Speedway Junky (1999)

I'd been wanting to see this film for a while, and I'm very disappointed now that I have. The first thing I found problematic was the complete lack of a plot in the first half hour. A story really needs to capture people's attention right from the start. This story did not. After that, what plot there was (which we've seen many times before -- and done much better!) was extremely contrived and totally predictable. The writing was stale and overflowing with cliches. And -- granted, though, I don't know any teenage hustlers in Vegas -- I found the characters to be completely unbelieveable. This was due partly to the hokey script but also partly to the miscasting of some of the central characters, especially Erik Alexander Gavica as "J.T." I find it hard to believe that anyone could ever REALLY think he was dangerous until after his voice had changed!

The one thing in this film I WAS pleased with -- and surprisingly so -- was Darryl Hannah's performance. I've never been much of a fan of hers, but I was impressed with her understated performance, especially given the weak material she had to work with and the fact that everyone else was overacting. I usually AM a fan of Jonathan Taylor Thomas, but even he was unfortunately miscast in this film.

"Speedway Junky" was a noble attempt, but didn't quite hit the mark.