Great car flicks

RobAMerc

Maybe someone has done this before but how about compiling a list of movies all petrol heads should see.

I will get the ball rolling.

1 - Bullit : great car chases and great history, super cool hero not sure I understand the plot though
2 - Gone in 60 seconds (original)

Any more good thoughts ?

blastman

Vanishing Point
Two Lane Blacktop

maidhc

The Italian Job (the original, obviously...)
The Fast and Furious (maybe...)

bazz26

The Blues Brothers (the Blues Mobile).

Ronin (was on the other night again) - high speed car chases through Paris especially the Audi S8.

The French Connection.

The Transporter (BMW 740i?).

The Italian Job (original).

Gone in 60 Seconds (original with the yellow Shelby GT?)

maidhc

bazz26 wrote:

The Blues Brothers (the Blues Mobile).

Ronin (was on the other night again) - high speed car chases through Paris especially the Audi S8.

Defo, Defo

sirpsycho

Herbie: Fully Loaded

bazz26

Some good crash scenes also in the movie Bad Boys II.

el tel

Back To The Future, especially in the first movie where Biff Tannen tries to interfere with Lorraine and George McFly walks up to the car and KO's Biff...great stuff!

Aidan1

Le Mans. Or those famous vids of Steve Roser lapping the ring in the RUF 'Yellow bird' ...

RobAMerc

maidhc wrote:

The Fast and Furious (maybe...)

Are these Fast Furious really good car flicks?
I knew they would get mentioned but I didn't think they would in the same post as Italian job and particularly the fact you mentioned the original.:)

spartacus93

Not really a car flick, but I love the bit in The Rock, when Nicolas Cages is chasing Connery around San Francisco. Cage in a yellow Ferrari (borrowed), and Connery in a big Humvee (also borrowed).

Seth Brundle

Most of the good ones have already been mentioned (Ronin!!!).
Not shown in cinemas or tv but the The Hire (downloadable flicks from www.bmwmovies.com) was great. I have the DVD at home!

My wife has a french DVD called taxi (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0152930/) - some interesting scenes in it!

Any Herbie movie? [joke]

maidhc

RobAMerc wrote:

Are these Fast Furious really good car flicks?
I knew they would get mentioned but I didn't think they would in the same post as Italian job and particularly the fact you mentioned the original.:)

It was merely a nod in the direction of our friends in modded car forum

Strangely enough I cant remember the storyline of Bullitt (McQueen was the goodie), or Ronin (Something to do with a silver suitcase)

How about chitty chitty bang bang?

Robbo

"C'etait un Rendezvous" and "Le Mans".

mike65

Plenty of good flicks mentioned I'll add Road Games, Mad Max 1 + 2, Fear is the Key, The Mackintosh Man.

Mike.

BrianD3

Add to the list:

-Dirty Mary Crazy Larry - can't remember much about the plot but there is some good car action featuring a a 1969 Dodge Charger.

-Race with the Devil - fairly obscure 70s B-Movie which is like a cross between a road movie and a horror movie. Peter Fonda and his friends are going on holiday in their huge "recreational vehicle" when they tangle with some satanists. Chases and crashes ensue. I love this movie

-Duel

-Convoy

-The Driver (very cool film)

-American Graffiti and Dazed and Confused (some great cars in these two)

Then there's the really cheesy, bizarre, silly ones with car action in them

-The Wraith (was on BBC recently, hillarious)

-The Car

-Death Race 2000

The_Bullman

Cannonball Run (and II)

and of course Smokey and the Bandit


Maybe the Dukes of Hazzard movie for some pointless car jumps

Hotwheels

Bullit with Steve McQueen prolly the best car chase ever... has two of the all time great cars. The Dodge Charger, AKA the Baddies Car and the Ford Mustang Steve McQueen's' car....
If ya have never seen this film...go get it and watch....
"There are bad cops and there are good cops and then there's Detective Lt. Frank Bullitt - some other kind of cop. Pity the guy he works for." :cool:

bazz26

There was an early 1970s Speilberg movie called "Duel" about a salesman travelling across the US who experiences a severe case of road rage from a lunatic trucker. You never actually saw the face of the trucker throughout the whole movie.

