...and I thought "Gone In 60 Seconds" was silly!

Rating: 4/10 (5 February 2002)

Let me start off by saying that I have yet to watch any believable car movie in my 33 years on earth. One would think that as time went on and movie technology improves, the car movies would get better also. Not happening! This movie makes "Days of Thunder", "Gone In 60 Seconds", "Hot Rod", "CannonBall Run", "Dukes Of Hazzard", etc. look realistic. I know it's a movie but how about getting some pros on the set to monitor some of the situations and common terms? I am in the racing business so I may be a little extra hard to please but I'm not that tough. I want to be entertained just like the next person but I found myself being constantly annoyed at much of the movie.
Above all else, N.O.S. is one of many manufacturers of nitrous oxide systems sold in the United States. Their company name is Nitrous Oxide Systems and they are called N.O.S. for short. N.O.S. was never meant to be pronounced as a word. I wanted to put my foot through the TV everytime I heard the word "nos". Anyone who knows anything about street racing would know that there are many nicknames for nitrous (the juice, the squeeze, the bottle, the button, the jammy, giggle-gas, the spray or just simply nitrous) but I have yet to hear anyone say "nos". I guess I may hear it now that this movie came out but I can tell you it was not that way before.
Another thing, I don't think Captain Kirk ever went as fast as these guys did. The movie made the racers seem as if they hit Warp Factor 8 so I was somewhat surprised that they never made it to the other side of the galaxy during the course of their race.
What was that plate that unbolted itself and flew out of the bottom of the main character's car? I believe that this was another Warp speed type thing. I noticed in the Star Trek movies that when the Enterprise would hit maximum warp, things would start shaking and Scotty would have to tell the Captain that he's giving him all shes got so I assume that when the nitrous was used, these cars experienced the similar effects.
Have you, the reader, ever been in a drag race? No? Well, I have and I can tell you that I have yet to see one or be in one where the lead changes more than one time (aside from an engine failure or crash). We are only talking 1/4 mile here (1320 feet), not a 500 mile circle track race. I realize that this may seem more exciting to the viewer but it just don't happen.
How about that amazing wheelstand that Vin Diesel's car did? It looked like an NHRA Super Stocker leaving the line (taking off). The only problem with that is that he had street tires on it which would never grip the road well enough to transfer that amount of torque to lift the car like that. A smokey, mile long burnout would have been more true to life but then the race would have been no contest; he would have lost by a mile!
I could go on but I don't want to seem like I am being too critical. I have to admit that I was slightly entertained with the storyline. The movie is really geared (no pun intended) toward 14-18 year old males and I can understand that. Not every movie is made for me. I don't need karate and fast paced action to be entertained like our medicated, hyper-active younger generation needs to be. Praise the Lord that I did not fall for taking the family out to the movie theater for this one!