cashsale

This movie goes absolutely nowhere painfully slow. I came for the talent of Rachael Brosnahan and left because there was no entertainment value. The thought occurred to me 30 minutes in that Mel Brooks might have been able to salvage this movie. Then reality set in. There was no saving this film from its director and writers. My first thought at 20 minutes in was "Heavens Gate" (1980). At least in Heavens Gate there were moments of redemption for an otherwise painfully long movie trying to get to the point. It grieves me to say that I'll never get the 2 hours back I've invested in this movie. The stovetop Jiffy Pop was good.

This is another attempt by Kiefer Sutherland to relive his glory days of "24". The only time I've seen 8 to 15 minute episodes of any TV show work is "Aqua Teen Hunger Force". This is an example for Executive Producers of what not to invest in. Perhaps a few film school students should have produced this. At least then, the people involved would have a legitimate excuse for the poor production value.

I saw this film on the big screen in first release. I completely enjoyed this film. Many of the filming locations in Los Angeles were places I hung out at as a teenager such as the original Irwindale Raceway, Pinks hot dog stand on La Brea, Tower Records on Sunset. Yes, I'm a fan of old Detroit Iron.

The film stars Paul LeMat (American Graffiti) and Dianne Hull. Tim McIntire, Robert Carridine, Noble Willingham (Walker, Texas Ranger) and a young Edward James Olmos (as Eddie Olmos) round out the cast. All give a good performance and the cinematography is good.

The soundtrack which uses songs of Elton John, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Little Eva, Undisputed Truth, The Temptations and others, truly add to the overall enjoyment of the film.

If you were part of the late sixties and early seventies Southern California street rod culture, you will appreciate and enjoy this film.

Trivia: There are several references in the film to the Los Angeles FM radio station, "KKDJ" This station, on 102.7 Mhz, later became the world famous, KIIS-FM

There are no solid characters I could really root for except, perhaps the one I didn't see. I could have rooted for the home owner arriving and yelling at the terrorists and CIA operatives for violating the lease/rental agreement. It's going to be hell getting the blood spatter, brain matter and flash bang residue out of the Italian marble floors. It's time to get out the spackling paste and plug up the bullet holes. This could have been a good comedy with just a bit of tuning and pruning of the script and characters.

The viewer is left to assume to many aspects of the characters. Most annoying for me is the music consistently drowning out the dialog. This makes the limited dialog annoyingly difficult to follow. No movie or television show should be a constant struggle to follow. The creators, writers and directors seem to be taking the viewer on some magical mystery tour to Mars with little help getting the viewer there with the characters. This is another example of the viewer saying, "I don't get it" with the creative staff for the project saying, "If you don't get it then you must not be blessed or just don't understand" with no help to understand. I watched the first 2 episodes hoping it would get better. I literally had to force myself to watch episodes 3 thru 8 just so I can say "I watched it all and gave it a chance". I suggest watching "Red Planet" (2000) as it has everything "The First" should have had and more.

And yet another example of politically correct show development combined with formula script writing finally made worse by actually producing the show. To quote the late great Bill Paxton as Private Hudson in "Aliens", "We're on an express elevator to hell, going down!"

And yet another example of a bad script made worse by actually making the movie. To quote the late great Bill Paxton as Private Hudson in "Aliens", "We're on an express elevator to hell, going down!"