High-Ballin'

A group of hijackers are harassing truckers. Iron Duke (Jerry Reed), and Pickup (Helen Shaver) are two of the independents worried about the situation as well as being pressured to sell by the ruthless trucking boss King Carroll. Visiting stunt driver Rane (Peter Fonda) is riding shotgun with his friend Duke when they are attacked.

This is a Canadian action exploitation B-movie. The plot is pretty simple elevated by solid actors. Its action is reminiscent of gonzo Australian B-movies. There is a good amount of destruction. Camera work is not that imaginative but effective enough for the era. At various points, it takes its sweet time which is unhelpful in an action thriller. Overall, it's not aiming that high and it mostly its target.

Reed and Fonda make a great combo in this truckin' action movie, you wouldn't want it any other way. Reed with a beard, so much resembles one of my Dad's friend's in this movie, it's almost uncanny, like in the way he answers people, especially in one response. Fonda, an ex truckie, a biker here of course, joins Reed on one last route, after a bit of friendly persuasion by Reed. Only this trip becomes one for survival. Truckies are being hijacked and robbed of their shipment and trucks, the players, are people in their own backyard, one a friend of a guy who gets in a fight with Fonda, the instigator, making a funny remark about his non use of roll on. The fight, where the players use irons is disappointing as it's over before it's even begun. The loser, if you can call him that, and it's not Fonda, was trying to crack on to female trucker, prior, a hot number (Helen Shaver) who really gave him a serve with her sweet talking mouth, while nibbling cutely on some jerky. Fonda becomes the hero, taking down this operation, one scene has him and Shaver surviving a shooting in a motel room. This is a fun adventure movie but a good drama too. Another scene where Reed, Fonda, and Reeds's little son, Tanker are being set upon by bad guys, firing bullets was compelling, where Fonda gets up on the second deck of the trailer at the back of the rig, and unhooks these cars, where they come flying back off the trailer into the path of the bad guys, one car making a backfire explosion which I thought was cool. Reed says to himself in the middle of all this chaos. "Oh boy, why couldn't I had a girl". It also had a good showdown between Fonda and his foe's mate, who holds Shaver at gunpoint. Also what was great, was we got to spend some time at home with Reed's family, which very much reminded me of when I was a kid and how I used to sit around the table, talking with Dad's friends. Even though this movie's dated, it's worth a look, another reason why American International Pictures was a cool movie company. Reed's performance here is impressive too.

This movie is made for truckers in the day of having long hauls, long distance traveling, and suddenly, there are hijackers in the wait. Life is a gamble, especially in the trucking field. Being an independent contractor is one thing, working for a big company is another. It's best to stick with strong friends when you back's against the wall. Jerry Reed, fresh from the first "Smokey and the Bandit" get to ride the big rigs again. This time, he's a struggling trucker who gets to stand up to the big boss of a trucking company who is forcing the independents off the roads and drive them out of business. King Carroll(Chris Wiggins) runs a big company who will do anything to keep the indies off the road. When one of the truckers(Lex Tyrell) is head of a hijacking ring for Carroll. He had one trucker jumped. And when a former stuntman named Rane (Peter Fonda) , joins the Iron Duke (Reed), along with Pickup(Helen Shaver) the back up is all here. This movie is more like a western, only with diesel "horses". There was a lot of action there. Some silliness added though, but I enjoyed it very much. This movie is for truckers. 2 out of 5 stars.

Peter Fonda and Jerry Reed make a great team in this well-made Canadian-filmed action flick, which is very much of it's era. Made during the height of the time (late-70s) when movies about 18-wheelers and CB radios were all the rage (you may remember Reed from another HUGE hit of that time, "Smokey & The Bandit"), "High-Ballin'" plays alot like a modern-day western, with Fonda riding into town after an extended absence to help his buddy and former road partner Reed, an independent trucker, take on hijackers who are trying to run him and other independents out of business and into work for a local trucking kingpin.

There's nothing too fancy about the straight-forward story, but there's excellent camraderie between Fonda and Reed, as well as good supporting work from Helen Shaver as a saucy female trucker/groupie, and Harvey Jason as the chief henchman of the trucking company kingpin, King Carroll. It was also interesting to see Carroll played as a man who, while playing a not entirely honest hand, doesn't necessarily want to resort to violence in trying to achieve his means. There are several impressively staged action sequences along the way, as well as some nice cinematography showcasing the snowy Canadian locations. Director Peter Carter keeps everything moving at an interesting clip.

"High-Ballin'" is no masterpiece for the ages, but it's an entertaining time-killer and definitely a movie of it's time.

Having spawned an entire exploitation subgenera of outlaw biker films with his excellent "Easy Rider," could Peter Fonda do the same for movies about eighteen wheels of justice? "High-Ballin'" actually beat "Convoy" by one month on it's release date for being the first movie action movie about truckers (although "Smokey and the Bandit" came out the year before), but it's a pretty silly inconsequential hixploitation flick, and Jerry Reed is really the main character here. Reed and Fonda have to fight off a bunch of trucker thugs hired by a local crime boss who wants to put independent truckers like them out of business. Helen Shaver and Michael Ironside, in his first named-character role (he plays Butch), also appear in the film. Overall, I enjoyed this dumb movie and so will others if you're a fan fo hixploitation/rednexploitation type of films (think good ol' boys fighting one another ALA "Gator" or "Walking Tall"), even if it's pretty routine and nothing all that memorable. "Smokey," "Convoy," and "White Line Fever" are all still better trucker films, but I was entertained by "High-Ballin'."