The Georgia Peaches

This is not a really great movie, but it's an appearance of Tanya Tucker the country singer and Dirk Benedict before he became famous as Faceman on The A-Team. Dirk plays Dusty Tyree, a moonshine running fool if there ever was one. He's also somewhat of a beekeeper. He has a '79-'81 Firebird set up to haul moonshine in a tank. He runs stop signs and does 180s and drives fast backwards and when he's about to get caught, he dumps the moonshine out and ignites it, like in The Last American Hero. But he gets caught somehow sometime, and the Feds have him and the two young women in this story at their mercy. The three have to go undercover for the ATF to break up illegal cigarette smuggling. Some good Tanya Tucker music in this movie.

In recent years, B movie producer Roger Corman has been making product for television networks like the SyFy channel, but not many people know that he had started making product for television several decades earlier. "The Georgia Peaches" was made for American television as a series pilot. Seeing it, it isn't hard to figure out why this wasn't picked up for a subsequent TV series. The movie has decent production values (it was shown in theaters overseas), and Dirk Benedict, Tanya Tucker, and Terri Nunn make appealing leads. But the majority of the movie is dull. There isn't that much action, and with it being made for TV there is no swearing, sex, or nudity on display (though the female leads don't appear to be wearing bras in some scenes.) Watching it, you'll wonder why this TV movie was resurrected for DVD when there are so many better made-for-TV movies out there that are languishing on shelves.

In the 1970s, hixpliotation was big. As long as there's good stars in it, I will watch it. I saw it one time on a Saturday night, and it brought back memories. "The Georgia Peaches" is a good time romp. Not quite like "The Dukes of Hazzard". But it was fun. You got Dirk Benedict, fresh out of, "Battlestar Galactica", country singer, Tanya Tucker, and others to boot. With the driving and shooting, what else do you have. You have two sisters and a stock car driver who is also a moonshine deliver, they are forced to catch bootleg cigarettes smugglers and get pardoned for the offenses of their own. It's a good movie, I don't care about the critics responding.

2 out of 5 stars.

I first discovered The Georgia Peaches by accident on YouTube and after learning about, I decided to check it out. I absolutely loved it and it was a blast to watch being a Trans Am enthusiast, a Smokey and the Bandit and Dukes of Hazzard fan. I heard many negative things about this movie, more particularly from "Dukes" fans who claim it was a knock off of the series. This movie while does share some of the elements of Bandit and Dukes, it didn't feel like a knock off at all and did more of its own thing IMO. One thing that did strike me was that this movie seemed to be based off of a Dukes episode that aired months before this movie titled "Mason Dixon Girls" which had two girls and their male friend out whit bad guys, which the Dukes help out in. In the episode, they are seen driving a silver 1979 Trans Am convertible with blue decals. Georgia Peaches has a very similar format that has two girls and their male accomplice, who drives a silver Trans Am, but is an 1980 model with the 301 turbo and has red interior with the silver/red decals. Both programs were aired on CBS which makes it the more interesting.

Given the task to produce this film was Roger Corman and his studio, who mainly produce low-budget, yet very thrilling car action films with credits such as Cannonball (1976), Eat My Dust (1976), and Grand Theft Auto (1977). You can tell that they did not have a lot of money to work with this movie, but they did the very best they could and utilized it very well with great car chases, good stunt work and some car crashes, and a good cast.

Dirk Benedict was great and makes for a really great good ole boy character driving the Trans Am around and out-pacing the cops. Being a Trans Am enthusiast myself, the car was outstanding and the filmmakers added a unique feature to the car that not even the Dukes boys in the General Lee never thought of using to stop bad guys or the cops. The Trans Am here has a firing mechanism referred to as the claw that can tear out the rear axles of enemy vehicles and destroying evidence of moonshine. Tanya Tucker was great and does a good job acting considering she isn't a professional actress. Everybody was also great and gave their best in this film.

If you are a fan of Smokey and the Bandit, Dukes of Hazzard, or car chase films, I highly recommend this movie. For a low budget movie Georgia Peaches/Follow that Car was a blast to watch and its a very underrated gem of the 70's and 80's car chase genre. 8/10.

Roger Corman executive produced this pilot to a proposed TV series. Obviously patterned somewhat after 'The Dukes of Hazzard', it combines action, comedy, sex appeal, and country music, and is pretty easy to take. There's very little unpleasantness; other than assorted fights and punches thrown, there's hardly any violence. Cormans' longtime colleague Daniel Haller, a former production designer and art director who did some of his best work in that capacity on Cormans' Edgar Allan Poe series, guides things with reasonable efficiency.

A number of familiar faces are featured in this story about two sassy Georgia sisters, Lorette and Sue Lynn Peach (played by singers Tanya Tucker and Terri Nunn). Lorette, Sue Lynn, and their hunky moonshiner friend Dusty (Dirk Benedict of later 'A-Team' fame) are framed for crimes by conniving kingpin Vivian Stark (Sally Kirkland), and in order to avoid going to prison, agree to cooperate with special agent Randolph Dukane (Lane Smith).

Predictably enough, this gives country star Tucker and Berlin front woman Nunn a few opportunities to belt out some numbers, but the music is quite engaging, as is the pilot itself. It amuses the viewer without being really memorable, but it does put Ms. Tucker into some uncomfortable positions (dragged behind a boat, stuffed into a freezer). Fortunately, you can never keep our upbeat hero and heroines down for long, and they're ready to give the bad guys plenty of ass-whuppings.

Also putting in appearances are top character actors like Dennis Patrick ("Joe"), David Hayward ("Nashville"), Burton Gilliam ("Blazing Saddles"), Noble Willingham ('Walker, Texas Ranger'), David Tress ("Stone Cold"), Ed Bakey ("The Sting"), and Bob Hannah ("Coal Miner's Daughter"). Incidentally, Elijah Christopher Perry (a.k.a. Jerry Rushing) has a small role; Mr. Perry was a key inspiration for 'The Dukes of Hazzard', and also acted in things like "Whiskey Mountain", "Wise Blood", and "Final Exam".

There's nothing special here, but it will still likely provide you with some amusement if you like the Dukes and other Southern set action flicks from this period. Just be aware that since it's made for TV, there is no sex, nudity, profanity, or blood.

Six out of 10.