American Graffiti
– Here’s how critic Roger Ebert described the unique and lasting value of George Lucas’s 1973 box-office hit, American Graffiti: “It’s not only a great movie but a brilliant work of historical fiction; no sociological treatise could duplicate the movie’s success in remembering exactly how it was to be alive at that cultural instant.” The time to which Ebert and the film refers is the summer of 1962, and American Graffiti captures the look, feel, and sound of that era by chronicling one memorable night in the lives of several young Californians on the cusp of adulthood. (In essence, Lucas was making a semiautobiographical tribute to his own days as a hot-rod cruiser, and the film’s phenomenal success paved the way for Star Wars.) The action is propelled by the music of Wolfman Jack’s rock & roll radio show–a soundtrack of pop hits that would become as popular as the film itself. As Lucas develops several character subplots, American Graffiti becomes a flawless time capsule of meticulously re-created memory, as authentic as a documentary and vividly realized through innovative use of cinematography and sound. The once-in-a-lifetime ensemble cast members inhabit their roles so fully that they don’t seem like actors at all, comprising a who’s who of performers–some of whom went on to stellar careers–including Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, and Paul Le Mat. A true American classic, the film ranks No. 77 on the American Film Institute’s list of all-time greatest American movies.
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (Supercharger Edition)
– Susan George (Straw Dogs) is ex-groupie Mary and Peter Fonda (Easy Rider) is wannabe-NASCAR driver Larry. They’re thieves on the run from sheriff Vic Morrow (The Blackboard Jungle), who carries neither gun nor badge. According to director John Hough (The Legend of Hell House), his white trash cult classic was “an action picture with a lot of stunts.” That about sums it up. The Tarantino favorite is slim on character development, but overstuffed with automobile-oriented action (most revolving around a 1969 Dodge Charger). Notable stunts include a game of chicken with a couple of 18-wheelers, a low-flying helicopter chase, and a death-defying leap over a moving bridge (Speed would up the ante with a bus). Adapted from the novel The Chase, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry also has one shocker of an ending. Adam Roarke, as levelheaded mechanic Deke, and an uncredited Roddy McDowall, as supermarket manager George, provide solid support.
Smokey and the Bandit – Special Edition
– It’s easy to assume this is just another dumb redneck comedy from Burt Reynolds’s years of underachievement. But it’s not bad as a dumb redneck comedy at all. Directed by career stuntman Hal Needham, Smokey and the Bandit is just a goofy chase starring a bunch of Reynolds’s Hollywood cronies. New to the job as film boss, Needham brings a silly but energized sensibility to the production and an action man’s need to see things moving. But he also has a distinctive feeling for relationships, and he’s good with a joke. Put all that together, and Smokey is, at the very least (and unlike its sequels), a simple and original pleasure.
The French Connection
– William Friedkin’s classic policier was propelled to box-office glory, and a fistful of Oscars, in 1972 by its pedal-to-the-metal filmmaking and fashionably cynical attitude toward law enforcement. Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle, a brutally pushy New York City narcotics detective, is a dauntless crime fighter and Vietnam-era “pig,” a reckless vulgarian whose antics get innocent people killed. Loosely based upon an actual investigation that led to what was then the biggest heroin seizure in U.S. history, the picture traces the efforts of Doyle and his partner (Roy Scheider) to close the pipeline pumping Middle Eastern smack into the States through the French port of Marseilles. (The actual French Connection cops, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, make cameo appearances.) It was widely recognized at the time that Friedkin had lifted a lot of his high-strung technique from the Costa-Gavras thrillers The Sleeping Car Murders and Z–he even imported one of Costa-Gavras’s favorite thugs, Marcel Bozzuffi, to play the Euro-trash hit man plugged by Doyle in an elevated train station. There was an impressive official sequel in 1975, French Connection II, directed by John Frankenheimer, which took Popeye to the south of France and got him hooked on horse. A couple of semi-official spinoffs followed, The Seven-Ups, which elevated Scheider to the leading role, and Badge 373, with Robert Duvall stepping in as the pugnacious flatfoot.
Mad Max (Special Edition)
– Setting Mel Gibson on a sure path to superstardom, this highly acclaimed “crazy collide-o-scope”(Newsweek) of highway mayhem “cinematically defined the postapocalyptic landscape” (TV Guide). Featuring eye-popping stunts that are “electrifying and very convincing” (Variety) and “an authentically nihilistic spirit” (The Village Voice), Mad Max is “pure cinematic poetry” (Time). In the ravaged near future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face ofa police force hell-bent on stopping them. But they underestimate one officer: Max Rockatansky (Gibson). And when the bikers brutalize Max’s best friend and family, they send him into a mad frenzy that leaves him with only one thing left in the world to live forrevenge!
Christine (Special Edition)
– An eerie, twisted love story of a teenager and his obsessively jealous 1958 Plymouth Fury —- as only Stephen King can tell it! Christine is a red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury who seduces 17-year-old Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon). She demands his complete and unquestioned devotion and when outsiders seek to interfere, they become the victims of Christine’s horrifying wrath. This special edition is packed with added features. Starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Harry Dean Stanton, Christine Belford. A Stephen King classic.
Gone in 60 Seconds
– Kip Raines (Giovanni Ribisi) is a cocky young car thief working with a crew to steal 50 cars for a very bad man whose nickname is “The Carpenter.” Being young and cocky, Kip messes up, so it’s up to his big brother, Randall “Memphis” Raines (Nicolas Cage), to come out of car thief retirement and save him. With a cast that includes Robert Duvall, Angelina Jolie, Delroy Lindo, Cage, and Ribisi, it would be easy to say this story wastes all their talents–which it does, but that’s not the point. This is a Jerry Bruckheimer film. A good story and complex characters would only get in the way of the action scenes and slow the movie down. No, Gone in 60 Seconds (based on the cult 1974 film of the same name) is not about the stars as much as it’s about cars. Fast cars. Rare cars. Wrecked cars. All cars. Too bad director Dominic Sena (Kalifornia) doesn’t come across as more of a gearhead; he seems less interested in fast cars than fast cuts. But is this movie fun? Absolutely, and it’s fun because it’s so stupid. With pointless car chases and hackneyed dialogue in one of the most predictable plots of the year, Gone in 60 Seconds is a comic film that’s not quite a parody of itself, but darn close.
The Fast and the Furious
– A guilty pleasure with excess horsepower, The Fast and the Furious efficiently combines time-honored male fantasies (hot cars, hot women, hot action) into a vacuous plot of crystalline purity. It’s trash, but it’s fun trash, in which a hotshot Los Angeles cop named Brian (Paul Walker) infiltrates a gang of street racers suspected of fencing stolen goods from hijacked trucks. The gang leader is Dom (Vin Diesel), ex-con and reigning king of the street racers, who lives for those 10 seconds of freedom when his high-performance “rice rocket” (a highly modified Asian import) hurtles toward another quarter-mile victory. Racing is street theater for a lawless youth subculture, and Dom is a star behind the wheel–charismatic, dangerous, and protective toward his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), who’s attracted to Brian as the newest member of Dom’s car-crazy team.
