It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This is my all time favorite car chase movie. Not only does it do the usual and make the car thief look more impressive than the cops, but it has a great twist in the tail, stars some of the best actors from the 60s and 70s and has some great cars and technology at the time that led the way for future cars (the card of today) to follow.Dianne Marchall does beautiful singing for the music titles and the guitar music throughout the movie is 2nd to none for this genre of movie.Being an actor myself ( also you can find me on the IMDb.com Richard Andrew Evans ) I would love to appear in a remake of Speed Trap and hopefully get to drive some of those old cars :) TOP TOP MOVIE - Why is it not on DVD? why is the "entire movie soundtrack" not available on CD? It is impossible these days to find the "5 minutes 45RPM" Vinyl that was released as the movie soundtrack.Splendid movie, lets all keep our fingers crossed this eventually surfaces on the shelves for us to buy, watch, enjoy and listen to one more time with the high quality of reproduction we have today.10 out of 10 - BRILLIANT ! :) Story, acting, movie, the LOT - GET IT IF YOU CAN.

It sure must not have taken any time to come up with Speedtrap,just about all of the movie had been done before.What really amazes me,is why Joe Don Baker agreed to star in this film.Sure it was money,but his part is mainly that of grinning car driver and not much else.The whole of the movie is loosely based on Gone in 60 seconds...cars get stolen,and the cops chase them.Usually until both the police car and the stolen car are nearly destroyed.The tip off to the rip off is the 1971-1973 generation Ford Mustang (base coupe,not Mach1 fastback though)that gets stolen and slams into another car leaving the lot.Exactly what happened in "Gone".A slow motion jump from building to building,a slow motion jump from a culvert pipe into a pond...loosely replicates the slow motion jump of "Eleanor" over a row of crashed/parked cars in "Gone".Even the police dispatcher is one of the female dispatchers in "Gone".The car Novick drives is a 1971-72 Dodge Charger,painted up like Starsky & Hutch's "Tomato" Gran Torino,the Charger is even jacked up with chrome wheels a'la S&H.The cops are made to look like buffoons crashing nearly every Plymouth Satellite LAPD ever decomissioned (this must have been stolen from Dirty Mary,Crazy Larry).The female star (Tyne Daley) is treated a lot like her appearance with Dirty Harry,a novice cop who needs to prove herself. Not that this movie is all bad.Good chase scenes,catchy music,and a laughably smug Joe Don pass the time well.Looking back at the promise Tyne Daley held as an actress,and seeing her in her youth (as opposed to her overweight later years) was always a welcome addition,but her addition to the film sorta spoiled the ending,you just knew she was out to prove herself,and make everybody else look foolish at the same time.

I lived in Phoenix at the time when this was filmed and recognize some things that are now long gone, so watching this movie holds a lot of sentimental nostalgia for me. Some of the scenes were filmed right in the parking lot of the downtown Phoenix police station (built in 1974) The garage where Richard Jaeckel's character works (located at 9th Avenue & Jefferson) was a real auto repair facility called Paul's. Some of the street scenes look like they were filmed in Tucson as well. The antique auto show scenes are right near City Hall. I watch this at least 4 to 5 times a year. Not bad for something I paid $3 for at a truck stop!The race track scenes were filmed at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix which was an icon for local racers starting in the 1950s. Sadly it closed in 2014 another victim of overzealous redevelopment that has been going on for decades now. I long since moved away from there.

Movies like SPEEDTRAP usually don't get an even brake, er, break anymore. It's a good alternative to GONE IN 60 SECONDS when it comes to automotive action, yet it's not all that exciting this time around. It does have a couple of big explosions and a giant police car pile-up. The scene where Road Runner's car leaps from one tall building to another is so odd to believe. Too much stray footage not relating to the movie makes the story look mumble-jumbled, though. A few scenes were very useless in accompanying the action for which SPEEDTRAP is based upon. What it lacks for a writing flaw, it makes up for some humor. The female student driver who appears twice steals the show, making big mistakes at every turn in a careless, but amusing way. Joe Don Baker, PO'ed at the Road Runner, says the goofiest line I've ever heard: "Beep beep my @$$!". Later on, it becomes a predictable surprise. This one rips off GONE IN 60 SECONDS as with other car crash movies of the 70s, but it's worth a try if like fun-filled, though greatly missed, auto action thrills.