A motley collection of petrolheads compete in an illegal trans-America coast-to-coast car race from Santa Monica in California to downtown New York City.
This movie is stupid, completely irresponsible, has no redeeming qualities and is terrific fun. It's also probably the definitive seventies Roger Corman / New World Pictures cult classic (although Death Race 2000 is more famous), featuring virtually every cult actor and director who ever worked for the great Corman (and later for Joe Dante) in its large cast. Everyone is terrific in it, though my favourites are the elder Carradine, Miller, the adorably cute Balaski, and Woronov. Keach has a hilarious bit as a professional German racer with a Von Richthofen accent, Arkush and Dante are equally funny as a couple of goofs who lend Carradine their car, and Scorsese and an unbilled Stallone have cameos as two mafia hoods. There really isn't much to say about the movie except that if you like B-movie stars, nutty stunts, fights, bad jokes and girls in nurses' outfits (all of which I do), this is the film for you. Written by Bartel and Simpson, along with The Gumball Rally it kicked off the spate of big studio road-racer movies (most of which were made by Hal Needham). Featuring great guerilla-style hand-held photography by Tak Fujimoto, high-octane stuntwork by Alan Gibbs, some very bad songs by David Axelrod, Bartel and Graham, and lots of corvettes, pontiacs, mustangs, lincolns and caddies. In the UK, this was given the stupid alternative title of Carquake.
This movie is stupid, completely irresponsible, has no redeeming qualities and is terrific fun. It's also probably the definitive seventies Roger Corman / New World Pictures cult classic (although Death Race 2000 is more famous), featuring virtually every cult actor and director who ever worked for the great Corman (and later for Joe Dante) in its large cast. Everyone is terrific in it, though my favourites are the elder Carradine, Miller, the adorably cute Balaski, and Woronov. Keach has a hilarious bit as a professional German racer with a Von Richthofen accent, Arkush and Dante are equally funny as a couple of goofs who lend Carradine their car, and Scorsese and an unbilled Stallone have cameos as two mafia hoods. There really isn't much to say about the movie except that if you like B-movie stars, nutty stunts, fights, bad jokes and girls in nurses' outfits (all of which I do), this is the film for you. Written by Bartel and Simpson, along with The Gumball Rally it kicked off the spate of big studio road-racer movies (most of which were made by Hal Needham). Featuring great guerilla-style hand-held photography by Tak Fujimoto, high-octane stuntwork by Alan Gibbs, some very bad songs by David Axelrod, Bartel and Graham, and lots of corvettes, pontiacs, mustangs, lincolns and caddies. In the UK, this was given the stupid alternative title of Carquake.