Le roi de la montagne

This movie is quite good. More action than that sucky commercial flick Gone in 60 Seconds that bored me in six milliseconds! THIS IS A CLASSIC CAR ACTION FILM IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD. Great action throughout, a fair script and good actors, although it may not have been their best acting performance. The real stars (the cars) are not forgotten here. If you do get to see this movie, check out the cool mid-70's white Datsun 280-Z with diagonal striping on doors. I saw an example of one of these cars in a magazine with a Chevy 350 installed. And of course, Steve's (Harry Hamlin) Porsche 356 Speedster with Centerline wheels on WIDE B.F. Goodrich tiers under AC Cobra like wheel well flares! This move will satisfy all car nuts. And some who aren't! This was the days before the after- market auto industry made it possible for just about anyone to build a cool car through a catalogue or the Internet. None of these cars are straight of the shelf. Except perhaps for a 1980 Chevy Camaro Z28 and a Jaguar XKE. I have this movie on videotape that had to have been recorded in the mid-80's by a friend or myself when I was around 13 years old. Unfortunately, I can't find this movie being sold on VHS or DVD anywhere. Enjoy it, if you can find it. If you think you would like this kind of movie, try finding `The Driver' with Ryan O'neal and Bruce Dern too!

Although there are some death scenes, this movie captured the LA culture of the late '70s, early '80s spot on.

The movie captures the freedom and the energy America had some years ago before it started to shift to more of a beehive mentality. It also features the pre Gen-X culture when the ME generation ruled the world.

One thing I can say about the ME generation is that they can party like nobody else. Music was big part of it, and the music in this movie is great.

The women of this movie are also great. I'm sure some women would say the same about the men in this movie too.

What this country lost in terms of the car culture seems to be still going in parts of Asia, especially Japan. Initial D is almost a transplant of this movie to the hills of Mt. Akina.

The good old days. I like this movie better than the Easy Rider. It really brings back the good times.

I saw King of the Mountain on HBO in the 80's. Hamlin plays a street racer with a dark mysterious side, and the current King of the Mountain. Hopper plays the former King, a ruthless drunk racer. The film comes across as low budget and has a slow plot, but its one of those movies that for some inexplicable reason you like. It also has a decent soundtrack.

You'd probably think by judging the cover of this old action flick, it's average. And you'd be dead right. This film actually even had a book too, if you can believe. What this film is basically about, is about petrol heads racing each other on the snaking high top road, above the twinkling lights of L.A known as Mulholland Drive. Everyone wants to be the fastest, hence claim the title of this film. Good luck to to them. We have an array of known actors. Even Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty gets in on this one, as an older and wiser mechanic who gave up being a petrol head, cause he knew it was his time. He lectures Hamlin, the new wannabe winner, to mull his future if continuing to race, and where is it leading. This is basically the message: Do you wanna keeping racing cars or make something of yourself. Some of his friends too play in a struggling band, Hamlin's new love (Van Valkenberg) a singer. Some of racing scenes at night are impressive, I must admit, but what this story rides low is any real kind of story, which here is devoid of plot, yet near the end, racing nutter Cal (Hopper) challenges Bottoms to a race or vice versa, where he accepts, this leading to tragedy, where Hamlin becomes the avenging racer. Really a film for speed freaks.

I first saw this cultural time capsule while working as a movie usher when it first came out in 1981 ... and a few dozen times since then on fuzzy, edited TV broadcasts and VHS. Was finally excited to see it again in high resolution widescreen on Amazon Prime last night ... check it out while it's up! I just love the song and performance of "Dangerous Strangers" by Deborah Van Valkenburgh.