A brilliant film that helped define a genre

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Headstrong rich gal Paula Powers (a winningly spunky portrayal by the fetching Nancy Morgan) steals the family Rolls Royce and heads off to Las Vegas to marry her amiable working class boyfriend Sam Freeman (a likable turn by Ron Howard, who also made his directorial debut with this film). A motley slew of folks give chase. Director Howard, who also co-wrote the simple script with his dad Rance, tells the entertaining story at a zippy pace, maintains an engaging light-hearted and good-natured tone throughout, and stages the assorted wild'n'wacky vehicular carnage with considerable go-for-it brio. Moreover, this picture benefits tremendously from being so straightforward and unpretentious: After a few initial minutes of basic plot set-up, the rest is essentially one lengthy car chase that culminates in one hysterical doozy of a demolition derby climax. Better yet, the enthusiastic cast attack the material with infectious aplomb, with especially energetic contributions from Marion Ross as the disapproving Vivian Hedgeworth, Peter Isacksen and Clint Howard as a pair of loony hot-rodders, Rance Howard as no-no0nsense private eye Ned Slinker, Paul Linke as pompous preppy Collins, Don Steele as obnoxious disc jockey Curly Q. Brown, and Barry Cahill as huffy millionaire Bigby Powers. The jaunty score by Peter Ivers hits the stirring spot. The always dependable Gary Graver does his usual ace job with the glossy cinematography. An immensely fun flick.

The Howard brothers, Ron & Rance got together to write this film. The script is not great, but the direction is solid. What holds this film together is the crashes and the direction. Plot wise, at least it has a plot, but it gets a little wild at times.Amazing Howards direction is good enough here that for his first film it comes out OK. Ron & his girlfriend are running off to get married in spite of both their parents objections. Her family is rich, while Ron's TV mom (Marion Ross) is just against the whole thing. The theme here is the classic chase movie which has sold many tickets.For a comparison, think Smokey & the Bandit, the first one. Now if this film had the great music soundtrack as the Bandit had, it might have been held just as good. The difference here is not just Jerry Reed, though. It is the character development too. You get the feeling fairly late in the film that some of the characters including Ron & the girlfriends own are just getting developed. In the Bandit film, the characters get developed stronger and earlier in the film.As far as direction, Howard is already close to Hal Needham here. He just isn't quite there yet. Still, this film shows me enough that I am glad Howard is behind the camera as his later films prove that this launching pad effort showed his promise.

Nutty, non stop laughfest depicting 2 idealistic, love struck teens determined to make it to Vegas to be wed against the wishes of the bride's parents. This sets off a huge manhunt for the pair by any and every breed of looney, each intent on cashing in on the 25K reward. Never have I seen this many wrecks; dozens and dozens, maybe more. Kooky comedy at it's best.

Forget Smokey and the Bandit, check out Grand Theft Auto if you want a car-chase movie in the comedy genre! This was also Ron Howard's directorial debut. And everyone knows him as Opie from The Andy Griffith Show, and Richie from Happy Days. It's about these teenagers who go joyriding in stolen cars, and they get into the most deliriously funny situations anyone could imagine in a car-chase movie!I don't care if this movie didn't get any good reviews or if it wasn't considered 'cool', but hey, after all it was Ron Howard's first movie he ever produced. The movie may have lowbrow humor, but it's still an awesome movie worth watching! I saw this movie for the first time when I was a preteen, and to this day I still find it to be outrageously funny! If you're in the mood for a serious car-chase movie, rent something like Bullitt or The French Connection. If you want to see a funny one, rent this movie! IMHO, I think it's the funniest movie of 1977!