Another one is the Steven King classic "Christeen".

Squirrel

kbannon wrote:

Most of the good ones have already been mentioned (Ronin!!!).
Not shown in cinemas or tv but the The Hire (downloadable flicks from www.bmwmovies.com) was great. I have the DVD at home!

My wife has a french DVD called taxi (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0152930/) - some interesting scenes in it!

Any Herbie movie? [joke]

We watched that in French, it is really random, a flying 406 :eek:

mike65

Seen Taxi it was a huge hit in France but its a pretty daft lightweight flick.

Duel is great - one car, one driver, one truck and the devil! Proves what a fine driector Spielberg is at his best.

Mike.

aidan_dunne

1: 'Bullitt' - Best car chase in a movie EVER!!! Why? Well, for starters, take a listen to it. Notice something? No music or anything like that playing over the chase once it gets properly underway. The director deliberately chose not to have any other sounds other than the original sounds of those two fabulous muscle cars in action. You get to hear them in all their unspoiled glory.

Okay, okay, yes it's a slightly flawed car chase in places. I mean, how many damned times did they pass that bloody green VW Beetle anyway? And, in reality, once they left the city streets and got out onto the open road the extra power the Charger had would have meant it would have pulled away from the Mustang quite easily (the Mustang had much better handling and brakes which meant it would have been quicker in the "street" part of the chase but had a lot less horses under the bonnet). But some of the camerawork, in particular the in-car shots with McQueen where you actually feel like you're in the driving seat, the unspoiled muscle car soundtrack, and the fact that you have one of the coolest mofo's ever to walk the planet doing most of his own stunt driving, well, what can you say to all that? Has to be number one in my book.

2: 'Grand Prix' - Surprised this hasn't been mentioned by anyone yet. The best motor racing film ever made, in my opinion. Okay, so the storyline is quite cheesey in places but, like 'Bullitt', the camerawork, the sound, the fact you had the star of the film (James Garner) doing his own driving plus the fact you also had some of the actual real-life Grand Prix drivers of the time driving in the film, all come together to make it a masterpiece. Frankenheimer's finest moment as far as I'm concerned.

3: 'Smokey & The Bandit' - Jackie Gleason in an increasingly smashed up cop-car chasing Burt Reynolds and Sally Field in a Trans-Am across America....... I mean, come on, what more could you ask for?

4: 'The Italian Job' - As if the Mini wasn't a cool enough car to begin with, this film sent it's coolness into the stratosphere. And seldom has Michael Caine looked so cool as well. What's that? I was only suppose to blow the what's off? Okay, all together now..... and a 1, and a 2, and a 3, and a 4..... "This is the self-preservation society! The self-preservation society!"

There's lot's more great car films I like and I'll mention them here when I remember them.

_Kaiser_

BrianD3 wrote:

Add to the list:

-Duel

-Convoy

-The Car

I wholeheartedly endorse this event and/or products

drdre

fast and furious
and of course the cool mini's in italian job

el tel

The Gumball Rally - esp. the Daytona & Cobra raking through the early morning Manhattan streets.

Days of Thunder - where Cole Trickle grabs Dr. Claire Lewicki's hand and shoves into his crotch not knowing she was the physician. (Tom Cruise's characters always seem to embarassingly misjudge female professions but he always wins them over in the end. What a guy :rolleyes: )

MercMad

There was an early 1970s Speilberg movie called "Duel" about a salesman travelling across the US who experiences a severe case of road rage from a lunatic trucker. You never actually saw the face of the trucker throughout the whole movie.

...........wasn't that Henry Fonda driving a Plymouth Valient, a red one ? That was pretty creepy !

Similar was the scene in "The Hitcher" where Rutger Hauer (sp?) chases C.Thomas Howell, the pickup just keeps reappearing !

Vanishing Point is a weird film and captures the hallucinogenic atmosphere pretty well too...........though it helps is you are completely locked and havin' sex whilst watching it 'cos it does get boring !

