Excellent, Without a doubt!!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Blistering performances.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Okay, I AM writing this review in 2016, the year AFTER the movie takes place - now the past. Oh to hell with it, lets just say the middle of the 2010s so that makes my review take place in the time period the movie takes place. Now with that out of my system lets continue. Take this scenario. In the mid 2010s gasoline is in very short supply and what is left is drastically expensive. As a result all gas burning vehicles have been banned and this has had a terrible effect on the U.S. economy. But lo and behold a group of people see through this. There's plenty of gasoline to be had they say, the U.S. government is just hogging it all for itself and this group is determined to see to it that the ban is lifted and the fuel is released, and those behind it are brought to justice for the harm it has done. In the meantime the group's favorite hobby is riding their cars around to defy the ban. To keep them in line (and to impose the ban) the government has sent special police forces out to stop this group of rebels - known as "burners" - with whatever means necessary. However nothing is going to stop these "burners" from their mission. But there are those who don't want the ban lifted, mainly the special police forces because if the ban goes, they are out of a job. So its the burners (the heroes)versus the corrupt special police (the villains) and only one side is going to win. Now that sounds great doesn't it? And if someone else besides David Robertson had directed it, then maybe we would have had a great sci-fi movie. But he did and therefore we don't. Instead Firebird 2015 A.D. is about a bunch of people whether, it is the burners or the special police, bitching about how life is unfair in these hard times while driving around through... the desert. No cities, small towns, suburbs, or abandoned amusement parks. Just lots of empty desert landscape and nothing more. After all it worked for Wile E. Coyote didn't it? Well it doesn't work here because it only adds to the slowness that permeates this movie. The plot, as it goes, is about Red,a leader of the burners (played by Darrin McGavin) joining forces with his long lost son (Robert Wisden) who has arrived at Red's home (a pit stop for burners as Red has his own gasoline supply) where they plan on reaching Washington D.C. so they can defeat the gas ban. Meanwhile a group of the special police (led by Doug McClure) have set up a camp near Red's compound with the hopes of stopping him. In the meantime McGavin's son falls in love with the daughter of another burner play by Mary Beth Ruebens. And that's all there is! No juicy twists or memorable quotes or set pieces to get into here. Zip! Now if this film was a rip-snorting chase movie being something like Mad Max 2 – The Road Warrior meets Smokey And The Bandit used with the above mentioned scenario then maybe we would have a real exciting flick. But nooooooo! What we get is people bemoaning what is sad happenings in their lives while constantly mumbling of how they want to defeat the other team. And all this while racing their gas wasting cars and motorcycles around what seems like the same 1 1/2 mile stretch of desert over and over again. Now the acting. Marc McClure, always a good actor, feels wasted as the movie's heavy. He often looks like he rather be starring in a more challenging role, like maybe the lead in a softcore porno flick than in this thing. As for Rubens, she is a pretty girl, but what does she really do? And Darren McGavin? Well he just acts like Darrin McGavin. But what's worst about this movie is the setting. Made in 1982, this was supposed to look at the distant future year of 2015. Instead it just looks like 1982. My point is this, if your going to make a movie about the future MAKE IT LOOK LIKE THE FUTURE! This movie looks about as futuristic as Meet Me In St Louis starring Judy Garland looked futuristic. There is nothing here - outside of the police uniforms and they don't count much - that makes this movie feel like things to come. I guess the makers of Firebird 2015 A.D. think by saying that this story is in the future but not showing anything futuristic was a decent idea. No, and this is one of the top reasons this movie fall flat on it's butt. We want to SEE the future and feel it, not just be suggested of it. A boring sci-fi movie that doesn't feel like a sci-fi movie at all. Well at least Darrin McGavin recovered from this wreck. His next role was that of Ralphie's father in "A Christmas Story" - and he had the best role of his career. My Rating (from Excellent to Poor) - Pretty Bad. Just stick to the Mad Max movies instead. Or better yet the original Death Race 2000.

Well, what can one say about Firebird 2015 AD? Viewed as science fiction, it is wholly inadequate. Other than the early establishing shots of shuttered gas stations ('closed by order of the President'), there is nothing remotely futuristic or fantastic about the film. Viewed as a fast car movie, it's hardly any better--the driving scenes are very old fashioned and certainly offer next to nothing in automotive thrills. Which leaves us with the cast to consider: poor old Darren McGavin gives it his best shot, but Doug McClure doesn't even bother to phone in his performance--he submits it by Morse code. Add in the awful theme song and bad incidental music, and what you have is a boring piece of cinematic junk that offers next to no entertainment value and is insufficiently cheesy for fans of Le Bad Cinema. Absolutely, positively not worth the 90 minutes of your life it will cost you.

