Yup, it's Thursday, and these are my Thursday Movie Picks. Yup, I skipped last week. Truth of the matter is ya boy met his match last week. The topic was television period dramas. I had nothing. I'm not much of a TV watcher, though I have watched more over the last year or two. When I do watch, it's not any period drama, unless we're talking a show that was actually made forty or fifty years ago and is set in its own present. Then again, that doesn't count so I took a zero on that little quiz. This week, I'm back with a vengeance. The topic is something I can pick a hundred movies for off the top of my head. Thank you to our host, Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves for picking this one. We're talking cars and/or racing. I'm especially hyped to talk about this because I am on the verge of revisiting the series that has become one of my guiltiest pleasures: The Fast and the Furious franchise. These movies are so craptacular I can't help myself. That said, I refuse to suggest any of them because that's a bit too obvious. Let's dig a little deeper, shall we? Oh, see if you can spot the theme within the theme...within another theme.
Death Race 2000
(1975)
I've actually suggested this for a prior topic, so I didn't go too deep, but I have good reason to, as you'll see a little later. To refresh your memory, this is about an annual cross-country race known as the Death Race. Of course, this one is taking place in the year none of us in the 70s thought we would ever get to, 2000. Drivers don't just have to be first to get from one end of the country to the other. They also earn points by running down pedestrians. Those drivers include Rocky Sylvester Stallone before he made the steps of The Philadelphia Museum of Art famous, and David Carradine dressed in a manner inadvertently foreshadowing his own death due to the outfit he's wearing. It's all perfectly ridiculous or, as I like to say, so bad it's awesome!
The Car
(1977)
Santa Ynez is a lazy California town far, far away from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Not much happens until Satan comes to town driving the monstrosity known as the Lincoln Continental Mark III and starts running down any pedestrian who dares to be on the road. How do we know it's Satan? Well, for starters, there's no one actually sitting in the driver's seat. And you only find that out if you manage to get a look inside. After all, the tint on the windows is a rather hellish red. James Brolin plays the cop tasked with figuring all this out and stopping it. And we get a movie that's so bad, it's awesome!
Death Race 2050
(2017)
Yup, A sequel. This time around, we're in the year of...screw it, you see the title. Anyhoo, the premise is exactly the same, if a bit more explained. It seems that in the year 2050, automated labor has caused unemployment to rise to 99%. Having people run down during the race provides a measure of population control. The camp and silliness of it is the same as the original. Best of all, they somehow got Malcolm McDowell to be in this thing. I mean, he knew what he was getting into, right? After all, it plays more like a remake than a sequel. A few years back there was an actual remake starring Jason Statham. It was updated and gritty...and terrible in all the wrong ways. This one is terrible in the ways that tickle you to death. Yeah, it's so bad it's awesome!