Nobody drives forever

F1

2025

Directed by Joseph Kosinski

Written by Ehren Kruger and Joseph Kosinski

Spoilers: moderate

Where the wild ones are

THE BIKERIDERS

2024

Written and directed by Jeff Nichols (based on the book by Danny Lyon)

Spoilers: moderate

Some new nadir in sordid behavior

THE WILD ANGELS

1966

Directed by Roger Corman

Written by Charles B. Griffith and Peter Bogdanovich

Spoilers: moderate

Do you have it in you to make it epic?

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA

2024

Directed by George Miller

Written by Nico Lathouris and George Miller

Spoilers: moderate

The transporter

THE LAST RUN

1971

Directed by Richard Fleischer

Written by Alan Sharp

Spoilers: see above? (highish, if you're a real stickler)

Go greased lightning

REDLINE

2009

Directed by Takeshi Koike

Written by Katsuhito Ishii, Yoji Enokido, and Yoshishi Sakurai

Spoilers: moderate

You're selfish, you're crazy, and you're scared

DAYS OF THUNDER

1990

Directed by Tony Scott

Written by Tom Cruise and Robert Towne

Spoilers: high

Days of thunder

NATIONAL VELVET

1944

Directed by Clarence Brown

Written by Theodore Reeves, Helen Deutsch, and Howard Dimsdale (based on the novel by Enid Bagnold)

Spoilers: high

You know I can't let you leave without tapping that ass one more time

DEATH PROOF

The car chase movie to beat them all, and that's only the beginning of its appeal.

2007

Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino

Spoiler alert: since there's no use talking about it without talking about it, high

Just a worthless bum, alone on a pile of bricks

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET

So the single worst movie of the year so far was the Disney cartoon?  Man, I had no great expectations, but I did not expect that.

2018

Directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston

Written by Jim Reardon, Pamela Reardon, Josie Trinidad, Rich Moore, and Phil Johnston

With John C. Reilly (Wreck-It Ralph), Sarah Silverman (Vannelope von Schweetz), Gal Gadot (Shank), Taraji P. Henson (Yesss), plus plenty of others, but let's not

Spoiler alert: moderate

Simon and Carfunkel

BABY DRIVER

Edgar Wright returns to do what he does best these days: squander a premise.

2017

Written and directed by Edgar Wright

With Ansel Elgort (Baby), Lily James (Debora), Jon Hamm (Buddy), Eiza Gonzalez (Darling), Jamie Foxx (Bats), and Kevin Spacey (Doc)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Steven Spielberg, part IV: They were all in love with dying; they were doing it in Texas

THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS

Spielberg dances cautiously around the style and content of the New Hollywood in his first theatrical feature, and the results are very much a mixed bag.

1974

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins, and Steven Spielberg

With Goldie Hawn (Lou Jean Sparrow Poplin), William Atherton (Clovis Poplin), Michael Sacks (Officer Maxwell Slide), and Ben Johnson (Capt. Harlan Tanner)

Spoiler alert: N/A, sort of, but let's say high

Steven Spielberg, part I: Never give a trucker an even break

DUEL

Duel is the best TV movie ever made by a first-time film director in 13 days with practically no dialogue that isn't one guy talking to himself.  More importantly, it's also one of the supreme chase movies of all time.  (Plus, it has about thirty posters and many of them are just awesome, but I think I like the one above most of all.)

1971

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by Richard Matheson (based on the short story)

With Dennis Weaver ft. Dale Van Sickle (David Mann) and Cary Loftin (The Truck Driver)

Spoiler alert: severe

Note: this is the re-edited text of a review written in April 2015; I assure you that my feelings have not changed a bit. but I repost it for completeness in the context of this, our Steven Spielberg retrospective, which begins right here and right now.

Robert Zemeckis, part III: The road warrior

USED CARS

Used Cars might be but a curio, bound body and soul to the era that produced it, but it surely has its charms, and they're not insubstantial.

1980

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis

With Kurt Russell (Rudy Russo), Jack Warden (Luke Fuchs), Gerritt Graham (Jeff), Frank McRae (Jim), Deborah Harmon (Barbara Fuchs), Al Lewis (Judge Harrison), and Jack Warden (Roy Fuchs)

Spoiler alert: moderate

I tell you, they're drunk with religion

BEN-HUR

Perhaps the finest of its breed, Ben-Hur is a smashing entertainment, an Old Testament kind of story set against the backdrop of the New.  It is fueled by a sharply-drawn and deeply-satisfying tale of revenge, animated by enormous sums of money, realized by some of cinema's all-time finest talents, electrified by its star, and, finally, glommed onto a good-enough Christian fable... just in case you felt like taking a nap after the chariot race (though, speaking personally, I think this part's reasonably swell, too).  Ben-Hur is everything you could ever want out of a Biblical epic (and probably more!), and it represents the Golden Age of Hollywood at its very best.

