(Review originally written at 4 September 2007)
Oh I feel dirty now, I actually liked this movie! Of course it was some typical '80's cheese but I also have the feeling that the makers really didn't thought that they were making something classic. It's pretty good for what it is; a simple '80's revenge flick, with basically every '80's ingredient in it thinkable.
Yes this movie has '80's written all over it! Fast sport cars, crazy dressed punks, roller-skates, bad '80's music and of course '80's star Charlie Sheen in it, just before his "Platoon" role, which really marked his breakthrough.
The movie and its story is kept fairly simple and because of that the movie also feels very straight-forward, which definitely is a plus for these type of movies. The main plot-line and fun characters are interesting enough to keep your interest. Its a pretty crazy concept and the movie mixes numerous movie types, such as science-fiction, action, horror, a racing movie, drama and much more. It's impossible to label just one genre to this movie and its even more difficult to say how to describe this movie. It's a cheesy silly B-movie, that because of that also at the same time becomes very entertaining to watch.
The movie has some nice looking races and the 'Wraith's' car is just basically every teen-boy's, from the '80's, dream. Also the other cars in the movie are really great, despite the fact that I'm really normally not a 'cars' type of person.
Let's be fair, Charlie Sheen has never been on any 'great actors lists' and this movie makes you see why. He's too flat in his role but luckily he isn't featured that much in the movie, at least not as much as you would expect from the 'main' character. The movie more focuses on the gang of drag racers, who are the bad guys of the movie, and on whom the 'Wraith' takes revenge, for killing him in the past. The gang features actors such as a young Nick Cassavetes (who now days is perhaps better known as a director) and Clint Howard in it. Further more, Randy Quaid also plays a role in the movie as the sheriff. He's good in his role but he's not really supported by most of the other actors in this movie, which also makes his performance look bad at times.
A very enjoyable, good looking, silly, cheesy, typical '80's flick, that you just have to take for what it is.
7/10
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