Something to pass the time

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2014)

If you're coming to this movie as an auto enthusiast interested in the coast-to-coast car race, the real life event that inspired this movie, expect to be mildly disappointed. This film, a decent comedy, doesn't zero in on the cars so much themselves or the geography and distance of the race or the test of endurance the competitors are about to go through. Nope. Instead, this film zeroes in on the bizarre characters undertaking that race. To be sure, there are some rather funny characters in the movie -- and rather brainless ones. But don't expect to come away having witnessed a good race movie; this is standard comedy. I kept wanting to know where the drivers WERE locationally and a good bit in to the movie after the race has begun we find out they are in New Jersey (though you never see a coast). A few minutes later, then, we see The Arch of St. Louis. But parts of the movie are rather refreshing, specifically the fact that individual relations between men and women don't end up in fornication or scenes of gratuitous nudity. In that sense, the men and women are respected for who they are. Made in 1981 and lasting about an hour and a half, this movie operates as something to pass the time, especially in certain quiet days of the year, like those hours of solitude leading up to Christmas Day.