A severe gas shortage in the near future forces the government to ban the use of automobiles altogether and make the act of driving one a punishable capitol offense. However, a feisty pocket of rebellious gear-jamming metalhead race car enthusiasts called "burners" obstinately refuse to knuckle under Uncle Sam's oppressive reign, hording what little precious gas is left and happily tearin' their souped-up cars across the desolate desert terrain. Crusty ace driver Red (the always exuberant Darren McGavin, carrying on with greater flair and verve than the sub-par material deserves) and rascally fellow old-timer Indie (the solid George Touliatos) are two such guys, whooping it up as they constantly elude getting nabbed by a band of hard-nosed police officers who are very eager to nail their annoyingly evasive hides.While the premise -- basically a science fiction version of a Burt Reynolds-style good ol' boy outrunning the pigs car chase romp -- has promise, it's fatally ruined by David M. Robertson's limp'n'lifeless (non)direction and a paltry, insufficiently thought-out bare-bones script. Moreover, the futuristic setting is depicted with a critical lack of conviction: there are no special effects to speak of, the cars look plain and antiquated, and the spartan costume designs are simply pathetic. Worse yet, the fuzzball baddies led by a sleepwalking Doug McClure are hopelessly colorless and nonthreatening; only a murderously crazed Native American nutcase trooper (outrageously overplayed by Alex Diakun) radiates any necessary sense of genuine menace. The redneck protagonists are equally insipid and unprepossessing; the picture's already slack pace screeches to a dead halt during the excruciatingly blah romantic courtship scenes between Red's wimpy estranged son Cameron (the gratingly whiny Robert Charles Wisden) and Indie's fiery foxy daughter Jill (vivaciously essayed by cute brunette hottie Mary Beth Rubens). But the movie's grossest, most egregious and unforgivable blunders have got to be the copious, but poorly staged and thus unexciting car race sequences and a gruelingly tedious surplus of hideously banal dialogue (sample line: "Keep your pedal down and your sunny side up"). So, despite some good acting and nice photography, this worthless rusty clunker overall sadly remains in teeth-gnashing neutral from the dreary start right on down to the spiritless finish.

I really hate sci-fi movies that are supposed to go where no one has gone before--to coin a phrase--but this one's still waiting for clearance to take off from the launching pad. And it never does take off.Oh, I guess it DOES take off, in a way, because it's about cars, or rather, as the intro shows, the president of the United States has shut down all the gas pumps in the land (and the bland music playing is a clue as to how the movie's going to be). And you thought it was bad when your car is being repaired for just a day!Of course, some idiots drive their vehicles anyway, known as "burners", which is what the filmmakers should have done with this movie. But instead of doing something useful with their cars--like maybe running over the person who wrote this garbage--all they do is race each other, and then complain how they don't get any "freedom", yet they're treating their autos even worse than The Dukes of Hazzard ever did. (And this is where the sci-fi premise ends, losing it's promise of being a cross between The Road Warrior and the tv movie The Day After, as it sounded in the Tv Guide description when I saw it.)**** POSSIBLE SPOILERS, but chances are you'll never see this movie anyway, or you SHOULDN'T, so why should you care? ****Just when you thought the most nerve-wracking thing in the world is having a cop follow you, the law here, known as the DVC, shoot at the burners, and yet they never hit anyone. Oh wait, in one scene they DID shatter someone's windshield, but then in the next second the windshield had only one bullet hole in it. Duh.This is one of the several dumb parts in the movie--not to mention the dialog--and the fact that the scenery never changes, EVER. At least in something like Psycho, the house is cool, but after seeing desert for even twenty minutes is enough to drive anyone crazy. Oh, I'm sorry, that's a bad pun ("DRIVE anyone crazy"), but at least that pun is better than the film, except for the car mechanic Jill, who's real cute.Another dumb part is when the DVC is shooting at one person, but he keeps on driving around in circles, and then he has the nerve to get on his cb for help, saying "these guys are crazy!" But YOU'RE the one who's driving in circles, making yourself easier to shoot at! Oh wait, there IS a difference between "crazy" and then being just downright "stupid".So, is there ANYTHING cool at all with this blah film, besides it ending eventually? Yes: the owner of the firebird stores it in a pretty neat barn that opens up, sort of like the Batcave. However, this detracted from the movie too, because during the ho-hum race scenes, I kept on expecting Batman himself to drive by, flipping everyone the finger."We have ourselves a legal weapon" is a really inspiring line, which I hope, after reading this, inspires you to go rent one of the Lethal Weapon movies instead, which are a million times better than this (probably, which I haven't seen them all, but I doubt I'm wrong). Trust me.The cars aren't even much to look at, either, so go for a drive instead and/or test watch something better. (In other words, don't be a "burner".)