Deadly Speed - Todesrennen auf dem Highway

Allegedly based on a true story, Siemaszko is a nurse having second thoughts about her career when she finds herself heading down the freeway with Judge Reinhold (in his most embarrassing screen appearance) and another dude, when her Rambler Hornet decides to drive itself!

Allegedly travelling at 100 MPH (which is more than 170 kph) we are treated to numerous external scenes where it is obvious the car is going no more than 30 or 40 mph. A baby in the besieged compact is winched to safety...something they could have done one hour earlier! The suspense is laughable, the effects worse, and the ending - missing! Why did no-one think to rip out the back seat, crawl into the trunk and puncture the gas tank or pour some water/soft drink into it??

Ultimately, the car crosses a bridge, falls off a road at about 30 mph and the credits roll! No explanation tendered for anything! About the same level as PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE except THAT was a classic movie!

This movie got nothing going for it. When I say nothing I mean NOTHING. How can people think up such crap and pass it off as a movie. There is not an ounce of realism in the plot and to top it off the acting is below par in fact way below par. It still baffles me why did the police just use a "stinger" to stop the car like they do on countless times to stop bad guys (in real life). If only the makers did include that into this movie, we would have been saved from facing such trash. I would give this flick a 1/100 rating.

Some may consider Runaway Car to be cheap exploitation--a Speed-ripoff in the high-occupancy lane. But this made-for-T-V thriller starring Judge Reinhold and Nina Siemazsko is so much more. Yeah, it's about a car that can't stop. But, Runaway Car is a wake-up call, a nightmarish fantasy about the total breakdown of the service industry. Siemazsko is Jenny, a nurse-in-training who nearly causes a botched operation. Upset, she picks up her car from the shop, where a desperate Reinhold finds out his car won't be ready for another week. He's got an important meeting with venture capitalists interested in his website idea. Jenny volunteers to give him a lift, but first they must pick up her sister's infant daughter. Baby makes three, and they're off. But before they can get out of the subdivision, they nearly run over wisecracking skateboarder Dex (Brian Hooks). He's hurt his knee, so Jenny offers to take Dex to the emergency room over the objections and grumbling of Ed. When they hit the freeway, the gas pedal gets stuck to the floor. When they try to pull it up, it breaks off, as does the key in the ignition. Soon the car is barreling down the freeway out of control. A good-hearted cop (single-named actor Leon) rides by their side trying to help, but much of the force would just as soon `take them out' as let them cause a pile-up. Also offering support is a police dispatcher who's (you guessed it) one day from retirement and a couple of talk-radio jocks. But they can do little for this disaster on wheels. Can they find a way to stop the car before it plummets off a raised drawbridge? Can a traffic helicopter lift the baby to safety? Did that cop really say, `It's not just a drawbridge-it's the end of the line'? This being on FOX, the answer is, of course, yes. The real moral of this story-know your mechanic.

It's a blatant Speed's rip off, low profile similitude, having aforetime a promising star Judge Reinhold as leading character only, this pseudo thriller mixing a comic orientation should be funny, in an utterly farfetched plot over the running car, a round-up of several farcical scenes where they trying deliver a baby into another car in high speed, helicopter lifting the weeping baby, blasting barrier at road, worst drawbridge wrecking in go down process and so for, letting the audience into laughs or despair or even both.

Therefore if us forget those oddities and the natural logic in is fair entertainment indeed, it's fully addressed for less demanding viewers as TV movie offering, the supporting cast is acceptable and deliver what the director Jack Shoulder expected, in other hand intriguingly no one at highway patrol never imagined or figure out a remote possibility to put on the road the those famous splint studded of nails used to stop occasional blockage runners, anyway it just for killing time if that.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1999 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 5.5.

Yes it's a badly-made movie. The acting and script are poor, and it has got the worst continuity error I've ever witnessed - watch the car hood. The black character is from some lousy Starsky episode. I first saw the movie on tv late-night. I wanted to get to bed but ended up watching it all the way through. When I saw it again I taped it and showed it to my 8-year old daughter. She came out of the room shaking and crying as a result of the baby-jeopardy-helicopter moment. (The only movie moment I can ever remember producing this effect in her). The damn thing's enjoyable. I find this with other "bad" movies. Somehow, the effect of knowing it's cheap and has no big stars can lead to a more relaxed honest enjoyment. As someone else said, watch it with a few cans.