Dragstrip Girl (1994 TV Movie) User Reviews

All 3 instances of "whom" in synopsis are incorrect.

[Darr24-7 · 5/10 · 16 February 2015]

Try this instead: Johnny is a bad guy trying to go straight. He's smitten with Laura, a wealthy good girl rebelling against her parents by pretending to go steady with Johnny... all set among the backdrop of 1950's Los Angeles.

i.e. neither "who" nor "whom" is needed at all.

When they are, use "who" when referring to the subject, and "whom" about the object... if you don't know which is which, ask yourself a question about the person using the verb. If the answer is "he," "she" or "they" it's a subject; use "who." If the answer is "him," "her" or "them" it's an object; use "whom."

("he" is trying to go straight, so it would be "who" if it was needed at all; "he" is smitten with Laura, so it would be "who" if it was needed at all; finally, "she" is rebelling... again, "who.")

High school English, kids... pay attention. :)

(now get off my lawn!) ;)

The film itself is none-too-memorable, even for a TV movie. :-|

Decent juvie pic

[JohnSeal · 5/10 · 10 November 2000]

This is one of the better entries in the Showtime Rebel Highway series of AIP remakes. Its storyline doesn't rise above the usual simplistic TV movie of the week cliches, but it is intelligently acted by Mark Dacascos and Natasha Gregson Wagner. An excellent soundtrack, partly recorded by Los Lobos, adds character and grit.

More like Plot Drags Badly

[hollywoodshack · 3/10 · 14 July 2017]

The male characters sound macho and gritty, but once their girlfriends start speaking the lines sound like Microsoft Office filled in the blank spaces on the script. Johnny's Mexican girlfriend, Pearl, is the worst offender: "Remember what you are, Johnny, a poor Mexican!" What character in any film would degrade themselves like that? The dialog just stalls to the point it's very difficult for viewers to take this hot rod race into the finish line.

Young thief falls in love with a rich girl, his whole world falls apart.

[illinea68 · 3/10 · 15 August 2005]

I rated this movie 3, because it has a real weak storyline. The acting is... lets say under the average, not that the actors had a good chance with this script. O.K. Young, handsome guy steals cars without hurting anybody. He falls in love with a rich girl by just seeing her once, gets punched by her boyfriend. To impress her, he stops thinking, steals a new car and forgets his principles. On the second meeting... sex. Not that I say anything against sex... but this movie plays in the 50s! A relatively senseless car race ends all, the little brother of our "hero" being dead. I'm sorry, but that was far too weak for me. Almost everything was predictable, too many loose ends and not enough 50s feeling and style for a movie set in this time.

A Memory from My Past

[Air America · 8/10 · 12 August 2009]

It was hard to rate this fairly because I grew up in 1957 and drove a hot rod '33 Ford with a hopped-up '47 Ford flathead. We lived to race the rich kids with the '57 Chevys and '58 Corvettes. The story line was very near to how things were in 1957 only we did not boost cars and strip for parts, just an occasional "midnight requisition" of a Stromberg carburetor or some linkage or maybe some chrome from the local salvage yard. I had Latino friends too in a nearby city who ran a custom car body shop and from whom I learned to work lead with a paddle. I also saw much fact in the "dragstrip" activities only we used a diagonal highway outside our town. We usually scoped out the local State Trooper to be sure he was not working.

The Los Angeles connection made it reminiscent of her mother and how Natasha Richardson Wagner's mother, Natalie Wood also served to flag two drag racers in "Rebel Without A Cause," which became a cult classic for us. The story was pure screenwriter work contrasting the "haves" with the "have-nots" and the similar ending involving a death. This part I thought was done particularly well avoiding to much racism, though it was touched on. I thought the acting was fairly good given this was early roles for most of the actors. In all, I recommend it for a nostalgia factor but today's hip-hop crowd may find it too juvenile. I believe you old people like me will like it also.