What are some good car movies?

[Nader]

I'm all about the home theater these days until open lapping starts up again in the spring. What are some good autosport movies?

I've seen: Le Mans, No Man's Land, Driven, Gone in Sixty Seconds (original and remake), Superspeedway (IMAX, very cool), Fast and Furious, Canonball Run(s), Gumball Rally (need a refresher on that one), American Graffitti, Bullitt, every Speed Racer episode, the Ruf Yellowbird video, Road Warrior, and some other movies I'm sure I'm forgetting.

Any recommendations? There must be a bunch of other B-movies. Thanks.

[tabs]

Vanishing Point......end of story

The first and in some ways the GREATEST car chase movie is Stanley Kramers ....It's a Mad Mad Mad World....... It's not autosport....but I don't think you will be disapointed.....

[Rot 911]

For once I have to agree with TABS. First saw Vanishing point when it came out in in 1971. Probaby saw it 5 times that year! Here is a brief synopsis of the movie:

The original VANISHING POINT™, released in 1971, stars Barry Newman as Kowalski, a pill-popping auto delivery driver who bets a handful of "uppers" that he can drive a customer's new Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco ....in fifteen hours! Disc Jockey "Super Soul" lays down an excellent soundtrack as Kowalski beats the road, the clock, and the Highway Patrol in this thrilling high speed pursuit that set the standard in the car chase movie business.

[Nader]

Since we're on the topic of existential road movies, has anyone seen "2 Lane Blacktop?"

And why is it that I can get this on DVD from Netflix, but not the aformentioned Vanishing Point, or even the greats such as Le Mans and Grand Prix?

[Z-man]

Never saw Vanashing point: but I gotta get it!

There's a PBS documentatry: "Lime Rock Park: The Secret Valley of Racing." On of the best documentaries I've seen. It doesn't hurt that Lime Rock is my favorite track!

Some of my other favorite racing/car centered movies:
Bullitt (it DEFINED the car chase scene!)
The Italian Job. (Love the Mini's!)
Herbe Goes to Monte Carlo
LeMans
Days of Thunder (I know, it's NASCRAP, but still a fun video)

Good movies that have great car chase scenes:
Just about any BOND flick
Mission Impossible II




Some off-beat movies I'd recommend:
Deathrace 2000 (Sylvester Stalone, David Corradine)
The Car (a demon possessed car wreaks havoc in a western town)

For all types of movies that have Porsches in them (not just racing, but even a split-second shot) check out Obin's Porsche movie page:
http://obin_jess.tripod.com/porschemovies.html

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I liked Ronin quite a bit. Some good Euro-saloon chase scenes.

re DR2K: "It's a hand grenade!"

[tabs]

Don't forget the car chase scenes in the French Connection.....the guy who was the driver of the 1968 Charger in Bullit played the Fed who Hackman shoots in the end of the French connection. He was also the driver in a alot of the car chase scenes in the French Connection.

PS: Don't forget It's a Mad Mad Mad World, done in 1962 it predates Bullit by about 6 years.......and is essentially one long car chase movie.....If you have never seen it you will laugh your butts off.

[thrown_hammer]

What about "The Chase" with Charlie Sheen? Almost the whole movie is a car chase!

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

1. Vanishing Point (No. 1, nuff said!)
2. Le Mans
3. Gone in Sixty Seconds (1974 original, not the GOD AWFUL re-make)
4. Bullitt
5. The Italian Job
6. Death Race 2000
7. King Of The Mountain (late night treasure)
8. Cannonball Run
9. Smokey and the Bandit (gotta give props to Burt)
10. Goldeneye (just for the race between the Ferrari 348 and the Aston Martin DB5)


One more thing, the chase scene between James Woods' Ferrari 328 and Jeff Bridges' Porsche 930 down Sunset Blvd. in "Against All Odds" is pretty killer. The rest of the movie sucks, but if you can hang through the first 10 minutes, you'll see this awesome chase sequence.

[CJFusco]

Um, Hello, um BACK TO THE FUTURE!!!!!

And there are some movies I watch almost entirely for the car content, eg SIXTEEN CANDLES (that looks a lot like a red version of my car...), RISKY BUSINESS("Porsche: there is no substitute"), WEIRD SCIENCE ("Wyatt, you take the Porsche; Gary, you take the Ferrari." "We have a Ferrari?!?"), and GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS.

And LE MANS is the greatest car movie ever, in my eyes.

btw, the Ferrari in GOLDENEYE is a F355, not a 348. The 348 is essentially the same mechanicals but with slightly different bodywork: it has the Testarossa-style slits in the door near the rear tire.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

CJ,

thanks for the correction.

[atlporsche]

NO 'GRAND PRIX'??? Frankenheimers best...you wouldn't understand until you've stood on the old banking at Monza. It's a life experience...you can feel the ghosts there and in the old paddock...it's really creepy.

It's kinda like going to Wrigley Field...it just has this OLD feel to it...

Smokey and the Bandit
Ronin

Vanishing Point was too weird for me.

sjd

[Stanley]

The "Bourne Identity" had a really good chase scene in it w/ a mini. The Getaway in Stockholm videos are also pretty good. Another one is the DVD "Mischief 3000," its a documentary type movie on the 2002 gumball rally.

There is also the original getaway in stockholm type movie "Rendezvous" (1977). Directer Claude Lalouch strapped a camera to the roof of his Ferrari and went flat out throughout the streets of Paris.

I also love Ronnin too, I am watching it right now.

[Nader]

Okay, I just added Deathrace 2000, Grand Theft Auto, and Eat My Dust to my rental queue at Netflix. These three may require certain stout beverages to get through them. Weren't there a bunch of similar movies made in the '50s?

[CJFusco]

"It's kinda like going to Wrigley Field...it just has this OLD feel to it... "

Yeah I love going to the old ballfields. Wrigley and Fenway feel so rich in memories; the ivy, all those pock marks from almost-homeruns on the Green Monster. Unfortunately I've only been to Wrigley once, but I go to about 10 Red Sox games a year at Fenway.

Did you know that my school's campus is built on top of the original Fenway Park (well, it was called the Huntington Avenue Grounds)? There is a statue of Cy Young constructed on the location of the original pitchers mound - it is right in the middle of one of Northeastern's many quads.It's weird to think that where I have class every day is where the Red Sox played their first game, where the first ever world series was played.

[KTL]

Not much car stuff in this one, but worth the look. Some good laughs too.

Bad Boys with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

The sounds at the end of the movie where the 94 Turbo 3.6 chases the Shelby Cobra really rocks.

Crank up the volume and listen to the 3.6 and the mean-ass V8 scream. Then you get to see & hear the 3.6 show off the "hand of God" braking and listen to the motor come down in revs.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Cheese car movies...

Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry
Corvette Summer, good for a laugh actually with a horrid looking Vette
The Car, truly laughable
Christine, sorry, I love John Carpenter and Stephen King, but this one fell far short of the mark. The book is SOOO much better

[Nader]

I just ordered "Speed Tribe," some sort of Le Mans video on DVD set to techno music. Anyone hear of it?

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Front 242 does the music. A very good industrial band

[thamlin000]

I don't care what you say Jared.......Christine has got my #1 vote. I could only wish my car was that loyal to me.

Cannonball Run is great too. Brock Yates wrote that movie. Where else can you see Bigfoot run over a 928?

There's no better car chase than Bullitt. The original Mad Max is cool too.