Les Pilotes de l'extrême

I was subjected to this movie the other night after being unable to choose the movie that me, my roommate, and my roommate's girlfriend were to watch that night. I have learned never to let my roommate or his girlfriend pick a movie again! The story involves a man trying to break the landspeed record and his past creeps up on him. While there were some fine actors in the movie (Ray Wise being the best in my opinion), Billy Zane looked like the wooded Ken doll he so desperately wants to be. The script felt like it was written for a ten year old and the movie looked like it ran out of money while shooting it. The effects looked so lame. Thank god my roommate's girlfriend likes the Ken doll look on Mr. Zane or I would have pulled this out of the DVD player and used the DVD as a coaster for my can of soda.

Do yourselves a favor: rather rent "Istar." At least it is so bad you can laugh at it's badness.

Someone mentioned that the cars were cool. If any of them, besides the Demon, were real and not 100% CG, that might be true. As for the acting, some cheese balls but I think Zane did an OK job. I think a little bit of fiberglass and paint would have made much better cars than the terrible computer effects that they TRIED to use. I'll give the movie a C+ with the understanding that the FX deserve an F------------. I'm sure you'll give the FX the same grade just after watching the Porsche get away from the hummers. It just looked SO BAD!!! Did I mention that the FX SUCKED??

I hope Zane and everyone else in this flick `FORGET' to put this on their resume's. LOL

This had so much potential but fell short on many levels.

First...hard to imagine a $50 million dollar prize...if the winner gets that much...how much do the initial investors and organizers make?

Why couldn't anybody afford to put their logo on a car that is going to make part of history? Nobody can throw a sticker on a high powered race car for any sort of sponsorship money? The car was almost 20 feet long, if not longer and nobody had the guts to go to a 7-11 and say to the guys...hey, we got a 2 million dollar car that needs a logo on the side...how much money you got to throw up a sticker so that millions of viewers can see this advertising? Come on...they are in America...land of the conglomerate and corporations. Somebody somewhere wants instantaneous brand recognition...not just the oil refineries.

One very very important note...during a highly televised event, there were barely any spectators, no vendors, barely any news-crews or journalists. NOBODY cheered...

I've seen street-fights with more crowd participation and turnout.

What was supposed to be the buildup of such an extravagant event in history was dismissed as if it was just 2 dudes with a Mustang and a Camaro street racing in an empty shopping mall parking lot.

While it had action....there was nothing to sustain it, to make it seem real. If there was a crowd, and groupies and hot models wearing swimsuits with beer banners sewn across the mid-waist, then it would be a kick ass event. There were no t-shirt vendors, or food, souvenir or camera tents. Nothing that makes this seem like a spectator sport.

There is no pull for the viewer to root for any nation in-particular or for a driver.

There is no sneakiness or regret, anger or hostility that real drivers or athletes in competition face.

A montage to signify the building of the cars, the pit crew making adjustments to the motor...you got to have a montage...even Rocky had a montage...always fade out on a montage.

So...here it is, a bigger budget, a more well known cast, some reworking of the script, more extras for fill in, accommodating theme music, fast cuts and cameras placed at the base of the car while it was in motion would bring this to an edge of your seat race flick with a hotshot driver and a hotshot car to boot.

And then the time-line when this all happens...there is nothing to signify how long preparation takes from the opening scenes to the finale...which needed dire improvement. Was it 1 week? 1 month? Not truly terrible by any means, but when you view it...and you will, you will realize that it has so much more potential.

Maybe a bigger budget would have worked it good...and yes, another name aside of Billy Zane wouldn't hurt either, but the actual buildup was a letdown, which is so common in many films produced and/or distributed by the companies that are associated with this film.

They build it up, only to let something fizzle and dissolve into a disappointment which leaves the viewer-(us)feeling empty.

Sometimes it's the music - something that is supposed to be so intense on screen is often devalued because there is no background music score to heighten and elevate the scene or dialog or action. Tension in a race car is evident and a definite. It's SUPPOSED to be a challenge, not a Sunday stroll in the countryside.

Sometimes it's the lack of use of close-ups or fast cuts...but whatever it is, in Landspeed...where it's all about action and speed, it leaves the scenes empty and desolate.

So even if they broke Mach 5, big flicking deal. There is nothing to make us grip our seats and say..."wow...that was so cool" or "holy shot, what a move" So when you rent or buy, steal or borrow this movie...you have to imagine more than what you see from the screen, put the two together, drink some alcohol and maybe smoke some weed too...then you will enjoy this more than being straight, sober and the time that passes you by will seem well worth it.

When making an action film-NEVER NEVER NEVER skimp on the action or the budget...they go hand in hand. Not necessarily meaning lots of fire and explosions, but something that keeps the ACTION alive to be called ACTION.

This movie has a LOT of flaws- the plot is thin, the graphics are toe-cringingly cheesy in some parts and there was an accuracy issue, but let me just say this: There was something warm and natural about some of these characters that was so nice to feel and see.(alternately there were a few characters that were so wooden it was hard to watch them) It made me want to know them, the elite little "gang, not a club" of race car drivers that devote their lives to the love of the game. Another review mentioned it wasn't very realistic that competitors of a 50 million dollar prize would go to strip clubs and scooter race with each other, but that didn't strike me as unrealistic, that was the nice part of the movie- the warmth of their camaraderie. I figure that's worth a little something...some of the actors, particularly Billy Zane, did a great job of warming their characters in spite of the some of overly cheesy lines and plot.

I love movies, simple as that. As a result I've seen a great many of them, often more than once.

Naturally there are good movies, great movies, bad movies and some dreadful movies. Once in a while, a movie is screened that is so awful, it actually becomes compelling to watch to the finish, like some kind of masochistic exercise into new areas of self abuse.

"Landspeed" has fallen into a new category for me. It was in all aspects so terrible, I felt compelled to finish it....but now I WISH I HADN'T! I am intrigued by what must happen to actors for them to accept projects such as this, and then further degrade the failed project with unutterably awful performances. Tell me it ain't so, Billy Zane, tell me it just ain't so.

If you notice this movie on a schedule, avoid it as if it were a black hole, because nothing can escape its ghastly gravity! If I may make a cinematic metaphor; "Landspeed" makes "The Black Hole" look like "Casablanca." More about "The Black Hole" later.