Jeremy_Urquhart

So hard to talk about The Bunker without thinking about Downfall. There was a choice between rewatching that and watching this, after finishing a lengthy book about Germany during World War II, and I'm still thankful I went with this, even if it wasn't great.

Anthony Hopkins played the failed Austrian painter himself, which sure is something to see. His performance is good for a tv movie of this era, but I wouldn't say it's one of his best performances if you compare it to the more lavishly produced and professional films he's appeared in.

The tv movie-ness of it all weighs things down, but the lack of a budget (and the sense that they probably filmed this fairly fast) also makes me want to be a little less harsh towards it. As for painting Speer as someone with a conscience, I know that's not aged well, but he seemed like he convinced a lot of people that's how he was, and it was after his death (the same year The Bunker came out, by chance) that the historical account was altered/fixed.

I guess at the end of the day, this is decent for what it is, but probably only has merit nowadays if you're a World War II buff (though it's not really going to tell you much you don't know if you are, I guess) or a big Anthony Hopkins fan.

Cars are scary in real life, given how many accidents and deaths they cause, but you can't make cars scary in the horror genre. Stephen King gave it a shot with Christine and, to a lesser extent, From a Buick 8, and I'd say both of those are among his weaker efforts. The Car pre-dated either of those, though, and is indeed about a scary car with some sort of supernatural entity making it kill people, and that's it. I'm not expecting anything amazing out of a B-movie from the 1970s with that sort of premise, but I would've liked just a little more.

Still, I can't hate it. And I don't even hate Christine either, I just don't think it works as something frightening. They went for it with The Car, and maybe I kind of admire that dedication to something so silly, and for them largely playing it straight (or at least straighter than you'd expect). And there was one moment that surprised me, going into the final act, which energized the last half-hour or so a little more than what came before, so that's worth something, too.