Best movie of this year hands down!

That was an excellent one.

People are voting emotionally.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I had wanted to see this film for years after seeing a video trailer for it. Now I have finally seen it. Yes, it is undeniably cheesy in parts, but I accept that fact and watch it for the fun. And this movie is nothing short of great. The plot is slim, but it works. The drag race scenes are all done brilliantly, set to a perfect synth score by the wonderful Tangerine Dream and the two main performances by Matt Lattanzi and Loryn Locklin as the reluctant lovers are very good. It's been a while since I've seen Locklin's later movie 'Fortress' so I had forgotten just how attractive she was. Her character, Melissa, starts out as a typical concerned high school kid, but blossoms into a hot mama by the end of the picture. This is the only thing I've seen Lattanzi in, but he handles the hero role very well.Veteran performers Geoffrey Lewis and M. Emmet Walsh are great as the kindly school principal and the evil loan shark respectively, and the rest of the villains, such as the sneering Dirk and Manney and evil racing driver the Widowmaker are all very colourful characters. It surprised me that Stephen Sommers, later known for the first two 'Mummy' films and 'Van Helsing' would start his career with this kind of film. We all have to start somewhere I guess, and 'Catch Me If You Can' was a good place to start for him, especially as he never even had to leave his hometown to film it.The high school kids seem like a bunch of jerks, but at least they later on admit they were and decide to actually do something about the impending school closure that Melissa and Principal Johnson are trying to prevent. Like another favourite film of mine, Charlie Sheen flick 'The Wraith', parents seem to be non-existent in this town. But the authority figure role is filled excellently by Lewis as Mr. Johnson. It is he who turns out to have been a high-school hero back in the 50s who steps in to help when all hope seems lost.The main attraction for me was the cars, of course. The star car role is filled by two vehicles: a lovely black '68 Chevelle driven by Lattanzi for most of the movie, and 'Fast Freddie' Johnson's '57 Chevy, which is brought out of retirement for the final race against the clock after the Chevelle is laid low by Walsh's thugs. There's also a wonderful quotient of American muscle cars present throughout. I also like in the movie how some depth is injected into the character of Dylan Malone, Lattanzi's character. He at first seems like your typical anti-authority James Dean type. It is, however, revealed that he drag races to try and earn himself college tuition money to get out of his currently dead end life. This makes the final battle against Walsh more poignant, as Malone basically agrees to become a slave to Walsh if he loses the final race.All in all, the film is by no means ever going to win any awards. But if you just want a great, fun, popcorn movie, this is one of the best of them. Please Stephen Sommers, dust this one off and give it a DVD release!

Catch Me...if You Can's story doesn't make a lot of sense, the class president of a high school gets the local race king to race to save the school that's going to close down. But they loose all the money and get into a timed race across town like a local legend "Fast Freddie" did back in the day. Yeah. But the movie has a fun, goofy tone and is sort of a send up of 50's Hot Rod pictures, like "The Wild Ride," none of the young actors are particularly good, and everything about them screams the 80's but Geoffrey Lewis is always fun to watch, not to mention M. Emmet Walsh. It's directed by Stephen Summers of "The Mummy" and "Van Helsing" fame, which is interesting since pretty much all of his films hark back to a different old genre, "The Mummy" was classic movie serials and horror, "Van Helsing" was Hammer films, and Catch Me if You Can did Hot Rod flicks. But The Cars are the stars, the main guy drives a sweet '68 Chevelle takes the main role for much of the racing scenes, as it faces a beautiful orange and white '69 Camaro, a '68 Shelby Mustang, '71 Dart Sport, a Grand Prix SJ, and a pretty goofy '79 Camaro with a big spider graphic on the hood, and after the dastardly M. Emmet Walsh destroys the motor in his Chevelle, Geoffrey Lewis turns out to be "Fast Freddie" and he lets him borrow his amazing '57 Chevy that was buried under the football field to run the race. Can you guess what happens? Not going to win any awards, but it's a good example of some automotive thrills.

If you can get past some of that good old fashioned 80s cheesiness (and there's plenty of it, thanks to a 'PG' rating), then you're left with what actually wasn't a bad drama. It is more like an 80s version of some of those old rebel teen speedway junkies movies complete with leather jackets and fast cars that you see in the 50s. You know, 'Rebel Without a Cause,' and all of that.In this movie, a rather pristine high school girl tries to raise $200,000 to save her school, Cathedral High, from being shut down by the county because of lack of funds. If they get the cash, the school board will match them for the rest. Enter Dylan, a bad ass with a bad haircut who is going to help save the day. In place of detention, he is sentenced to help out with the 'fund-drive' (fundraiser for us modern Yankee blokes). Knowing that without the help of the rest of the student body, the girl isn't going to make that kind of cash from selling prom tickets or hosting bake sales. So, he convinces her to do what anyone in her situation should do: bet it all on him in a drag race. And though reluctant at first, it doesn't take but one win to get her hyped on gambling.Only, when the duo manages to make $100,000 in a bet for double or nothing, Dylan loses the race and, consequently all of the money. Now, desperate to make it all back in a pretty serious bet with a somewhat harmless bookie called The Fat Man (Emmett Walsh), he has to try to win it all back. You should know how the story goes and what to expect. But, if you like fast cherry cars, then it's a good one to catch. I might think it better than it actually is since I saw it after immediately after watching two lame movies (The Allnighter and Ski School). So, what have you got to lose besides a hundred and six minutes (if you watch all the credits)?

This film has been receiving a lot of play lately during the day on either HBO or Cinemax. The reason is that they are assuming people would be interested in comparing it to the Leonardo DiCaprio/Tom Hanks caper of the same name. The only reason to see it is for the attractive Matt Lattanzi. Yum! Although I must say Matt was more than a little long in the tooth to be playing a high schooler. If he were a woman, they'd have had him playing the MOTHER of a high schooler! (Is is just me, or is his daughter starting to look like Shelley Duvall?) Oh yeah, the plot--who cares? Typical teen highjinx played by adults.