Top Ten Road Movies

Post by **two-lane** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 8:25 pm

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/ ... ory=529803

09 June 2004

TWO bored housewives have beaten gangs of marauding thugs, organised crime firms, Hell's Angels and psychopathic truckers to scoop the title of Best Road Movie of all time.

Thelma and Louise, starring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, overtook the hippy biker classic Easy Rider, Mad Max, and cult classics like Vanishing Point and Repo Man.

In a traditionally male-dominated genre, the movie -which featured Brad Pitt in a bit part - struck a chord with both sexes when it was released in 1991.

More than 4,500 motorists took part in the poll, conducted by Toyota to coincide with the launch of a new in-car entertainment system in the MPV Corolla.

The legendary Easy Rider, featuring Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda on a cross-country odyssey on customised chopper motorbikes, cruised into second place.

And Mad Max, the first of three blockbuster movies starring Mel Gibson, took third place.

The 1971 cult classic Vanishing Point - starring Barry Newman as car delivery driver Kowalski - came fourth.

Another road movie, Lane Black Top, starring music stars James Taylor and Beach Boy Dennis Wilson as car freaks driving a 1955 Chevrolet around the US looking for other cars to race, was voted fifth.

A spokesman for Toyota said: "When we introduced the twin-screen DVD player in the new Corolla Verso we thought it would be used most by the children, but it seems Mum and Dad are taking the opportunity to give up the front seat to one of the kids and watch some old favourites."

Top 10 road movies

1. Thelma and Louise (1991)

2. Easy Rider (1969)

3. Mad Max (1979)

4. Vanishing Point (1971)

5. Two Lane Black Top (1971)

6. Repo Man (1984)

7. Electra Glide in Blue (1972)

8. Midnight Run (1988)

9. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)

10. Sugarland Express (1974)

Three of my fav movies made it,

Mad Max, Two-Lane Blacktop (Idiots cant spell, they screwed it up twice) and Vanishing Point.

Post by **Last_V8** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 1:17 am

1.Mad Max

2.Midnight run

3.Planes,trains and automobile's

They should be the top 3 the 3 of them are my all time favourite's especially plane's,trains and automobile's as a comedy.I dont know how repo man got in there i alway's thougt that was pretty average.

Post by **XAMan** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 8:48 am

I picked up an old gem from a video store sellout last week. The Last American Hero with a very young Geoff Bridges as a moonshineer turned stock car driver. I've only watched 20 mins so far but lots of very seventies style hooting about in a hell-hot 67/68 Mustang fastback.

Post by **the_dark_kodiak** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 12:13 pm

What about "Running on Empty"?, there is another aussie cult movie/road movie. Not that great though, IMHO. anyone else seen it?

Post by **ydx7** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 8:19 pm

XAMan, I've only seen the very beginning of that movie, where he's driving around while Jim Croce's "I Have a Name" is playing. I still think of that footage whenever I hear that song.

Wasn't the Mustang green?

Post by **Last_V8** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 1:34 am

Dark kodiak i completly forgot about that movie i thougt that was a great movie...that chev was really something ay?That movie compared with some of the ozzy movie's now is probably a top ten.

Post by **XAMan** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 11:56 am

So last night I watched the end of the Last American Hero ... a pretty impressive film really. Gritty and soooooo seventies.

ydx7 ... close but no cigar ... although I reckon that remembering a Jim Croche song playing in the background is pretty damn impressive !! the mustang was a very dark blue ... midnight blue being the closest ford colour that I know of. He sold it halfway through and bought a Chevelle with 350ci sign written on the bonnet ... no accounting for taste.

As for Running on Empty (Fast Lane Fever in the US)... I emailed a dvd producer the other day to thank them for releasing Oz ... a really rotten seventies road movie which uses the storyline of the wizard od oz ... the wizard is a rock star and the girl is a groupie ... the film is the last (I hope) of the films that I've been hunting down for my book. Well when I emailed them I took the oportunity to suggest a couple of other classic oz road films that deserved a dvd release ... Running on Empty, Freedom, Midnite Spares, High Rollin ... and received a thank you email that said that my list had been passed on and some of them were in the works !!!

Post by **DetritusMaximus** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 7:24 am

Technically, a 'road movie' is about someone or someone's traveling from one place to another in a, more or less, continuous trip. Neither Mad Max nor Last American Hero really qualify.

But then, some would say a true 'road movie' would have Bob Hope and Bing Crosby......

One of the best road movies, in my opinion, is a little gem called "Motorama". It's a rather strange tail of an abused kid (about 9 years old) who makes some 'stilts' and steals his dad's old Mustang (65-ish) and runs away.

What makes the movie cool is that he gets caught up in a service station token game (collect them all and win a million dollars or something). So he is driving all around a fictional version of the US, the names of cities and states are different, collecting the tokens to spell the word "motorama' and having 'adventures'. By the end of the film, he has been robbed, beaten, blinded in one eye, tattooed, and collected every last token.

It's odd, but Iiked it.

Post by **XAMan** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 8:17 am

Hi Detritus

You're absolutely right about what makes a 'Road Movie' ... but I can't imagine Bob and Bing doing 'The road to Thunderdome' although a few soft shoe shuffles and the odd croon couldn't have hurt.

I'll keep and eye out for Motorama ... sounds suitably bent.

That said what are the top ten Oz Road Movies? ... In no particular order ...

Mad Max 2 - the Road Warrior

Freedom

Road to Nhill

Doing Time for Patsy Cline

Godess of 1967

Kiss or Kill

Heaven's Burning

Roadgames

Slate Wynn and Me

Spider and Rose

Thunderstruck

High Rolling - In a Hot Corvette

Over the Hill

Fever

Backroads

Wrong Side of the Road

Run Chrissie Run

Get way - Gaet Away

Hostage

Oz - a rock n' roll road movie

Thunderstruck

Japanese Story

Radiance

Post by **Biker** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 1:31 pm

Hmmmm didn't see any of the Smokey and the Bandit or Cannonball Run films listed. Hasn't anyone got any taste at all!

And what about Death Race 2000????

Can't believe that's been excluded from the final list sheesh! Gonna sit here and pout!

Please note I have deliberated avoided any mention of The Fast and the hilarious er.. furious until now.

On a side issue My Father in law watched Easy Rider and really enjoyed the happy ending, could he be telling me something??

Biker

Chopper Chicks come to Zombie town wasn't bad..... Ok well maybe it was.