1959

Directed by William Wyler

Written by Karl Tunberg, S.N. Behrman, Maxwell Anderson, Christopher Fry, Gore Vidal, Andrew Marton, and Yakima Canutt (based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Gen. Lew Wallace)

With Charlton Heston (Judah Ben-Hur), Haya Harareet (Esther), Martha Scott (Mariam), Cathy O'Donnell (Tirzah), Sam Jaffe (Simonides), Finlay Currie (Balthazar the Egyptian), Hugh Griffith (Sheik Ilderim), Jack Hawkins (Quintus Arrius), and Stephen Boyd (Messala)

Spoiler alert: sadly, the Kingdom of Judea is not freed in any conventional or meaningful way

John Carpenter, part XIV: Riding with death

BLACK MOON RISING

Offering supercars, Linda Hamilton in a starring role, and evil businessmen who must be thwarted with awesome violence, Black Moon Rising represents one damned fine slice of pure 80s cheese.

1986

Directed by Harley Cokeliss

Written by Desmond Nakano, William Gray, and John Carpenter

With Tommy Lee Jones (Sam Quint), Linda Hamilton (Nina), Richard Jaeckel (Earl Windom), Dan Shor (Billy Lyons), William Sanderson (Tyke Thayden), Lee Ving (Marvin Ringer), Bubba Smith (Johnson), and Robert Vaughn (Ed Ryland)

Spoiler alert: moderate

John Carpenter, part XI: God, I hate rock and roll

CHRISTINE

A great central metaphor and some of the most unique "gore" ever put in a movie combine to make Christine one of John Carpenter's best.

1983

Directed by John Carpenter

Written by Bill Phillips (based on the novel by Stephen King)

With Keith Gordon (Arnie Cunningham), John Stockwell (Dennis Guilder), Alexandra Paul (Leigh Cabot), Robert Prosky (Will Darnell), Harry Dean Stanton (Det. Rudolph Jenkins), William Ostrander (Buddy Eperton), Malcolm Danare (Moochie), Steven Tash (Rich Trelawney), Stuart Charno (Don Vanderburg), Christine Belford (Regina Cunningham), Robert Darnell (Michael Cunningham), and Roberts Blossom (George LeBay)

Spoiler alert: high

Frankenheimer pops the clutch, and tells the world to eat his dust

GRAND PRIX

The last great stand of our beloved Old Hollywood, Grand Prix is offered up with tantalizing premonitions of the New.  It is everything you could ask it to be: a romantic, stylishly entertaining picaresque that darts across Europe, delivering literal high-octane thrills, such as only real Formula One footage shot from the cars themselves could provide.  And it is far more than you'd have any right to expect it to be: an investigation into the spirit of the sportsman, epic and elegiac all at once, forever searching for a meaning within itself—meaning that was never there to be found, beyond the roar of engines, the crash of metal, and the excitement of pure velocity.

1966
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Written by Robert Alan Arthur, William Hanley, and John Frankenheimer
With Yves Montand (Jean-Pierre Sarti), James Garner (Pete Aron), Brian Bedford (Scott Stoddard), Antonio Sabato (Nino Barlini), Eva Marie Saint (Louise Frederickson), Jessica Walter (Pat Stoddard), Francoise Hardy (Lisa), Adolfo Celi (Agostini Manetta), Jack Watson (Jeff Jordan), and Toshiro Mifune (Izo Yamura)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Never give a trucker an even break

DUEL

Duel is the best TV movie ever made by a first-time film director in 13 days with practically no dialogue that isn't one guy talking to himself.  More importantly, it's also one of the supreme chase movies of all time.  (Plus, it has about thirty posters and all of them are just awesome.)

1971
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by Richard Matheson (based on the short story)
With Dennis Weaver ft. Dale Van Sickle (David Mann) and Cary Loftin (The Truck Driver)

Spoiler alert: severe

War and traffic accidents

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Gosh, I feel like a heretic just saying it's not the best film ever made.

2015
Directed by George Miller
Written by Brendan McCarthy, Nick Lathouris, and George Miller
With Tom Hardy (Max Rockatansky), Charlize Theron (Imperator Furiosa), Nicholas Hoult (Nux), Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (Splendid), Zoe Kravitz (Toast the Knowing), Riley Keough (Capable), Abbey Lee (The Dag), Courtney Eaton (Cheedo the Fragile), Melissa Jaffer (The Keeper of the Seeds), Megan Gale (The Valkyrie), and Hugh Keays-Byrne (The Immortan Joe)

Spoiler alert: mild