Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Nice effects though.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

I first saw this in '85. Instead of having Burt Reynold's in the driver's seat, we have Jimmy McNicol, driving the local town cop (Barnes) insane, giving him daily chases and taunting him on his installed c.b. This time he's gone too far, where he runs off with Daddy's (Barnes's) little girl, and he's none too happy about. And it's prom night too. All this is a car chase movie, where forget plot or logic. We even see two ten plus kids smoke, the boy looking very much like that silent chubby kid, Peter in The Cosby Show. But unlike Cosby this isn't funny, just a sheer excuse to spend 86 minutes. We have impressive pile ups, crazy chases, a snake slithering across the road, near it's start, if to maintain further interest. Some known actors star in this, an early price to pay, for future stardom. We too have an imprisoned guy making moonshine, and a younger William Forsythe, a jock, who's girl is riding with Smokey (McNichol) though of course this is not the real character's name. What left me in puzzlement was it's enigmatic R rating. May'be it was the reference to watching two kids smoke. I don't know what else it could be, as this film doesn't deserve to go beyond a PG. May'be the censors were on a mental vacation, like the makers of this movie, and when the writer's surname is named after a piece of fruit, you know you got problems.

Made in the early 80's when the 70's car chase genre was winding down, chockablock with copious footage lifted from such previous Roger Corman-backed drive-in flicks as "Grand Theft Auto," "Moving Violation," "Eat My Dust!," and "Thunder and Lightening," coasting on the faintest sliver of a one-note story, and, just like the numerous car chases showcased herein, running around in endless circles with no particular purpose or destination in mind, this energetically stupid comedic romp was harshly panned by critics and generally dismissed as an absolute turkey. Granted, it's not exactly a good movie, but it's certainly an enjoyably brainless, pointless and senseless wallow in crash 'em and smash 'em up demolition derby cinema.Shrewd, impishly irreverent car nut misfit Roscoe ("Night Warning" 's Jimmy McNichol) abducts stuck-up homecoming queen Peggy Sue Turner (perky, fetching blonde Janet Julian) and goes on the lam with Peggy's crusty, hot-tempered, very overbearing and overprotective sheriff dad (broadly played by the chubby Walter Barnes) and assorted oddball secondary characters in hot pursuit. That's it for the plot; the rest of the picture is nothing more than spinning tires, out-of-control car stunts, an uptight girl loosening up on the road, young love blooming on the road, idiotic slapstick gags, a "what the hell is he doing here?" guy in an apesuit cameo, peppy rock songs blaring away on the soundtrack, and plenty of pedal-glued-to-the-floor ultra-speedy car chase scenes. Longtime Corman screenwriter Charles B. ("Bucket of Blood," "The Little Shop of Horrors") Griffith displays an endearingly all-thumbs incompetence as a director, which in this case greatly adds to the infectiously dopey festivities. The ubiquitous Gary Graver comes through with his customary smooth and polished cinematography. Brent Myggen's frantically pumping'n'propulsive score rushes along to a quick snappy beat. The wildly mugging supporting cast is loaded with familiar faces: Dick Miller as a dippy dad, "Joyride to Nowhere" 's Mel Welles as a goofy sheik who speaks in fractured fragmented sentences, Bill Forsythe as a brutish caveman football player, Rance Howard as a fanatically gung-ho high school football coach, and Angelo Rossitto as an excitable midget hotel desk clerk. Overall, this baby measures up as a pretty solid and satisfying so-dumb-it's-fun good time.

A few comments- First of all, I was student body president at Antelope Valley College when this movie filmed there-they got to film because they kicked $750 into the student government accounts and loaned us original prints of three films for an on-campus showing (they came back to re- shoot two scenes on a weekend, and snuck onto the football field by conning a security guard, btw)...I'm also a background extra in three different scenes in the first 10 minutes, and several of my friends are also in this movie. This movie was made by taking out-takes of chase scenes from other Corman movies, filming segues which basically consisted of Jimmy McNichol or one of the police officers jumping out of one car and into another so the car would match the outtake, and editing them together, then tacking on 5 to 10 minutes of exposition and denouement to the front and back of the chase scenes.The crazy jock football player was an actual Antelope Valley College football player named Francis Maikai, and the scene where he smashes the trash can over his head was not in the script, but just something he did as a joke, and the director liked it so much that he put it in the film.this movie cost virtually nothing to make...they didn't even feed the crew and/or cast, as I recall...

My childhood days of THE DUKES OF HAZZARD are long gone, which means it's time to dig up what was once grand: car chase movies. This one is special because it's another rip-off of SMOKEY & THE BANDIT, and also another with the name "Smokey" in the title (how many were there???). Every so often, a movie would thrill us living around 1980 over its display of automotive carnage, but haven't we seen enough? It's no better than GRAND THEFT AUTO, another Roger Corman production about high-speed pursuits. Not sounding politically correct in these modern times, kids would've probably liked this cartoonish flick that's been easy to please, as it shows off some over-the-top goofiness and kooky characters, including a "sheik" (!!!). The car crashes are fun to watch for 8-year olds, though. And, yes, no movie is complete without Dick Miller as comedy relief. Likewise, if you've seen one movie, you've seen it all. Diehard fans won't go wrong, but the movie offers absolutely nothing that's new and improved.