Gas

I was lucky enough to see the set of this picture in Montreal(by the way, most of it are torn down these days, among these: the two gas stations became Medical Clinics, the viaduct on Mountain Street is thorn down and now has housing, and the climatic end scene shot on the old LaSalle Coke fields is now a shopping mall...). The story seems promising, but when I saw the end result... Disappointing !

A boring, badly acted movie, very unpredictable, full of sexist and racist overtones (even Arabs are trashed here !) and one of the most tiresome and annoying car pursuits ever shot...

I pity everyone who participated in this. Even Donald Sutherland has done better... And the others ???? Gone with the torn sets and buildings which served for this "running on empty" turkey...

Another sad attempt to pass Montreal as an American city... Noticeable cardboard English signs over French ones and the false "Health Spa" set next to the Gas Station and that stupid statue... Producers learned from then....

A movie to forget...

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.

The writing is cheap and horrible, the jokes are pathetic, and I'll be nice about my opinion of the acting by not saying anything...

I saw this movie broadcast on television, and I found myself actually looking FORWARD to the commercials! The only thing I found half interesting was seeing Peter Aykroyd in a movie - one of the few he has made. His voice is almost identical to his brother Dan's voice.

Please spare yourself the trouble. This one isn't even worth watching as a joke. It makes me cringe at being Canadian, as it's a Canadian 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.

I am so happy for the internet because it provides an opportunity to comment about the absolutely worse movie I've ever seen. When I saw GAS I knew it was bad. Over the past 25 years I've watched a number of bad films, but nothing impresses like this.

This incoherent waste of someone's ability to raise funds for a "movie project" is meaningful only for those who can appreciate the irony of the highest level of self-indulgence that fund raisers might provide. If you are curious as to how low someone might sink in the business of film making - watch this film.

Maybe you're thinking - oh this would be fun to watch with a group of alcohol or drug enhanced friends. Promise me to write the website when you do, because I truly believe you will say - "Drunk as I was, this movie stunk".

And Don Sutherland must have been on a fairly serious bender.