Gas

This Canadian-made crap is my vote for worst film of all time. I noticed that the writer never wrote anything after this -- that is a good thing, obviously Hollywood never beckoned after witnessing this witlessness. The director made a handful of films I never heard of -- fortunately for us, nothing since 1987. Perhaps he's retired and living off of his "Gas" royalties. The plot concerns some nonsense about a fake gas shortage, obviously trying to strike a chord with the U.S.-OPEC based gas shortage problems in the early-mid '70's. Stupid, not the least bit funny. I wonder what the actors were thinking of when they signed on? The same year Donald Sutherland made this he also did "Ordinary People." I wonder if he bothers to list this one on his resume?

Although made in 1981, you'll think you've made your way back to the early seventies watching this stinker, and not in a good retro kinda sense either.If you are an adolescent male, and up to wasting 90 minutes of your life listening to bad jokes, this could be the one. There's tons of gratuitous sexual references (nothing ever happens), really bad writing, a boring car chase, and a performance by Donald Sutherland that even his mom would cringe at. To be avoided, this movie bites.

Wacky send-up of the gas crisis. This stillborn political farce centers around milk prices driving up gasoline prices. Just close your eyes and I'm sure you can predict the idiotic Arab gags.

The "conscience" of the movie is supposed to be Donald Sutherland as "Nozzle Nick" a helicopter traffic reporter. His 10 minutes on screen negate every good thing Mr. Sutherland has ever done.

Everyone who appeared in this one is a bad, bad person.

Where do I start? Is it the horrible writing? The atrocious acting? The unbelievably lame plot? If you want bad, this is your movie. I had the misfortune to be in the crowd of about 50 movie-goers when this assault on decently was released. By the end, about 10 people were left. There were no laughs. Unfortunately, unlike the classics such as Plan 9 from Outer Space, this one was not even schlocky enough to make it funny. Just a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad movie.

Aside from a couple reviews which were probably jokes (giving the film 10s), nearly all the reviews give this Canadian film a 1 or 2 at best. Clearly, "Gas" is NOT a very good movie...which is odd, since it stars (among others) Donald Sutherland...who had just come off his great performance in the multi-Oscar winning "Ordinary People". According to IMDB, he needed money badly and so he made this clunker. It's a shame...he was a terrific actor but I guess even terrific actors make some bad films.

The story in "Gas" is VERY episodic--with lots of frequent edits and not a lot in the way of plot. A really WEIRD guy (Sterling Hayden) has bought up all the gas in town and has created an artificial shortage. Folks' reactions to this constitute most of the film.

This is a bad film....a really bad film. Much of it is because the script lacks real laughs...a problem when it's supposed to be a comedy. Additionally, the acting is generally bad. Sterling Hayden, a man who had been a truly fine actor, was in his late phase as an actor...when he honestly behaved (on and off screen) as if he'd lost his mind. He's supported by the untalented Peter Aykroyd...who sounds like his brother but lacks comedic talents in the movie. He also wrote "Nothing But Trouble"...'nuff said. Howie Mandel is also there (in his first film) and he's actually a bit better than I expected. But pretty much everyone else is at their worst...including the director.

So is this worth seeing? No. It's not bad enough to merit viewing by bad film buffs...it's just bad and incredibly broadly acted and written. Not fun...more like a long, extended migraine.

By the way, while this is a terrible movie, I can't quite give it a 1. This is reserved for the truly astoundingly awful movies...and this one narrowly missed this wretched score.