Gib Gas... und laßt euch nicht erwischen

I did buy the DVD of this film because it was a Ron Howard's first movie. Since the film he has made a few good films and few really bad Hollywood entertaining films.

With Roger Corman producing this has always been considered as an "B" film. Well, it certainly isn't that. It is a funny action comedy with good cast, good director and good writers. And what a name for the film!

If you're looking for fun, non-boring, happy and even romantic film, you should definitely get this.

7 of 10

Before Ron Howard made his most famous movies, he started with this ultra-wacky car chase story. Sam Freeman (Howard) and Paula Powers (Nancy Morgan) try to announce their marriage plans to her parents', but the latter refuse to accept it. So, Sam and Paula run away in a car. As the story progresses, the whole situation snowballs. That is, more and more people get drug in. And of course, a bunch of cars get wrecked. Much like in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", everyone drives in every direction at top speed, damn the peripheral consequences.

One thing that really caught my eye was that Marion Ross starred in "Grand Theft Auto". You may remember her as Marion Cunningham on "Happy Days". I guess that you could say that Richie decided to cast his mom. Maybe it would look like this:

Marion: "Now Richard, always remember to be careful behind the wheel."

(Richie zooms off.)

Marion: "He always took after Howard when it came to driving."

***

Either way, the movie's outlandish (in fact, it's done like a B-movie), but it's impossible not to like.

Ron Howard's directorial debut (in which he also stars) is a pretty good piece of drive-in movie fun, with a silly but fast-paced story and enough car chases and crashes to keep those who go for this kind of thing plenty satisfied. A handful of familiar faces in amusing cameos add to the fun.

Nutty, non stop laughfest depicting 2 idealistic, love struck teens determined to make it to Vegas to be wed against the wishes of the bride's parents. This sets off a huge manhunt for the pair by any and every breed of looney, each intent on cashing in on the 25K reward. Never have I seen this many wrecks; dozens and dozens, maybe more. Kooky comedy at it's best.

"Grand Theft Auto" is Ron Howard's second attempt at a car chase n' crash movie. It is a lot better than his first, "Eat my Dust", but it still isn't the best. The plot is that a girl runs away to Las Vegas with a guy she likes, and is being Chased down by her parents, a jealous lover, cops, and many other randos trying to collect a bounty on them. The script writing wasn't the best. It starts off good enough, then downgraded to just being jam packed with stuff, and by stuff I mean excuses to put car crashes and stunts. The car action was really nice, but it gets old after a while. Near the end, a lot of sense in writing and direction is lost, rather just being cars mindlessly crashing into each other. There are some pros to the script, as every once in a while you'll get a funny joke. The the cast of characters participating in the chase Aren't the best people. They aren't really fleshed out, and there's way too many of them. By the end, over 20 people are chasing and racing against each other, and after a while I just stopped keeping track of them. The acting saved this film a bit. Overall, a wild car action comedy, jam packed with cars, crashes, and explosions.