O Assassino da Auto-Estrada

I had never heard of this film until last night. I saw it yesterday evening on cable. I like to see what some film makers do when they're in a very tight budget, as in this case, but this movie is very far away from Carpenter's fantastic and enjoyable low budget movie "They live".

I got caught up but the first 30 minutes or so, I was enjoying the mood, the photography and lighting, camera plans and movements, but that mood starts to fade away, and the argument becomes a bit muddy...

Belzer does a pretty good job until the end of the movie, contributing with a decent representation of a somewhat interesting character.

James Russo wasn't able to talk anyone into his "bad" attitude, and there are many question marks to put to the weak and sometimes inconsistent argument, namely the relation between Russo and Darlanne Fluegel, which is quite OK and very sexy throughout the movie.

After 1 hour, you start wondering what happened to the mood shown at the beginning, and it just gets pretty tedious until the predictable ending, with the blonde angelical nurse/doctor becoming a "devil" in leather driving a red firebird.

Gladly, the psycho man in the plot is played by Billy Drago, which is quite entertaining, as usual.

Bottom line - see it if you have absolutely nothing better to do, otherwise don't waste your time on it.

I'm a fan of Crash and Blade Runner and this movie explores some of those highway death and 80s film noir themes that I like to see, so I enjoyed it.

In general though, the essential stupidity of the film noir protagonist is not pulled off well by the female lead and her hero is nearly a neanderthal, hence the kitch warning.

I think it was Dennis Miller who coined calling Richard Belzer ,"the Belz." Anyhow, FREEWAY was made somewhere in between stand-up dates by Belzer, long before Homicide hit television. Of course, Belzer had done other flicks before(THE GROOVE TUBE), so he was fairly comfortable in front of the camera.

And, in fact, Belzer is the only entertaining thing about FREEWAY. The plot itself concerns a road-rager (back in the late 80's, this was un-hip) who blows the heads off of people. This psycho(the ever-employed Billy Drago)gets caught up with the Belz, with one of the killings being heard by Belzer.

James Russo, as always, thinks he's tough. But, like Mickey Rourke(sometimes), acting tough and being tough are two separate things.

FREEWAY is not so hot, and the low-budget shows. But, if you are a Belzer fan(I know you're out there), then this may be worth a look.

Everyone else, beware, THIS FILM IS TEDIOUS AND OVERLONG.

I love Freeway! What a four-eyed, club-footed, red-headed stepchild of a movie! James Russo wants to be Mickey Rourke *sooooo* bad--and what issue of Penthouse did Darlanne Fluegel escape from? This is one of those enjoyably bad movies that you might refer to as a guilty pleasure. Richard Belzer is good as the disc jockey who receives phone calls from the psycho killer. And as the psycho killer... well, no one makes a more entertaining psycho than Billy Drago. The most chilling scene in the movie is the one where Darlanne and James find the picture of ol' Billy dressed as a priest. Best watched late at night with a small gathering of smart-alec pals, MST3K-style.

A B movie like "Freeway" is a sometimes frustrating experience, because you can see that in several aspects the filmmakers reached their goals... but can also see in other aspects that the filmmakers screwed up. What they did manage to succeed with is with the direction of the movie. Though made on a low budget (like other movies New World Pictures handled during this time), there is real atmosphere here. The movie has a slick but moody look feel thanks to the cinematography and the musical score. Also, the murder and action sequences are for the most part well constructed enough that they do manage to pack a little punch, though the climatic sequence should have had far more bite.

Unfortunately, while the movie looks and feels good, the filmmakers were working with a screenplay that is simply inadequate. There isn't much of a story here, and what there is unfolds at a very slow pace. Also weak are the characters; they are either shallow or don't get to do that much that's important.

In the end, we have a movie that's kind of a disappointment, and will probably frustrate viewers looking for B movie entertainment. I would, however, recommend the movie to low budget filmmakers to give them clues as to how to make their own movies look and feel good... and to remind them that it's important to have a well-written script.