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Fast Company
Canada 1979
produced by Michael Lebowitz, Peter O'Brian, Courtney Smith, David Perlmutter (executive) for Quadrant Films, Canadian Film Development Corporation
directed by David Cronenberg
starring William Smith, Claudia Jennings, John Saxon, Nicholas Campbell, Don Francks, Cedric Smith, Judy Foster, Robert Haley, George Buza, David Graham, David Peterson, Chuck Chandler, Cheri Hilsabeck, Sonya Ratke, Michael Bell, Douglas Main, Patricia Goodwin, L.Peter Feldman, Graham Light, Fred Hodgson, Michael Ouellette, Trevor Yacyshyn, Jerry Knowles, Neil Dainard, Robert Hill
story by Alan Treen, screenplay by Phil Savath, Courtney Smith, David Cronenberg, music by Fred Mollin, special effects by Tom Fisher
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Flix.com
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Seasoned dragster driver Lonnie (William Smith) crashes one of his
cars, but since he's such a big star, Phil (John Saxon), representative of
FastCo, the oil company he's driving for, forces him to switch from actual
dragsters to funny cars until a new dragster for him is built - which kind
of breaks Lonnie's heart, because he has to take over the funny car from
Billy (Nicholas Campbell), a promising young driver who's idol, mentor and
friend he is. It gets worse though: When Lonnie fucks up a few
interviews, Phil comes to the conclusion that he's no longer good for the
company and wants him out of the team, by force should need arise. And
once Lonnie's out, Phil hires Gary Black (Cedric Smith), his arch rival.
Lonnie and his friends - including Billy - though cannot accept being
muscled out of their own team, so they steal back what they consider their
car one night to participate in the next day's race. Of course, Phil is
less than happy about this, so he hires one of Gary's men (George Buza) to
sabotage Lonnie's part of the racetrack (even though Billy is driving).
When Gary learns that though, it's an eye-opener for him about his new
boss, and during the actual race he forces Billy off his track - with the
result that Gary goes up in an explosion instead of him, dying a hero's
death. Finding himself cornered, Phil wants to make a getaway by single
motor airplane - but Lonnie chases him down the runway in his funny car
and makes him crash. As much as I like car racing as such,
there has hardly ever been a decent car racing flick that is able to catch
the fascination of a car race as such - and this film, definitely not one
of director David Cronenberg's better ones, is no exception, just a
collection of clichés sparkled with a handful of comical episodes brought
to the screen. Sure, the whole thing is competently handled
direction-wise, the action is nicely translated onto the screen (though a
drag-race is by no means the most exciting way to race a car), and the
cast made up from amny B-movie veterans is at least decent ... but there's
simply nothing that transcends these basic qualities, it's just a
by-the-numbers story, and that's it.
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