Very Cool!!!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

This is one of those cases where I honestly wonder if I and all the positive reviewers saw the same movie. This is no hidden gem, more like the rightfully buried turd that it is. It's a coming of age road story that can't decide whether to be edgy in order to appeal to its college-aged targets, or a juvenile fairy tale to bank on the childhood nostalgia of same. It fails in both regards. On top of that, any sort of "life lessons" and moralizing it offers are so cliche'd, trite and shambling that it borders on insulting the viewer. This is a DVD that will end up under the Christmas tree of college-aged kids whose parents are extremely out of touch. Look for it a thrift store or Walmart clearance bin near you.

Tolbert tells two young men about American mythological figure O.W. Grant (Gary Oldman) who fulfills wishes if he so pleases. He met him on Interstate 60 although the young men can't find such a highway. In St. Louis, Neal Oliver (James Marsden) is turning 22. He's not that passionate with his girlfriend Sally. His art is going nowhere. He obsessively draws an unknown girl (Amy Smart). His father gets him a law school scholarship and a car which he resents. O.W. witnesses him blowing out his birthday candles and uses his magic monkey pipe on Neal. Strange things start to happen and mysterious Ray (Christopher Lloyd) sends Neal on a delivery.The idea is OK but it isn't anything extra-ordinary. Bob Gale's big claim to fame is writing the Back to the Future movies with Robert Zemeckis. The problem is that he hasn't directed much and it shows. This movie really needs cinematic magic to bring out the story's theme. It doesn't have it. It's a long random road trip of somewhat disjointed episodes. It's not magical enough.

Interstate 60 is the best quirky, philosophical road movie you've never heard of. It beats me how a script this tantalizingly good, with a cast so prolific, went so far under everyone's radar. It's made with a karmic, phantom tollbooth-esque sensibility, like if Alice In Wonderland and The Big Empty had a baby, and it was made by the same guys who did Back To The Future. The script is simply a wonder to behold, and I was amazed to find it wasn't based on some best selling book by Richard Linklater or someone. James Marsden plays a guy on the seemingly perfect track. With career lined, a nice girl and everything. Until fate deals him a mysterious hand, and he's prompted to take a trip down 'Interstate 60', a road which doesn't appear on any maps, and seems to not exist at all. He's puzzled to find himself on it anyway though, in a trippy dream of a voyage which puts him face to face with all sorts of outlandish characters, including genie like gentleman O.W. Grant (Gary Oldman having oodles of fun), a serial killer, a police captain of a town addicted to a really strange drug (Kurt Russell), a clairvoyant doctor (Christopher Lloyd), and eventually the elusive girl of his dreams (Amy Smart, unbelievably cute). The trip is meant to teach him something about himself, and through journeying a road that isn't really there, find one that right for him, and will give him the benefits of life in their fullest. For all the colourful, kooky trappings the film is dressed in, and even though the intelligent banter is delivered light heartedly, its actually serious minded stuff that begs attentiveness and contemplation from its audience. There's a surreality to it of course, a certain detachment, but the exchanges of characters couldn't be more grounded in our reality, and more human. There's a cameo from Michael J. Fox, and career best from Chris Cooper as well in a one of the many spot on sequences that show off the film's writing. This ones the definition of a hidden gem, just this side of normal, with a delicious cast that delves into the various concepts they chat about with willing interest, comic deft and an infectiously fun sense of the absurd.

In "Interstate 60", a young man unknowingly undertakes a quest to find himself. Thinking that he is delivering a package under the most bizarre of circumstances, on a journey during which he may literally find the girl of his dreams, he faces a series of challenges that will define his character and his future.Along the way we may, or may not encounter God, a variation on a leprechaun, a mysterious set of billboards, a town with nothing but lawyers, and a dying ad man with an abhorrence of lies ... among other interesting characters and situations."Interstate 60" is not fast paced, but it is a delightful and interesting exploration of the measure of its hero, a budding artist whose father would prefer follow his footsteps into practicing law. However, even this common sort of plot conflict is not overblown with high drama.The plot, characters, and circumstances are thoughtful at the same time as they are entertaining. This movie will not be to every one's taste, but it is certainly worth a look.