Reviews
Knight Rider 2010 (1994)
Post-Apocalypse Action, little resemblance to the original "Knight Rider" series
If you think this is going to be an even higher-tech version of the original "Knight Rider" series, um, don't hold your breath. It's still got the "young loner on a crusade" but it's not Hasselhoff, and our hero doesn't even OWN a car until the middle of the movie. Turns out, it's an old, junked-out Ford Mustang instead of the sleek Pontiac Firebird you would expect. There's some mention of an "interface" that looks like a crystalline artichoke (maybe they rescued it from "Cat from Outer Space") that somehow allows the spirit of a young girl to reside in the car. Hrmmm... well, if computers are pretty scarce, I suppose we could go the fantasy-mystical route. But there are better post-apocalypse vehicle films out there -- see "Damnation Alley" or any of the "Mad Max" films if you're into this sort of thing.
This was part of the "Action Pack" series of pilot films, including "TekWar", "Team Knight Rider", and the original episodes of "Hercules". This one didn't measure up, and never got further than a pilot episode.
The Wraith (1986)
See it for the car, try not to groan at the acting TOO much.
Acting: Rather blah, Charlie Sheen probably wishes he never made the movie, but as Brat Pack movies go it's alright. Cassavetes actually comes across well as a deranged and jealous nasty, as does Dave Sherrill (Skank) as a seriously tripped out Thug Number One (you won't believe the variety of substances he attempts to abuse in this flick!) Clint Howard is as usual typecast as the 'nerd' though; he tries, but the role just didn't give him much room. Everyone else (including Quaid) was strictly in it for the money on this one.
Vehicles: Oh yeah! The Dodge PPG Turbo Interceptor (value around $5 mil, give or take a few thousand) plus a whole bevy of souped up musclecars, are the whole reason for seeing this flick in the first place. Apparently during filming Dodge supplied their own security for the PPG, as they did NOT want so much as a scratch on it. Hard to do when everything else on wheels is getting turned into scrap... but they managed it.
Locations: Very good. Filmed entirely on location in the American Sonoran Desert. The Tucson Arizona area really gets to show off in some of the action shots and the "mushy scenes".
Stunts: They're okay. The car crashes are fairly good considering what's supposed to be happening, but somehow they look like cars soaked in gasoline and pushed off cliffs. The race scenes, however, are top rate due to the close-in camera work. Fights are ho-hum, only one cool explosion in the whole movie (not at the end either).
Special Effects: sorta-kinda. The UFO and atmospheric effects are cool the first time around, but they get old if you've seen "Close Encounters" or any X-Files episode. The juiced-up Interceptor engine is a trip.
Weapons: The cars. Nothing else comes close. The propmaster could have done a much better job with the Wraith's weapon (LED's on a twelve-gauge? give me a break!) given what he was driving and what he was wearing.
Raunch Rating: The violence level is a little intense for young viewers, and there's enough overt teenage sexuality here to keep it off TV unedited, but it's fairly tame except for the car crashes. Very little blood and guts, most of the "ook! bleah!" factor is from the (bad) dialogue and the plotline.
Black Moon Rising (1986)
Yet another 80's supercar movie, but the car doesn't take center stage in this one. Tommy Lee Jones does.
Ho hum, another 80's supercar movie... no wait, that's Tommy Lee Jones. And Linda Hamilton. And the car doesn't get all that much screen time! Wait, could this be a (gasp!) real movie? Yes!
The car (an aircraft-composite alternate-fuel vehicle named "Black Moon") doesn't get much in the way of road time, as it's the target of some ne-er-do-well car thieves early in the flick. But Tommy Lee's got to get something he dropped back... and it's in the car. And what's this? The car theft ringleader (Robert Vaughn) is a white-collar corporate type who's not about to just let it be driven away? Hrmm... this isn't sounding like our usual crash-em-up plot here. Lots of intrigue, quite a bit of steamy interaction between Jones and Hamilton, and some wonderful stuntwork (including jumping a car from one skyscraper to another). Definitely worth a couple of bucks at the video store for a few nights.
Damnation Alley (1977)
One of the original post-nuke odyssey flicks
Good points: 1) The opening sequence (supposedly within the bowels of a secret military base) is one of the most frightening nuclear war sequences filmed. 2) The "Landmaster" vehicles are the ultimate in monster trucks. Imagine, an armored RV that can climb over rocky terrain, dodge killer storms and overgrown insects at 60+MPH, and is amphibious... oh yes, and you can use parts from any junkyard to fix it, too. 3) The weather effects were unbelievable for when it was filmed (1977 -- no computers were injured in the making of this film!) and would be hard to duplicate today unless Industrial Light and Magic took a shine to the project. 4) Jan-Micheal Vincent has his eyes open, and George Peppard was still in his pre-"A-Team" form.
But seriously, this is one of the better sci-fi "survivors versus the world" movies. The book outlined the cataclysmic weather as part of a "freak shift in the jet stream" but I think the nuclear war premise is more likely to kick the earth off its axis. Add to that overgrown scorpions, carnivorous cockroaches, and more than a few wildly desperate (dare we say "cannibalistic"?) survivors, and the journey from western desert to midwest town becomes much like Odysseus's ten-year trek home from the wars.
Now, if someone would only resurrect the Landmaster for a truck show, I'd be happy.