Midnite Spares

Like the first 'Gone in 60 Seconds', this Australian import is about car thieves. Some nice shots of hot rods and muscle cars from Down-under.

The plot? Steal cars and take them to the 'Chop Shop'. The first car to get the treatment is a Charger, driven in and cut up for parts. Followed by a hot Ford Fairlane, which gets into a street race. Production values are fair to good. Good movie for automobile fans.

In an era when Australia was releasing some pretty great titles Midnight Spares comes along and lowers the bar a little.

Look its not horrible but its not really worth your time either.

What has resulted here, is not a badly made film. I gotta be honest with ya. It's got a lot more going for it, than the slightly bland, Running On Empty, this one slightly better. Again, centered around fast cars, whatever, I've found this pic quite entertaining, and it's thanks to the characters, bad or good. We got hot chicks, bad cops, mobsters, and a young man looking for his father, a race champion who's disappeared, where seeing other films with these stories, the inevitability is pretty obvious. where Steve, (Laurie) also a race car driver (and he is good) is out for avengement to take down these baddies. Some of the great moments of the films, are from Bruce Spence (Stork) and David Argue, as layabout mechanics. Spence with his towing truck business, farts and loves accidents, as it means more work. Jonathan Coleman is funny as a cringing sleaze bag, racist, lowlife, cafe worker, who is the bad guy's ears, if wanting info, a sort of middleman, I guess. Even in it's starting, the film entertains, where it shows how these stolen car rackets work. I don't know, this film, just really entertained me, where there are a lot of funny moments, and hardly a dull one in the film. Too, Laurie who strikes up a relationship with a Greek cafe girl, (a younger Gia Carides) is copping pressure from her olds as of course, Laurie's not Greek. The scene where the whole street of Greeks, watch Laurie drive off with Carides is an unforgettable one, as is the single line of dialogue which follows from each of the youngsters. The rock track "Love Is The Law" is awesome. This is just a livelier car stealing movie, which even has a nice little strip scene, just for the bad guys, which is a diversion, like this film might be, if happening to catch it.

To put this film into perspective.Perhaps not sophisticated by to days "movies".Its takes Australians back to bygone days.Rich historical scenes never to be seen of Sydney ever again.A wonderful time warp.

Despite an exciting trailer and raving reviews, I found myself somewhat let down on viewing this movie.

What should be an exciting and explosive Action/Adventure is really a bore of a car movie with "jokes" with the only highlight being the explosive action filled demolition derby of a finale, hence the reason this movie gets a 4 instead of a 2 or a 1.

If you do happen to rent or buy this movie, it's ideal to skip it the finale for the best car-related action sequence you are ever likely to see.

As a final point, I would like to say I was very disappointed by this cult movie, but was glad I at least saw it (Thank Jesus I didn't buy it). 4 stars out of 10.