Zero to Sixty

I just picked up this movie on the internet and after watching had mixed emotions. There really is NO plot line here. Darren McGavin has lost everything and seems like a wishy washy kind of turd in the punchbowl. Someone tries to Repo his ex-wife's car and that's how gets involved with the inept ring of repo guys, headed up by the tough as nails Sylvia Miles. McGavin's character Mike is teamed up with a 16 year old juvy who takes him in and falls in love with him. He doesn't feel the same(does the word statutory rape ring a bell???) but she wants to bang him anyway. Mike is too interested in banging some of the women who's cars are wanted by the bank and he ends up doing them too. There's not much to see in this film. Gratuitous car chases, goofy performances by the Hudson Brothers who were like the Three Stooges or trying to be like them, horrible fight scenes(though McGavin did know Karate but that wasn't evident here) and one bad love making scene with McGavin and Joan Collins(yes, Joan Collins). But it's fun to watch McGavin, he's a delight no matter what he does. Why did he do this schlock(filmed in Toronto I might add)? It was the pet project of his second wife, the late Kathie Browne. Oh, let me add 2 gratuitous scenes of McGavin's untanned butt. The highlight of the movie(at least to me).

Perhaps best known as Carl Kolchak and the Old Man character from A Christmas Story, Darren McGavin, who also wrote the screenplay, (under his real name, W. Lyle Richardson) stars as Michael Nolan, a middle-aged loser, whose wife divorces him and leaves him for broke, and screwed over by his slimy attorney (Dick Martin). He eventually befriends Larry (Denice Nickerson), a street-smart teenager, who has a job repossessing cars. Larry is determined to take back a silver Pontiac Trans Am belonging to sexpot socialite Gloria Martine (Joan Collins), who Michael is immediately turned on by. Of course, there's plenty of car chases and crashes and supporting parts from Sylvia Miles as the wacky agency owner, Dick Martin as a slimy divorce attorney and The Hudson Brothers as a trio of morons, who also work at the agency as repo men.

This awful movie purports to be a comedy, but the only way to tell is from the "wacky" music that plays during the supposed funny parts.

The story is almost non-existent, the characters are annoying and the chase scenes are trite. A car chase through a vegetable market? How unique.

I don't know how this movie got made but it had some fairly big TV stars for its day in the cast. Dick Martin and Lyle Waggoner had cameos. I'm not really sure why Darrin McGavin made this and he probably isn't either.

The movie is really terrible but it still has some power to make you sit transfixed and acknowledge how bad it is with out actually doing anything about it.

I like this movie although I am not sure why. I saw it more than 20 years ago on cable and thanks to OnDemand, I had the chance to see it again. No real plot to keep up with, but lots of crazy car chases and a script loaded with banter between Darren McGavin (who does way to many scenes in his underwear) and the young lady who played Violet in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." I always wondered why McGavin wasn't a bigger star and why he was relegated to B-movie material like this. He manages to save the film with his comic timing. Likewise, the young lady, whose name escapes me, is pretty funny too. As many of the posters have indicated, this is a fairly uncomfortable movie. After all, the teen-age lead wants to bed the significantly older (at least 50!) McGavin!??! Very weird! There's little chance this movie would get released today with such a premise. In any event, "Zero to Sixty" is fast-paced enough to be interesting and entertaining. Watching it will definitely bring back memories of those numerous Saturday afternoon matinées featuring mindless PG B-flicks loaded with profane scripts and plenty of car wrecks. Enjoy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the second greatest repo man movie of all-time! Darren McGavin stars Michael Nolan, a man in desperate need of a job following his recent divorce. He quickly finds one when his car is repossessed. New to the repo game, Nolan teams up with 16 year old "Larry" (Nickerson), a smart mouthed tomboy stolen straight out of THE BAD NEWS BEARS. As the duo cruise around town looking for their wares, a series of madcap encounters ensue including everything from mobsters to a sly vixen (Collins).

That plot synopsis may sound a bit thin and there is a reason for that. ZERO TO SIXTY basically has no plot. What makes the film enjoyable is the energy of Darren McGavin as the put upon husband turned repo man. Had any other actor filled that role, the film would not be as agreeable as it is now. McGavin brings that manic Kolchak liveliness to this character and it makes him awfully hard not to like. There is also pretty good chemistry between McGavin and young Nickerson, who is probably best remembered as Violet Beauregarde in WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971).

This brings me to the film's only really odd point. For the most part this is a breezy 70s comedy that, like the aforementioned BAD NEWS BEARS, teams up an older man with a young girl. The only difference here is that "Larry" actively tries to seduce McGavin's character! Needless to say, it creates some really odd moments. The filmmakers cover themselves by having McGavin shack up with sexier (and older) Joan Collins at one point in the film, but the weirdness returns when McGavin confesses to having thought about "getting it on" with "Larry" at the film's conclusion.

With such a thin plot, the film resembles a television show rather than a theatrical feature. It makes sense when one inspects director Don Weis' filmography; he did episodes of nearly every major 70s TV series from "Happy Days" to "CHiPs" to "Baretta" to "The Man from Atlantis." Actually, this would have been a pretty good ensemble series a la TAXI. Sylvia Miles co-stars as the repo shop owner who is constantly flirting with every man she sees. And 70s comedy/music trio The Hudson Brothers provide some Three Stooges inspired gags and the film's songs. You will definitely be humming the theme by the end because it is extremely catchy and pops up every time the smallest bit of action occurs on screen. Sharp eyed viewers will catch cameos by Dick Martin, Lorraine Gary and Lyle Waggoner. There are also a few nifty car stunts courtesy of Paul Baxley backed by son Craig Baxley (went on to become a successful stunt coordinator and film director in his own right).