird to drive the Senator to the meeting while Red gets to know Shana better.Is it a coincidence that this Canadian movie - and the Canadian band Rush in the song "Red Barchetta" - both created a world where racing cars were illegal?This movie never gets as good as the poster. Or as what it should be about. That said, Darren McGavin does this material a favor and seems like he's having fun. It's an interesting concept and I wish it had been better, but there you go. As Orange Goblin says, "Some you win. Some you lose."

I am not someone who usually puts in bad reviews unless something is so bad that a bad review is really needed, and this is one of those cases.Especially when it had so much potential to be a good movie, it literally had every possible chance to be an awesome post-apocalyptic Mad Max style movie, but it just failed all of that in every possible way that it is possible to fail in.Let me explain....So the story is that the US government has outlawed gasoline burning vehicles , and "Rebels" (Called Burners) are still driving gasoline powered cars in the desert, so the government has deployed a police force that uses gasoline powered motorcycles to chase hunt these Rebels.See what I mean, sounds like something with great potential, right?Well, lets go over what the movie actually is...First of all, it is categorised as a SCI-Fi Action movie....and it is not..period.Other than taking place in the "Future" of 2015, there's nothing remotely scifi about this movie. the whole movie takes place in a desert with 80s motorbikes chasing 70s / 80s cars, even the weapons used in the movie are all regular M16s and other standard weapons for the early 80s. Anyway, but then there's the actual storyline in the movie....the "Burners" seem to drive illegally all to deliver a carburetor....yeah seriously...but okay, fair enough in this set gasoline car parts might scarce and can have a significant value to the right buyer, so we will let this one go.But on top of this they also seem to bet each other to drive around in the patrolled desert where they are getting shot at by the "Special police force" deployed to hunt them down...all which seem to be just for fun...But then there's this "Special police force"....their police station is a tent, and for some reason there's one of them whos a native American guy who does all sorts of weird stuff almost like he is on drugs, and there's even one scene where one of them shoots at the other ones head while that person is approaching on a motorcycle ....all just for fun.....like picture two police officers shooting at each other with live rounds "Just for fun"?...Okay and then there's this "Love story" between the son of one of the Burners and some burner chick.yeah, it's all just one big mess...and it just feels like everything is fun and jokes to them, none of them seems to be serious about their what's going on.And then there's the acting, it's all most like none of the actors even understands their own roles or the story of the movie, it's kind of hard to describe if you haven't seen the movie. But every dialogue between the actors sounds scripted and they it's almost like they are being told what to do as they are being filmed, so you see a lot of scenes where they have a look in their face like they don't even know what the next scene will be, I am not even exaggerating on this.But even the action in the movie, are so poorly done and all looks so staged. There's one scene where the native American police officer guy; shoots at a crashed mustang with a grenade launcher, and the guy taking cover behind the car doesn't really seem to be bothered by the grenades exploding right next to him, on top of this the native American officer is standing upright and yelling in the complete open while being shot at being shot at by the guy hiding behind the car, all of this really just makes the whole scene feel like it's just a bunch of random scenes they cut and pasted together.And it's the same in other scenes where the they are trying to block the road and shooting at the cars trying to get by.All of which makes the action scenes really confusing to watch.Again, it's literally everything they had the chance to do right, they did wrong.Honestly, don't even bother watching this movie, it is not even entertaining or even so bad that it is "Fun to watch"...there's literally nothing going for this movie at all. it just leaves you with the feeling of just being annoyed that you even bothered to watch it in the first place.It really should never have been made.

