Evel Knievel

Whether or not you are a fan of Evel Knievel, the made for television movie has its moments. Having to rush a story in under 2 hours including commercial time, most of TNT movies fall short of anything great. The casting of Pressly and Bridges in the movie was great. Although they are supporting leads, they are what holds the movie together. Beau Bridges is great in pretty much anything he touches. Jaime Pressly has come a long way from her earlier films she was casted in for her "assets." Here, she shows her acting talents alongside her beauty. All in all, Evel Knievel is somewhat of a fun ride that takes you into the story of one of America's misunderstood Dare-devils.

I caught this "made for TV movie" Sunday, 8/1/04. George Eads was GREAT in it.

The movie centered on Evel Knievel's life and how he rose from working in the mines to becoming America's #1 daredevil, at least on a motorcycle.

The movie covered his smaller jumps as well as the grand and near impossible ones. The Ceasar's Palace Fountain jump was portrayed very graphically with what I'm guessing was actually footage of the real crash combined with shot footage for the film. You could almost feel Evel's bones breaking when he flew over the handlebars and you could see the emotion in Linda's eyes when the doctors told her that he may never come out of his coma and if he did he would never walk again, much less ride. As we know, he proved them wrong and went on to more daring jumps, such as the attempt at Snake River Canyon.

I wish they had continued with the story, but I guess two-hours was long enough to get the point across. It was nice to see the footnotes at the end telling of Evel's 276 successful jumps and noting that his son, Robbie Knievel is the only person to ever successfully complete the jump over the fountain at Ceasear's Palace in Las Vegas.

This is quite an exciting movie with a charming if temperamental lead character who thinks he is the white Muhammad Ali. No, wait, Ali is the black Evel Knievel.

It's not an award-winning movie by any means, but there are some good performances. George Eads is quite talented, for this material, with this unbelievable confidence and charm. Fred Thompson does his usual fine job as the man who runs Caesar's Palace. Evel's nurse has only a couple of lines but Quancetia Hamilton makes the most of them. Jaime Pressly, before she ever won her two Emmys for "My Name Is Earl", certainly showed what she was capable of. I was particularly impressed with a scene where Evel pretends to have an accent while talking on the phone in a phone booth.

As is often the case with biographical movies, this movie puts a little too much emphasis on the angry moments. I'm pleased that they didn't go overboard making Evel's home life look bad. Linda really was committed to the "stand by your man" attitude, for whatever reason. The real footage, while not high quality compared to what is possible today, is quite effective.

I didn't know a lot about Evel before I saw this movie. I actually thought the Grand Canyon stunt had really happened. So I didn't know what was real and what wasn't. After looking up some real information about the man, I see the movie left a lot out and made some things happen at different times than they really did, but for what this movie is, it's pretty entertaining and there's no point in getting too concerned about what they got wrong. The important information is there.

And maybe they didn't get things wrong. Perhaps in 1950, Bobby steals the hubcaps off this amazing car whose radio can play songs that won't be recorded for several more years. Bobby is chased by a cop with a car that won't be available to the general public for eight more years. Years later the same cop is still driving that same car after all these years, but now anyone can get one like it.

Ideal was a company which according to this movie already made Rubik's cubes in 1970, and had a giant unsolved one in a conference room.

It was an entertaining effort.

I wonder if the real Evel had anything to do with this? Not only was it nothing like what really happened, the movie also used many props that just did not exist! Like the Ceasars Palace jump in '68, Evel is wearing a full-face style of helmet that didn't even exist then! And the music in the background that was playing..Call Me the Breeze, by Lynrd Skynrd was a 1974 song! Was this movie supposed to appeal to todays kids only?

Because if it was, then these important facts don't matter!

Just like the battery flashlights in the 1997 movie Titanic! At least the always scrumptious Jamie Pressley was in it and looking fine!

Unless you grew up in the 70's and were a die-hard Evel fan as a kid growing up, do yourself a favor and avoid this garbage film. Believe me, you'll thank me for saving you from wasting two hours of your life.

George Eads is handsome, and with some proper screen writing and direction, he would probably be regarded as THE best actor to play Knievel going forward. However, this movie is so incredibly bad, that not even Eads' stunning good looks or those of his co-star Jamie Pressley can save this movie from certain disaster.

Accomplished actors Beau Bridges and Lance Hennricksen were signed on in an obviously desperate attempt to lend some credibility, but I'd be willing to bet that both men would rather that you never knew that either of them ever appeared in this unqualified disaster.

The jump scenes were laughable, and believe me when I say I'm being polite by phrasing it that way. A first year college film school director could have devised a better set of scenes. They were shot in such an incredibly bad and hokey manner that I actually felt sorry for all those who were involved in their creation.

As I said, save yourself some time and aggravation and avoid this movie at all cost.