As far as the Mustang 390 vs Charger goes I reckon it depends on the whether the Cahrger had the optional motor, only 475 cars actually had, and the Dodge is heavier !

Mustang :390 c.i. @ 320 h.p. w/10.5:1 compression and a four barrel carburator

Charger R/T 440 V8 375bhp@4600rpm, 480lb-ft@3200rpm.

or 426 V8 Hemi 425bhp@5000rpm, 490lb-ft@4000rpm
Performance: 426 Hemi V8 425: 0-60 in 5.3 sec, 1/4 mile in 13.8 sec @ 105m

Yeeehaaaaaa !

Nobody has mentioned any James Bond films !!

RobAMerc

aidan_dunne wrote:

1: 'Bullitt' -
2: 'Grand Prix' -
3: 'Smokey & The Bandit' -
4: 'The Italian Job' -

Excellent, stuff, all favourites of mine.

BTW Bullit was originally ment to be played by a different actor (don't know who), but McQueen got it and story has it insisted on having the car chase scene, and did all of the driving himself ('stang only I think).
Without him the chase would never have been filmed and the film perhaps lost in oblivion. ( Only maybe because it does have a lot of other inovative features but thats for another forum).

'Smokey & The Bandit' - Brilliant, good clean fun, although in todays climate McDowell might have it banned or some speeding tax applied to it.

Where do I get a copy of Taxi and someone mentioned "The Car". are these race/chase scene style stuff ?

_Kaiser_

RobAMerc wrote:

Where do I get a copy of Taxi and someone mentioned "The Car". are these race/chase scene style stuff ?

You won't get The Car easily on DVD - it seems to have only been a limited release and goes for $60+ on Amazon.

However, I got it on Ebay for a lot cheaper

BrianD3

MercMad wrote:

As far as the Mustang 390 vs Charger goes I reckon it depends on the whether the Cahrger had the optional motor, only 475 cars actually had, and the Dodge is heavier !

Mustang :390 c.i. @ 320 h.p. w/10.5:1 compression and a four barrel carburator

Charger R/T 440 V8 375bhp@4600rpm, 480lb-ft@3200rpm.

or 426 V8 Hemi 425bhp@5000rpm, 490lb-ft@4000rpm
Performance: 426 Hemi V8 425: 0-60 in 5.3 sec, 1/4 mile in 13.8 sec @ 105m

Yeeehaaaaaa !

Recently a Bullitt Mustang and Charger 440 were compared in the Sunday Times motoring supplement. It's hard to know what the *exact* specs/engines of the cars used in the filming of Bullitt were but still it's possible to make a pretty good guess. The two cars featured in the Times looked great. But when it came to the driving - the Charger was found to be faster and BETTER handling than the Mustang. The Charger was also more solid and better built.

Seth Brundle

BrianD3 wrote:

Recently a Bullitt Mustang and Charger 440 were compared in the Sunday Times motoring supplement.

Link to article - www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2105-2033997,00.html

BrianD3

RobAMerc wrote:

Where do I get a copy of Taxi and someone mentioned "The Car". are these race/chase scene style stuff ?

The Car is one of the cheesiest, silliest movies ever made So if you're not into that kind of stuff then don't buy it! The car itself is extremely exaggerated, like a Lincoln Continental on steroids

I have Taxi - only cost a fiver on DVD in Virgin. Also have the sequel Taxi 2It's more of the same but the car action isn't nearly as good as the first one IMO.

Seth Brundle

Taxi is a fairly brainless movie but there are a few good scenes in it - where the Pug 406 gets a passenger to the airport and passes some speed traps. However, the highlight for me was the Mercs!

mike65

MercMad wrote:

...........wasn't that Henry Fonda driving a Plymouth Valient, a red one ? That was pretty creepy !

Nobody has mentioned any James Bond films !!

It was Dennis Weaver (pre McCloud) the Bond car chases are okay but I'm just trying to think of a really good one - Live and Let Die if you include the speed boats?

Mike.