Purely Joyful Movie!

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

...in a vehicle with no headlights.Here's the story. In a future time when the government won't let you own private modes of transportation, a former race car driver (Majors) who now has to give commercial lectures on just how great it is in a world with no cars, gets fed up, rebuilds his Porsche, and hits the long abandoned highways to reach "free" California.A film nowhere near as good as its wonderfully daft premise suggests, the problem with it is that you can tell it's just playing it way too safe. I'm not saying it had to turn into Death Race 3000 or anything, but there are parts where you can tell cuts have been made (the very brief glimpse at some kind of sex club) to get it a PG rating, and, besides one poor old man getting shot in the chest during a raid, the encounters with the government are handled in a pretty silly fashion.Still, the concept is fun as far as B films go, and when this does allow itself to just be what it wants to be (Major's barrel-chested macho rebel act in the first twenty minutes) it almost gets by.That Porche is a pretty lousy choice for a cross-country escape too as, again, it has no headlights, no storage compartments for food that I could see, and an open cockpit so he can freeze to death in the mountains.

Have seen this movie and think it's terrific! Here's what Laszlo Uriel "laszlo-laszlo" (San Francisco, CA USA) has to say about it. It sums up my thoughts as well.One has to wonder whether this movie was the inspiration for Al Gore's desire to ban internal combustion automobiles. In any case, this movie shows the kind asinine totalitarian regime Socialists seem to be trying harder and harder to turn the United States into. It gives us a taste of the sort of top-down, "obey the rules or else", brainwashing type of society we could find ourselves in if we're not careful.Having been 'convinced' over the years to submit to authority and preach the 'goodness' of the new oligarchical system compared to the 'badness' of the old individualistic system, Lee Majors' character, an ex-race car driver, find encouragement in a few short pirate television transmissions. "Radio Free California, calling America" inspires him to dig up and reassemble his hidden race car, and flee the defacto prison the east coast has become.In true neo-Democrat/Socialist style, he is ordered stopped at any cost, preferably by being killed. A single Vietnam War aircraft and its pilot (Burgess Merideth) are pulled out of mothballs and a bottle, respectively, for this task.Other means are also employed along the way to try and stop the car and its occupants, including a Stalin/Mao-esquire slaughter of a group of innocent people who took them in to give them medical care.Now in 2005, since California is literally going broke spearheading the Union away from individual rights and toward Socialism, the idea of "Radio Free California" returning to machines and to personal liberty takes quite a leap of faith, but it's a fun 3000 mile trip across the country nonetheless.As the story goes, the Social dystopia was able to take hold after a disease wipes out much of the population. Since the time the film came out, 1980, the likelihood of such massive devastation from disease has only increased. And never has the proverb "Power corrupts; Absolute power corrupts absolutely" been any truer than it is today.I don't agree for a second that the point of this movie was to encourage the worship of the internal combustion engine or petroleum products. But yes, in the case of Lee Majors' character and the race car, it was a gasoline engine that was the appropriate, if not the only tool capable of escaping tyranny.If this movie is one big ad for big oil companies, does that mean every movie about police who use firearms to help arrest evil-doers, or which shows someone defending their own life with a firearm, is just a big ad for Colt or Glock? Loners who are ticked off at the system trying to pound them into behaving like everyone else will like this movie. I loved this movie! But if you're into that whole "ride public transit or go to jail" thing, you'll only like the first 15 minutes of this movie...so have your Michael Moore tapes ready.

This was a staple of 1980s Canadian television, not because it's particularly good (though I like it), but because it was made with Canadian dollars. Thus allowing it to fit in with the country's strange (to non-Canadians anyway) Canadian Content broadcast regulations.Lee Majors takes time out inbetween his Six Million Dollar Man/Fall Guy gigs and races around the countryside near my neck of the woods, while Chris Makepeace blows the head off a statue real good and Burgess Meredith talks to his kite. All this, plus a decent supporting role from Harvey Atkin as the orgy-frequenting conformist co-worker who frowns upon Lee's free-thinking spirit. What's not to like?Adding to the enjoyment is playing the game of "spot the location" and comparing places I've been to to how they're shown in the movie. The sight of dozens of extras bicycling around the Yorkdale shopping centre on their way towards a big clean Utopian bubble city (or a matte painting of it, anyway) always raises a smile.Avoid the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of this, it's really not funny, although the last line "aw, no wonder it sucks, it's Canadian!" is a good one.

First of all, it has a great score by Gil Melle. He did cool synthesizer stuff with stuff like The Questor Tapes and Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and he doesn't disapppoint here. Even at the dullest moments, you can count on the score to give you a jolt or two.The main problem is that everything in this movie is just...slightly off-key. Give it a better actor than Lee Majors as the "hero," and a better old fogey/jetfighter than hammy Burgess Meredith, and do a little more than just rehash Farenheit 451 with gas instead of books, and this might have worked. Chris Makepeace is okay (although the juvie bad boy/computer hacker stereotype was already overdone by '81), and the plane vs. car action sequences aren't too badly done.*shrug* I liked it. It wasn't better than Cats, but otherwise it works for me.