Jogos de Estrada

Nice, quiet thriller with hitchcockian tones, with Stacy Keach as a truck driver would be Sherlock Holmes in the Australian wilderness, following a possible hitchiker murderer. With a young and pretty Jamie Lee Curtis and several curious cameos. Not to be missed if you like a strange, fascinating road movie.

Roadgames is a pretty good thriller about truck driver Quid (Stacey Keach) follows what he suspects to be a serial killer along the Southern Australia interstates. Having only the circumstantial clues and never actually witnessing any of the murders, Quid isn't sure whether this guy really is the serial killer that police reports on the radio indicate, or whether it is Quid's psychological games about guessing what people on the road could be like when he passes a noisy family in a station wagon and guesses the occupation of the driver. Quid is pushed nearly to the brink of insanity as he tries to distinguish between fact and fiction as he and the green van play cat and mouse all over the outback.

It's a really good thriller and better than say, The Hitcher, another movie involving a serial killer along deserted highways that torments a driver. But the difference is that Quid has limited interaction with his suspect, because the whole time you're left guessing whether the guy in the green van is really a killer at all, or whether it was just another one of Quid's games meant to entertain himself, but gone totally out of control. The movie has very Hitchcock-esque traits such as building Quid up from a normal man to one that starts to develop something almost like a split personality as he drives himself crazy trying to figure out the deal his adversary. Or the way that everyone in town seems to turn against Quid even though he is supposed to be the innocent person here. It's also good with some of that good Stacey Keach sarcasm and delivery. I think he fit the part of Quid quite nicely. Despite the fact that the story starts to lose momentum towards the end (but not the conclusion), it is nonetheless, a pretty good thriller.

Richard Franklin's potboiler "Road Games" is quite an accomplishment of Australian cinema. That's right Quentin. I know we agree. While transporting pork to Perth trough the whole Australia, American truck driver Pat Quid (Stacy Keach) traces a serial killer who tries to get rid of the body of the girl he's recently murdered. In the meantime, Pat meets Pamela (Jamie Lee Curtis) who decides to help him capture the dangerous psycho. Due to its tone, the movie feels like Hitchcock's "Rear Window" on the road. Screenwriter Everet De Roche presents travellers as some kind of integral community comprising of totally different people connected by accident. It's to director Franklin's credit though that the movie is so frantic and suspenseful throughout. There are moments of sheer genius when the movie gets almost unbearably tense in its crucial scenes including unique finale. All in all, "Road Games" is a cleverly scripted, refreshing thriller that just waits to be rediscovered and admired. 8/10 (B+)

While driving alone through the Australia outback with his dingo, the truck driver Patrick Quid (Stacy Keach) becomes aware that a serial killer is attacking women and he suspects that the driver of a green van is the murderer and is getting rid of the bodies in pieces in plastic bags burying them in the desert. On his way to Perth with a load of pork meat, he gives a ride to the hitchhiker Pamela Rushworth (Jamie Lee Curtis) and tells his theory about the killer to her. When they park in a gas station, they see the van and Pamela decides to break in the car to investigate. When Pamela disappears, Pat pursuits the van while he becomes the prime suspect of the police.

"Roadgames" is a suspenseful black humor road movie, with a good and very tense story, great lines and excellent acting of Stacey Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis. The lead couple shows a fantastic chemistry in a plot that is a sort of combination of "Duel" and "The Hitchhiker". The sexy Jamie Lee Curtis is in the top of her beauty and Stacey Keach has one of his best performances in this attractive film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Enigma na Estrada" ("Enigma on the Road")

Truck driver Pat Quid (Stacy Keach), transporting meat across Australia, believes a suspicious van driver he continually sees on his trip may be responsible for a series of hitchhiker murders. Along the way Quid picks up a hitchhiker (Jamie Lee Curtis) and tells her his suspicions. The two try to track the van driver while Quid becomes the police's number one suspect for the murders.

I think Richard Franklin is one of the more under-appreciated directors from the '80s. He made several interesting films before fading into mediocrity in the '90s, a fate that befell many '80s directors. There's a strong Hitchcock influence throughout Franklin's work, including this film, which should come as no surprise for the man who would go on to direct Psycho II. For his part, Stacy Keach carries the movie with ease. He reminds me of some of the protagonists from great Hitchcock thrillers who were normal, easy-going guys that were thrust into dangerous plots. This is easily the best performance I've seen from Keach. Jamie Lee Curtis is likable in her small part as the hitchhiker, a role similar to the one she played in The Fog the year before.

I've always enjoyed this movie. It's a fun, suspenseful thriller with a good cast and some dark humor. One of the better "killer on the road" movies I've seen.