doorbomb62
Nothing to see here in this poor attempt at a car chase/on-the-lamb drama, which plays more like a wannabe produced by Columbia Picture's heir Bruce Curtis, and starring 4 children of Hollywood stars. Dezi Arnaz Jr., Robert Carradine, Melanie Griffith, and Anne Lockhart. Film has a run-of-the-mill opening with catchy Electric Light Orchestra tunes introducing us to the uneventful lives of some 3 uninteresting late teen/early 20 somethings longing for something more (Arnaz Jr. Carradine, Griffith). They hatch a rather vague plan to head north to Alaska, something about owning a fishing boat. After landing less-than-desirable blue collar jobs in the cold North, these three upset the wrong people and end up on the lamb with an employee of the top corporation around (Lockhart...the only interesting cast member/character). The film flies south from it's already low standing by this point and there is never an absolution to what these brats want, nor is there any tact in how they go about trying to achieve it. The writing is terribly unmemorable, and the story is never completely clear. Director Ruben has no style in how he captures this uneventful series of even more so pedestrian events. Producer Curtis pulls out all the stops to deliver a product with car chases, sex, drugs, and rock n roll. SNORE. It is simply an afterthought cocktail of left-over iconographic elements which fit so awkwardly into it's own bowl of dry, tasteless crumbs. PASS.
goods116
No Spoilers. 6 out of 10 stars. I wasn't expecting much from this movie, but it turned out to be better than average and highly watchable. If you are a 70s film buff like I am, then this movie is an even nicer find, cars, hair, dialogue, grainy atmosphere, no CGI, economic malaise...and a very pretty Melanie Griffith (with a few scenes of nudity to go along with it all). Alaska/Pacific Northwest in the 70s is also nice. And no CGI, some car chases, some action, etc. All that being said, it's nothing amazing, I don't want to oversell the movie. Currently showing on Netflix streaming, worth putting in your queue.
qaipd
I just saw this movie and all I can say is, where are the drive in's these days. This seems like it would have been a great 2nd feature at a drive in in 1977 (maybe playing with one of those Joan Collins movies), but it's only worth watching now if you're feeling nostalgic for the 70's. Silly plot that is full of holes, but it does remind one of the era it was made in. Interesting to see Melanie Griffith so young and Anne Lockhart is quite attractive, though not much of an actress. In fact, there is not much acting going on in this movie at all. It's sort of a Dukes of Hazzard adventure without a twang or a 1969 Dodge charger jumping over stuff in the Woods. But there is a Mecrury Comet jumping over a garbage dump in this one!
brian talbot
This is a difficult video to find which is just as well. I had searched for 15 years wanting to view the film I saw in 1977 with a soundtrack from ELO (Electric Light Orchestra). When I recently found a video store that specializes in obscure videos, I rented it and Vestron Video (now out of business) had released this road-pic as "Joyride-special video edition"...now that sounded to me like it was going to better than the original. What it meant was that they had removed all of the ELO music from the soundtrack, then cheaply dubbed a new soundtrack. The story in a word is boring. It would only be worth renting if (like me) you wanted to hear the ELO soundtrack again. It was interesting to see Melanie Griffith and Robert Carradine in their younger days. The clerk at the video store said this title hadn't been rented in five years!HOWEVER, a few years later....I have found a copy of the video (thanks to ebay)that was intact with the ORIGINAL soundtrack as released on video in the U.K. Seeing the movie again with its original soundtrack made it a pleasure.
AD
