Archive for category Car Movies

Fast & Furious 5 – set pictures

Posted by DrivingEnthusiast in Car Movies on September 2, 2010

Pictures are starting to roll in from the the shooting of Fast and Furious part 5 – known as “Fast Five”. NSXPrime has the full story here, thanks to one of it’s members whose car was accepted for use in the film: http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140331

This is a process we go thru with every installment of Fast & Furious. Pictures like this are probably being allowed to build hype and awareness for the movie. We’re a big fan of the F&F franchise… although we felt the storyline was even more ridiculous than usual in part 4. Part 2 was the worst of them, with Part 1 and Part 3 (set in Japan) the best. Lets hope they put some intelligence into this latest installment. 

Look for Fast Five in June 2011, tentatively on the 10th.

Meanwhile, it’s a great time to collect and review the previous films. If you are new to the F&F series, you’ll need the background information and character history.

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Yes, it is a car film

Posted by DrivingEnthusiast in Car Movies on January 14, 2010

Or at least a VERY BIG truck film, and a cop car film, and a motorcycle film, and an LTD wagon film, and lots more. It was one helluva film overall, and you can’t say that about much these days. We were just discussing how lousy Fast & Furious 4 was (and shouldn’t have been) when we spotted this homage to Terminator, “Skynet Symphonic”. Yes, James Cameron rules.

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LeMans – on TCM this afternoon

Posted by DrivingEnthusiast in Car Movies, Le Mans on January 9, 2010

LeMans – our choice for the best car movie ever, is on Turner Classic Movies this afternoon.

Of course any true DrivingEnthusiast would have their own copy on DVD, along with the book. If you don’t, then this is your chance.

LeMans is the quintessential racing film! Not only is the race itself an epic, but the making of the film was also an epic itself. Steve McQueen was responsible for it from start to finish. It was a labor of love for him. The movie was not well received by the critics… they felt there was too little dialog and very little plot. But it’s a, insider’s depiction of the famous event – you’ll feel as though you were there because of the exceptionally well done in-car sequences. We consider this film as a must-see for all enthusiasts.

Have patience – it’s a long film but a very rewarding one. And if it’s as cold where you are as it is here… then this is the perfect way to spend part of your Saturday.

There is also an unbelievably detailed book: A French Kiss With Death

This books covers the life and filmography of Steve McQueen as background. The main focus, however, is on the film Le Mans itself – and the book offers an incredibly detailed view of the making of the film. You’ll rarely see this level of detail about any film, much less an automotive racing film! It’s surprising that this level of memory even still exists and speaks to the extreme level of research by the author.

And, of course, if you are ever going to go to the Le Mans race itself, this book would be excellent background reading.

463 pages, with several hundred photographs. One of the best books in our automotive library!

Image to the left: from the start of the film, where Steve stops before the event to look at a length of guardrail that had to be replaced after his terrible crash the year before. Very typical scene in the film, and done without dialog.

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Fast and the Furious tonight on FX

Posted by DrivingEnthusiast in Car Movies on January 5, 2010

Flipping thru channels tonight and I came across The Fast and the Furious (2001) . The original and the best. Of course, we have it on DVD and Blue-Ray so we can watch the full unaltered version and we have done so a dozen times. There is something about this film…

Yes, it’s silly and yes it’s kidstuff. But it’s an original, and it does cover a certain aspect of this hobby, one that is dissappearing. We’ve written in past posts about why we like this movie.

Isn’t it interesting that the first film was great, the second stunk beyond belief, the 3rd was great, and the 4th was terrible. There will definitely be a fifth…

Vin Diesel is undeniably an integral part of this series… but that shouldn’t give him the right to screw it up with “creative control” or however they phrase it in his negotiations. Which is exactly what happened in Part 4. And what we fear will happen with the next installment.

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Car movie: The Green Helmet (1961)

Posted by DrivingEnthusiast in Car Movies on May 27, 2009

After trying to find this film for many years, courtesy of TCM, we finally got to see it. It stars Bill Travers and Ed Begley, as well as Jack Brabham appearing as himself! Based on a book of the same name.

