Just saw it this morning (well, partially in the morning; 11am start). It was very, very Wes Anderson. I did not, however, think the puppies at the end looked cute. They looked like sick guinea pigs to me.
My favorite part was how the Oracle dog had her visions. 32 out of 37 military-grade tooth-bullets. I liked it, but I certainly don't feel the need to rewatch anytime soon. I think I might have prefered fewer recognizable voices.
Quoting: P. J. O'Rourke, Republican Party Reptile, first published 1978, pp. 128-137:
You have to get a car that handles really well. This is extremely important, and there's a lot of debate on this subject -- about what kind of car handles best. Some say a front-engined car; some say a rear-engined car. I say a rented car. Nothing handles better than a rented car. You can go faster, turn corners sharper, and put the transmission into reverse while going forward at a higher rate of speed in a rented car than in any other kind. You can also park without looking, and can use the trunk as an ice chest. Another thing about a rented car is that it's an all-terrain vehicle. Mud, snow, water, woods -- you can take a rented car anywhere. True, you can't always get it back -- but that's not your problem, is it?
Steve McQueen's rental car treatment is no better in The Hunter: movie clip at youtube.
I just watched The Hunter. Not McQueen's best, but a good showing nonetheless. (It was his final film.) Watching him parallel park in that film is great, at least if you know it's McQueen. The combine sequence is a good bit of the fun, but there's a good Chicago sequence, too.
Supposedly mostly true. Queen here plays a bounty hunter nicknamed "Papa. The real life "Papa" makes a cameo as the bartender.
After Two Lane Blacktop and Vanishing Point there was a suggestion to watch Thunder Road because it was often double featured with those.
Now having watched it, Thunder Road was better than Vanishing Point, but they sure picked some bad music for drive sequences. Some scenes came across almost as Looney Tunes with that accompaniment. It also left me enough time to wonder, before the movie was even over, about some of the details. A 250 gallon tank, in that car? Did they take the back seat out to fit it? Is he getting 000 for a single 250 gallon shipment? That's /gallon, presumably wholesale rate. Is that cheap booze for 1950-something? I'm not sure. But if it's not cheaper than taxed liquor, there's no reason for moonshine.
I later found out that the alcohol tax in 1954 is the same as the alcohol tax now. It's never been raised even as inflation has diluted the dollar. So what was onerous then is not as big a deal today.
So far, for classic driving movies I have watched (roughly ranked, best to worst, in my subjective opinion):Obviously "classic driving movies" is a broad and idiosyncratic collection. I'm not including things just with good chases, like Bullitt, Or motorcycle films (Easy Rider). Of those above, I think only 2LB does not have a named character die. The one death is an unknown person, shown only in the grisly aftermath of the collision. That scene packed a punch.
Really, the only reason to watch Damnation Alley is for the vehicle (or the unintentional humor).
At imdb, people who liked Two Lane Blacktop also liked Vanishing Point, so I found it to watch, the 1971 version not the remake.
Scott Dorsey offered to let me watch his print — if I were in the same state as him — and said Clevon Little was worth the price of admission. I've trusted Scott Dorsey's movie recommendations before, but I'm going to have to disagree with his opinion here: Super Soul (Clevon Little) was the most annoying part of the movie. Psychic DJ and just-so disembodied guide voice just isn't my scene.
I'd never watched it before, but I had seen a scene from the film. The snake hunting prospector to faith-healer viper buyer bit. It was another hard to accept (in the suspension of disbelief sense) sequence. Not that those people might not have existed, but that they'd be there where Kowalski has run short of gas.
Amusing trivia: According to imdb, Gilda Texter was the "Nude Rider", but then she went on to a long career in movie costuming. (you can see Gilda has shoes on in one scene, so not completely nude.)
qz thoughts