I Saw a Film!

How long? Sixty seconds?

Sixty seconds? Is that all?

Gone in sixty seconds.

Like in under a minute?

Yup, sixty seconds is a minute.

So you’re saying these guys can take a car in under a minute?

Yeah, sixty seconds and it’s gone.

Whooeee that’s fast.

Yes, yes it is.

How long is the movie?

98 seconds.

wow, 98 cars stolen. Or is it 100 because they’re faster than a minute.

well, kinda.

Etc. . . .

This is a film wrapped around an excuse for a long, involved and surprisingly low impact car chase. There’s a Warren Beatty Look-alike insurance adjuster who also operates a car thieving business in which the identities of dead cars are swapped for the stolen ones. It is pointed out that if the police run the numbers that it’ll be obvious the car is a fraud, but the gamble is that there are so many cars in Southern California that it’s a low likelihood.

We get to see some cars stolen, real fast like, and then the feller gets a deal from some bad people to deliver a large number of fancy cars. One of them something called a Manta, never saw a Manta before. It kinda looks like a lady’s fancy shoe, but with a low heel. Totally impractical thing. Anyway, they collect up all these Rolls Royce and other fancy limos and such, but the one tricky car is the one they call Eleanor which is actually just a Mustang (which, has a large fetish group).

So, then we get the long-ass, and very famous car chase sequence, which must have been a real pain in the ass to film. There are a number of near-miss accidents and several false Gotcha moments, one happens in a caddy dealership, just when you think there can’t be a way out, the thief manages a surprise exit. The sequence is finished with a fun twist, so I won’t give it away. I just noticed that this film title is on a newer version with Nick Cage, I may have to check that out to see if they did a good job. One of the hilarities is a car full of low-rider kids smoking and drinking and saying “Maaaaan, pass the joint.” over and over, who witness much of the action.

Since this film is a kind of labor of love, a project of the director Halicki and friends, it’s a sort of special movie. That they managed to get all this done on the cheap is fairly impressive, even if the film doesn’t quite satisfy in the pay-off.

This is running free on prime (usa).