Landspeed

I was subjected to this movie the other night after being unable to choose the movie that me, my roommate, and my roommate's girlfriend were to watch that night. I have learned never to let my roommate or his girlfriend pick a movie again! The story involves a man trying to break the landspeed record and his past creeps up on him. While there were some fine actors in the movie (Ray Wise being the best in my opinion), Billy Zane looked like the wooded Ken doll he so desperately wants to be. The script felt like it was written for a ten year old and the movie looked like it ran out of money while shooting it. The effects looked so lame. Thank god my roommate's girlfriend likes the Ken doll look on Mr. Zane or I would have pulled this out of the DVD player and used the DVD as a coaster for my can of soda.

Do yourselves a favor: rather rent "Istar." At least it is so bad you can laugh at it's badness.

I love movies, simple as that. As a result I've seen a great many of them, often more than once.

Naturally there are good movies, great movies, bad movies and some dreadful movies. Once in a while, a movie is screened that is so awful, it actually becomes compelling to watch to the finish, like some kind of masochistic exercise into new areas of self abuse.

"Landspeed" has fallen into a new category for me. It was in all aspects so terrible, I felt compelled to finish it....but now I WISH I HADN'T! I am intrigued by what must happen to actors for them to accept projects such as this, and then further degrade the failed project with unutterably awful performances. Tell me it ain't so, Billy Zane, tell me it just ain't so.

If you notice this movie on a schedule, avoid it as if it were a black hole, because nothing can escape its ghastly gravity! If I may make a cinematic metaphor; "Landspeed" makes "The Black Hole" look like "Casablanca." More about "The Black Hole" later.

I was actually very surprised by this obviously low budget movie. There isn't a great story, but the characters are interesting, and the ensemble cast reminds me of something Altman would have done in the 70s, or maybe something Alan Rudolph might do. Billy Zane is a little hard to take sometimes, but I found myself liking his smart ass character. While the film is about something serious, and the racing scenes are well done, it does not take itself seriously. It has a light tone that I found refreshing. The script is the weakest link, here, and it seems as though the director and the actors ad-libbed the dialogue (and if they didn't, then I have to credit all involved for being so natural in front of the camera) but the story is a bit on the cliche side. Trust me, it doesn't matter. It's a fun ride, despite some flaws, and there are a couple of people here to keep an eye on. First, the direction is quite good. One would have thought a racing movie would have to be chaotic, like "Fast and the Furious", you know, "MTV style", but this movie feels like old fashioned moviemaking, and it works. Mr. McIntire should be doing bigger movies, and will, I think. Secondly, Scott Wiper, playing the sort-of-dumb pilot is VERY good. He looks to have directed a film, as well, and I will have to check it out.

Biggest complaint is about the crappy DVD. It has NO letterbox, NO extras, nothing. Good little movie, great cast, a lot of fun, and actually pretty intelligently done, too. Rent it.

The movie had elements I like to see.

Realism - (if a car was to travel at mach two, the movie portyed it in a very real way unlike fast and furious which had guys drag racing thru a city over a 100 mph for 5 minutes.)

Comradery - They portryed relationships between friends and competitors in racing circles in a very positive and real way.

Other than some more lessons for the writers and a boost in the budget, the movie was better than I had expected.

Mike

What an oddly endearing film. Added to my ZipQueue a while ago when I was obsessing over Ray Wise, I was taken by what I expected to be a dull, plodding, lifeless low budget piece of crap action movie (based on the plot and those involved in the production and financing areas), which turned out to be a warm, inviting, odd little humorous adventure with some decent 'action' bits. It's not a great film, its flaws plain to the eye, but it is really quite well-made for something of this sort, and many of the cast members are very charming and fun to watch, especially Zane and Wise. A movie which was probably fun to make and was definitely fun to watch, and something of a little hidden gem in that vast cinematic world, an unexpected surprise. I don't know if this is a full-on recommendation, but if you're looking for something light and fun and not-so-well-known, or if you're a fan of one of the actors, there are worse things to do with your time.