brook_garrettson

Shaker Run shows more of the New Zealand countryside than even Lord of the Rings. As an added bonus, there are fast V-8 powered cars speeding through it. While it is a bit thin on plot, what is provided is sufficient and more than made up for by the good cinematography, excellent actors and fulfilling chase scenes. Realizing that V-8 powered cars, let alone American V-8 powered are quite rare in New Zealand these days, it is quite fun to behold Judd (Cliff Robertson), a cantankerous American professional driver, blasting across bridges and down roads in the style of Mad Max in a modified Trans Am whilst outmaneuvering the secret police chasing him in sinister black indigenously-produced V-8 pursuit vehicles with air scoops in their hoods. The treat of the movie, in my opinion, was the part where Mr. Carney commandeers a Chevy-powered race car from a downtown dealership, drives it through a storefront window and pursues the Trans Am up a mountain road.

Shaker Run is a rare snapshot of New Zealand during the 1980's. The movies is as rare as it is entertaining for travel-oriented and eclectic motor heads such as myself.

As an aerospace engineer it's refreshing to see an action movie like Stealth involving current and future aviation on a global scale. Stealth offers a positive, and rare modern view in the form of an aviation move that dignifies the posterity and character of those who give their careers (and lives) so that we can go see movies on Friday nights. I would like to see more of these films come into the box office as my Firefox (Clint Eastwood, 1981) DVD is wearing out and I enjoy high-tech fantasy-could-be-reality with an effectually global purview. Stealth features a fast pace and a good overall consistency. The hardware was portrayed quite well and I found nothing distracting about the nit-pick mistakes pointed out by some that are inevitable in such a complex and far-reaching movie. Clearly, the negative critics must either 1) hate the military, 2) hate a rare and semi-accurate portrayal of US Military Elite Ops or simply 3) hate movies of uplifting character in general. That's too bad because not everyone who watches movies likes the utterly uninspiring and demoralizing movies they seem to favor (i.e. Wedding Crashers and Million Dollar Baby). This movie gets a 10 for content and refinement in the places that matter most to us working hard in the defense business in the time of war in which we find ourselves today.