Car Chase Classics
By Mark Mahorney, Sat Dec 10th
I hit my teenage years in the early 80s about the same timeVCRs and independent video rental shops came to every small townin America. This was before yogurt shops and tanning booths hit,and after most of the drive-ins and arcades had faded away,though my town had all five simultaneously.
During that time I got turned on to couple of happenstancerentals now both cult classics. One was Evil Dead and anotherwas the original Gone in 60 Seconds.
It seems cult classic films follow a similar path ascollectables. It couldn’t have appeared to have any value at thetime for it to have any value now. What is the return on aFranklin Mint collectable? Will Freddy vs. Jason ever be aclassic? Probably not.
Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street areclassics, no doubt, but they aren’t likely to ever reach cultstatus. The latter, if I recall correctly, was B movie flop inthe theatre, hit the ever-growing network of video rental storeswhere it caught the attention of kids too young to otherwisehave seen it, and then was re-released into the theatres as ahit.
Gone in 60 Seconds was a little known drive-in B movie frombefore my time that even the rental shops couldn’t bring back tolife. And I suspect that the H.B.Halicki series of car chase classics have generated morerevenue since the 2000 remake Gone in Sixty Seconds, than in theprevious quarter century.
I have an affinity for guy movies that I now never find the timeto watch with a wife and child. I’m talking about the kinds ofmovies you simply can’t watch in the presence of a female. ClintEastwood the outlaw, the brawler, or the dirty cop. Anythingwith Charles Bronson. Al Pacino in the Godfather series,Serpico, Scarface, Carlito’s Way, or even Glengarry Glen Ross.Or Paul Newman in The Hustler, Hombre, Cool Hand Luke, ButchCassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, or the hilariousSlapshot.
Along the same line, I’ll take a good car chase movie any day. Ilike car chases like I like porn. Get right to the action. Thebetter the car chase the less I care about the plot. Dirty Mary,Crazy Larry would have been a whole lot better without PeterFonda’s bad acting. All I wanted to hear was the badass roar ofthe 440 Dodge Charger.
It is in that spirit that Car ChaseClassics is born and what follows is a list of some ofmy all time favorite car chase, car race, and cool car movies:
Gone in 60 Seconds - Classic must see for thecar chase enthusiast.
Deadline Auto Theft - Follow on to Gone in 60Seconds
The Junkman - More great chases from H.B.Halicki. Check out the officialsite.
Gone in Sixty Seconds - A boatload of coolcars and Eleanor
