Double Nickels

Smokey is a highway patrolman in California who decides to make some extra money with his partner by repossessing cars (and even the occasional boat) whose owners have been lax in making payments. That's it for the plot. This movie wasn't made to be plot-heavy. It was made to show various car chases and have tires screeching. And it does. When Smokey finds out some of the repo'd vehicles are actually stolen and on the 'hot sheet' he and his cop partner have to swing into action to make sure they don't end up in the slammer.

Lotsa car chases and stunts, a little romance (Smokey finds himself a tolerant girlfriend) and some reasonably likable characters make this a fun movie to watch if you're into drive-in movies from the (sadly) long-gone 1970s -- when the livin' was free and easy. Looks like some of the movie was filmed on the Pacific Coast Highway, I might add. No studio stuff here . . .

TIME TO BURN RUBBER.

I'm trying to be fair on movies that haven't been discovered by many. Some have been very good while others were god-awful. And some have been unusual, yet politically incorrect by today's standards. These low-key "drive-in" movies of the 70s are worth the satisfaction today, if you seriously choose to accept them. Which makes DOUBLE NICKELS a prime example. It's your average everyday rip-off of GONE IN 60 SECONDS (its actor, George Cole, stars in this film), and while it isn't as smashing or thrilling, it still manages to deliver some fun. Nothing is more sacred than watching lunatic repo men steal autos just to run down the highway with a bunch of sleazy cops after them, of course. The comedy is okay even if the acting is low-class. One memorable scene that must be believed: a Pinto going down a narrow stairway with a cop car from behind! You won't find it different, but at least this was better than that dismal CAR CRASH, a "speedsploitationer" featuring Joey Travolta. This is good for members of the Grand Theft Auto Club.

Does anyone know the name "Smokey" appears in a few other classic car chase films that exist? That includes the Burt Reynolds masterpiece.

"Double Nickels" has been all but forgotten since its theatrical release. It has been seldom shown on television, I've only come across one movie reference book that mentions it over the years, and it never got a home video release until its copyright ran out several years ago, prompting cheapo DVD companies to find battered prints and release it. Seeing it, it's easy to see why it's drifted into obscurity. To be fair, some of the dialogue scenes have an effective natural feel, like the movie is a documentary and we are peeking into the lives of real people. But I'm hard pressed to think about anything else positive about this movie. There is barely a plot, with the movie often progressing like the filmmakers are making it up as they go along. And the vehicular scenes are incredibly boring when they should be exciting. The closing credits thank H. B. Halicki, the creative force behind the drive-in classic "Gone In 60 Seconds". Had he directed this movie, I'm sure the movie would have been better, at least with the vehicular scenes.

This obscure car chase comedy was mostly from the same cast and crew that created the original Gone in 60 Seconds. However, the leading role goes to Jack Vacek, who had worked as cinematographer in 60 and does a pretty decent acting job as the film's cool-cat hero Smokey. The cinematography by Tony Syslo (who would later work as the DP in Halicki's The Junkman) is appropriately gritty, grainy, and sunny to support the backdrop of mid-1970s California. Ed Abrams is also a riot as Smokey's pal and Patrice Schubert is perfect as Smokey's girlfriend. George Cole (Atlee from 60) also appears as one of the repossessors and his sons Anthony and Michael, the low riders appear, ditching their cramped white Cadillac and driving sparkly clean Ford Econo vans.

The car chases aren't exactly as thrilling as Halicki had staged in 60, but they're decent enough to please fans of the genre, particularly a sequence where a Ford Pinto is pursued down a set of stairs and a rollicking police chase through the Los Angeles storm drain. All in all, a valiant effort.

"Smokey" (played by actor / director / co-writer / executive producer / producer / co-editor Jack Vacek) is an amiable highway patrolman who's good buddies with one of his co-workers, Ed (actor / art director Ed Abrams). One day he pulls over a man, George (George Cole) who turns out to be a repo man. Smokey takes George up on his offer: become a repo man himself for some additional cash. Things head South when Smokey and Ed realize that the vehicles that they've been repossessing are being reported as stolen. So they're obliged to take on the brains behind the operation in order to keep from going to jail.

Made by some of the people who worked on the drive-in classic "Gone in 60 Seconds", "Double Nickels" naturally has a pretty simplistic, silly script. It's mostly one car chase after another, but that should come as no surprise. Overall it's rather crude, and *is* amateurishly acted, but when it comes to action sequences it delivers the goods fairly well. A lot of cars go very fast and sometimes crash into things; one thing that helps the proceedings is that Vacek and company do maintain a sense of humour and fun that makes this palatable if nothing special. Vacek, Abrams, and Cole are reasonably likable, as is lovely Patrice Schubert as Jordan, a nice gal whom Smokey pulls over at one point and who becomes an understanding girlfriend. Decent tunes are another asset. The unqualified highlight happens when a cop car chases a Pinto down a narrow set of stairs. It's absurd enough to be fairly memorable.

Fans of this kind of entertainment will likely find that this kills time easily enough.

Five out of 10.