A tutto 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...

Notable only as the screen debut for hyper-comic Howie Mandel, "Gas" is so unforgettable that not one moment of the movie stuck in my mind except for the scene where Sterling Hayden berates his two incompetent nephews and blows them away with his six-shooters that are then revealed to have been loaded with blanks. And that was the closest to a funny joke in "Gas." Donald Sutherland appears as a traffic reporter in what looks like a tacked-on (and pointless) cameo to add a "name" to the cast.

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.

Wacky send-up of the gas crisis. This stillborn political farce centers around milk prices driving up gasoline prices. Just close your eyes and I'm sure you can predict the idiotic Arab gags.

The "conscience" of the movie is supposed to be Donald Sutherland as "Nozzle Nick" a helicopter traffic reporter. His 10 minutes on screen negate every good thing Mr. Sutherland has ever done.

Everyone who appeared in this one is a bad, bad person.

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.