This is a terrific racing film. The central theme is the development of new tires for a Jaguar racing car, then their application on race tracks. The film opens at LeMans, and with the famous running start. The secondary theme is the death of several racers and the lives of the people surrounding them.

Actual historic footage is used. It’s fascinating – and it’s scary. You’ll like this film for it’s historical historical footage of LeMans, Silverstone, Sebring, and especially the Mille Miglia. The original Mille Miglia was one of the all-time greatest racing events on the planet, in our humble opinion. Although this film does show why it had to be canceled in it’s original form.

This is a very obscure film and is not listed in many film databases. It’s very rarely shown, although we did catch it recently on TCM.

There are a couple of minor mistakes in the film: one is this crash of the Spaniard in his Corvette. Note how it changes into something else entirely in the midst of the crash and roll. But, all in all, a good film and a worthwhile addition to your collection – if you can find it.

On our companion site, CarMovies.DrivingEnthusiast.net/, we have reviews and commentary on well over 100 movies where cars are the central theme or the main supporting character. You’ll also see our ideas about the top car movies of all time, as well as the worst.

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Even more Fast & Furious coverage… and Cars

Posted by DrivingEnthusiast in Car Movies on May 15, 2009

And you thought our coverage of Fast & Furious had ended? And you were wondering why we never covered the movie Cars? Here, in one fell swoop, is coverage of both:

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Ode to the greatest Pontiac Trans Am ever

Posted by DrivingEnthusiast in Car Movies, Pontiac on May 9, 2009

Yes, it’s Smokey and the Bandit – a terrible film that… somehow actually worked out well. Burt Reynolds and long time pal Jerry Reed were at their peak. Gleason went over the top with a very politically-incorrect performance that finally tires the audience. And of course Sally Fields was a sweetheart. The film was extremely popular, and originally grossed approx. $66M dollars. The total gross has risen since then to over double that. Sequels Smokey and the Bandit 2 and 3 were so unbelievably terrible that we won’t mention them here. Just remember the first and the best.  Here’s the original trailer:

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Fast & Furious kills the competition

Posted by DrivingEnthusiast in Car Movies on April 6, 2009

USA Today reports that the opening weekend of Fast & Furious 4 achieved the biggest spring debut of all time, generating $72.5 million. This is for any film ever made – and it also set a record for the highest opening of the first 4 months of the year.
This was around $30M more than industry analysts had predicted.  And it’s also more in it’s first weekend than Fast & Furious 3 (Tokyo Drift) made during it’s entire run.
We stand on what we’ve said about this not being a car enthusiast’s movie. Judging from the print reviews, it opened at about $70M than the reviewers thought it was worth. We contributed our $9.00 to that grand total.
So it’s pretty clear that while a decision hasn’t yet been made on a Fast & Furious 5, the studio execs and franchise owners will decide to make another one very soon. Lets hope it’s a better film than this thing was.

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Rumors of Fast & Furious 5

Posted by DrivingEnthusiast in Car Movies on April 5, 2009

After this mess there surely can’t be another one… but talks are already underway: http://www.moviehole.net/200918429-fast-furious-5-in-the-works 
Note the reference to Vin Diesel’s huge ego… he wanted the 4th installment to be just about him. Lets hope he comes to his senses (does he have any?) and stays out of the way during development. He has already pretty much killed off his career with this kind of heavy-handedness – without F&F what does he have left?
We predict that once the studios see the poor returns on #4 that this idea will be shelved.
More:

Reading the above, we’d guess that Vin Diesel will require the director’s seat before he’ll agree to appear in #5. This reminds us what happened to Star Trek V when William Shatner directed and then proceeded to make the worst Star Trek movie ever. Hmmm. I wonder whose ego is bigger – Vin Diesel’s or William Shatner’s?

In any case, who won’t be in it? Michelle Rodriquez! Why did they kill her off?

 

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Fast & Furious 2 – the parody

Posted by DrivingEnthusiast in Car Movies on April 5, 2009

Here’s one more Fast and Furious parody – this time of F&F2.

 
… not that there is anything wrong with that…

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