Full disclosure: I watched this movie because I saw it on "The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made" DVD, so I was looking for a bad movie. I was hoping for some campy, 70s/80s post-apocalyptic fun, like Warriors of the Wasteland, or numerous other low budget movies from around the same time. This thing, however, was not bad in a fun way, but bad in a horrible and boring way. So, if you're looking for "so bad it's good", this is not the movie you seek.You get the basic idea: it's the distant future (of 2015), and gas burning cars have been outlawed. This was supposedly done because there was a fuel shortage, but of course it was really just a way for the Evil Government to control the people. These laws are enforced by the "Department of Vehicular Control" or DVC, and they're resisted by a colorful cast of characters who live in the desert and conserve gas by driving the the lowest mileage cars possible. They're not trying to start a revolution or anything, just driving around in the desert having fun. They're called "burners", which is actually the most interesting thing in the movie. I really think they might have come up with that name and then tried (unsuccessfully) to write a movie around it. The DVC are roughly as good at their jobs as the stormtroopers in Star Wars. The burners drive around in broad daylight through the open desert, surrounded by hills, kicking up clouds of dust that could be seen for miles, and talking on CB radios, but the DVC still seems to only find them by complete accident. Also, like the stormtroopers, they can't hit the broad side of a barn with their guns.Doug McClure is the head of the local DVC patrol. He's conflicted about his job and trying in vain to control his subordinates, who have a tendency to get get all murderous and rapey when left to their own devices.The burners aren't really organized, but they all defer to Red, played by Darren McGavin, who owns the eponymous vehicle. He lives in a secret location, which appears to be the only building for miles around, but of course the DVC is unable to find it. The action of the movie is precipitated by the arrival of his estranged son, Cam - played by an actor desperately trying to hide his English accent. That's basically the plot. It's not a spoiler to tell you there are plenty of pointless (and not very exciting) car chases and explosions, and not to expect too much of a payoff at the ending. In fact, it doesn't so much "end" as get to 90 minutes and stop. Perhaps the only amusing thing are their attempts to titillate the audience without losing their PG rating. There's the randy girl-burner, Jill, who has to work ridiculously hard to seduce the clueless Cam. This culminates in a millisecond long topless shot (don't blink or you'll miss it). There's also a weird scene where a female DVC agent takes a very sensual shower - fully clothed! Probably the worst thing about the movie is the soundtrack - a bunch of terrible songs written just for this. I had to turn the sound down every time one started playing. Speaking of music, here's a little bit of trivia: this movie came out the same year Rush released Red Barchetta, which has basically the same theme. Red Barchetta is much better, and of course rock songs don't have to make sense.

A severe gas shortage in the near future forces the government to ban the use of automobiles altogether and make the act of driving one a punishable capitol offense. However, a feisty pocket of rebellious gear-jamming metalhead race car enthusiasts called "burners" obstinately refuse to knuckle under Uncle Sam's oppressive reign, hording what little precious gas is left and happily tearin' their souped-up cars across the desolate desert terrain. Crusty ace driver Red (the always exuberant Darren McGavin, carrying on with greater flair and verve than the sub-par material deserves) and rascally fellow old-timer Indie (the solid George Touliatos) are two such guys, whooping it up as they constantly elude getting nabbed by a band of hard-nosed police officers who are very eager to nail their annoyingly evasive hides.While the premise -- basically a science fiction version of a Burt Reynolds-style good ol' boy outrunning the pigs car chase romp -- has promise, it's fatally ruined by David M. Robertson's limp'n'lifeless (non)direction and a paltry, insufficiently thought-out bare-bones script. Moreover, the futuristic setting is depicted with a critical lack of conviction: there are no special effects to speak of, the cars look plain and antiquated, and the spartan costume designs are simply pathetic. Worse yet, the fuzzball baddies led by a sleepwalking Doug McClure are hopelessly colorless and nonthreatening; only a murderously crazed Native American nutcase trooper (outrageously overplayed by Alex Diakun) radiates any necessary sense of genuine menace. The redneck protagonists are equally insipid and unprepossessing; the picture's already slack pace screeches to a dead halt during the excruciatingly blah romantic courtship scenes between Red's wimpy estranged son Cameron (the gratingly whiny Robert Charles Wisden) and Indie's fiery foxy daughter Jill (vivaciously essayed by cute brunette hottie Mary Beth Rubens). But the movie's grossest, most egregious and unforgivable blunders have got to be the copious, but poorly staged and thus unexciting car race sequences and a gruelingly tedious surplus of hideously banal dialogue (sample line: "Keep your pedal down and your sunny side up"). So, despite some good acting and nice photography, this worthless rusty clunker overall sadly remains in teeth-gnashing neutral from the dreary start right on down to the spiritless finish.