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Roadracers (TV) More at IMDbPro »

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13 out of 15 people found the following review useful:

The 50's like they never showed them in the 50's!

Author: girlwonder530 from Boulder, Colorado, USA
29 December 2000

I first heard about this movie from a friend who knew of my love for the 50's rockabilly era, and I must admit I had my reservations. David Arquette, the kooky 1-800-CALL-ATT guy, as a tough, ultra-cool 50's rebel? I didn't think it could possibly work. Then I watched the movie, and discovered just how well casting an actor against type can work. Arquette truly brought Dude Delaney to life, and he was also fortunate enough to be surrounded by a perfect supporting cast. I especially liked O'Neal Compton as diner proprietor J.T. and the always-dependable William Sadler as Sarge, although John Hawkes, as lovable 'freak' Nixer, stole every scene he appeared in. Salma Hayek did a good job of making me alternately love and hate her Donna. Overall, I thought Roadracers was a lot of fun - quirky, exciting, funny, and with a great rockabilly soundtrack that had me dancing in my living room. Bravo to Robert Rodriguez - go, cat, go!!!!

9 out of 11 people found the following review useful:

Great movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Author: reno_johnny from Netherland
12 November 2004

Maybe not one of the best movies ever made, but certainly a true masterpiece of entertaining. It's a typical Roderiquez movie, but has a lot more fun added to it than his other pictures. It's made with a lot of pleasure and it's seen with a lot of pleasure. Even if you don't like rock & roll there's enough for everybody to go around. Especially the dialogs are great: over the top but on the cutting edge. And for the rock & roll fans: it has an outstanding soundtrack. It's only a shame that it hasn't been brought out on cd. And I was disappointed that Johnny Reno (the Sax player) doesn't make such cool music in real than in the movie. And all this is just my humble opinion.

9 out of 11 people found the following review useful:

Wild, cool and funk-ay!

Author: The_Core from Seattle, WA. USA
17 November 2000

Wild, cool and funky, "Road Racers" is a gem of a movie. The quintessential "wild-assing" picture, and I disagree with Maltin that there was too much violence. Only five minutes right at the end? The rest of the violence was mainly verbal, and I felt for all the characters, including "Teddy Leather. The real crook in the movie was his father, the police chief, and in the end there were really no victims. Life Happens, and in the end Dude gets it together and does NOT end up like his father. Hidden plot complexities make this film watchable well over one time.

Nicely done! Rent it on video some night if you like wild, crazy, unpredictable and humorous. This movie is "Grease" for grownups. If you're a smoker, make sure you can smoke wherever you see the movie, everyone is smoking constantly throughout the picture.

Hurt only by its low budget... some of the cuts in the car chase scenes really bite. But you could tell David Arquette really had some fun with this role. 8/10.

10 out of 13 people found the following review useful:

The coolest Dude

Author: Aridriel from Oslo, Norway
12 February 1999

Nothing even comes close to this masterpiece. No wonder Tarantino's favorite director is Robert Rodriguez. The cars, the grease, the music, the Dude, Salma Hayek, the ambience, the...the...the...I'm speechless

7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:

boy meets girl

Author: Mike (cabweasel@hotmail.com) from Miami, FL
5 May 2000

Roadracers is one of those brilliant films that hardly anybody knows about. It was made for TV, but don't let that scare you away. Rodriguez once again proves what a genius he really is. The music, the everything... there is no redundancy in this film, every but of dialogue is carefully plotted out. Scenes like the grease on the rollerskating rink should have gone down in histpory with classics like "frankly my dear, i dont give a damn" or the Graduate's leg-angle. Notice the names: Dude and Donna (= boy and girl). The film was most definately inspired by Copela's Ruble Fish. Please, if you haven't yet, see this masterpiece, it's definately worth your while.

8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:

A very entertaining quickie TV movie with a strong performance from David Arquette.

Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia
9 November 2003

For a quickie TV movie 'Roadracers' is a hell of a lot of fun. Robert Rodriguez made this homage to AIP in between his astonishing low budget debut 'El Mariachi' and its disappointing sequel 'Desperado'. David Arquette's performance really makes this one work. I often find Arquette's stoner characters to be irritating but he's quite different here, and really good. His greaser character Buddy must decide between playing guitar in a rock'n'roll band or playing the hand destiny has dealt him in a small town that despises him. Rodgriguez regular Salma Hayek plays Arquette's girlfriend, and his geeky best friend who is obsessed with 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers' is played by John Hawkes who you will probably remember from the opening sequence of 'From Dusk Til Dawn'. And then there's William Sadler as the sheriff who detests Buddy. Sadler's always good no matter what he's in. I can't argue that this is a great movie but it is a very entertaining one, and worth tracking down.

6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

One of Robert Rodriguez's Best

Author: rosadorico from United States
19 August 2006

Dude Delaney (David Arquette) is seen as the town "lost cause". At least to his girlfriend Donna's (Salma Hayek) parents, and the town sheriff (masterfully played by William Sadler). But it doesn't matter to Dude since he won't run like his father did, years ago. So the sheriff sets his son, Teddy Leather(Jason Wiles) to finish Dude off, once and for all. Luckily Dude has some plans of his own. It comes down to timing, as Dude is in a race to make his dream of being in a rock band, even all scores, make his girl happy, and keep from becoming a grease stain. Originally released on Showtime's short-lived series, Rebel Highway. It was BY FAR the best of the show, and (in my opinion) one of the best film's to date. It contains everything a movie should. It has love, humor, violence, revenge, fast cars, and great music. Not to mention a cast that fits their roles perfectly. A definite must see for ANYONE who is lucky to track down a copy.

6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

Rodriguez is a master

Author: ronquillojetli from Ft Worth, Tx.
18 July 2000

This was Robert Rodriguez's follow up film to El Mariachi, but was released after Desperado. I must say that Rodriguez has some of the best talent as a director. He himself can make big movies with Jerry Bruckheimer. Roadracers is a showcase mainly for Rodriguez because he makes a made for cable movie turn into a movie that should have been on the big screen. Scene stealer Salma Hayek makes her debut here. All I have to say is that Rodriguez needs to make more movies without Tarantino and make his own with a bigger studio like Paramount or Warner Bros. other than Dimension. Rodriguez has a lot of talent and will be remembered better than Tarntino.

7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:

Underrated, funny homo-erotic sausage roll incident, great soundtrack!!

Author: sophiesopho from london, england
7 August 2004

Roadracers is an underrated and hugely enjoyable film. The plot is, of course, not very original (though this could be due to it being a remake of a drive-in classic?? :) ), but I feel that this general plot is hiding the deeper sub-plots of the film. There is Salma Hayek's portrayal of Donna, Hispanic and adopted by 'white' parents. It's rather disappointing that director Rodriguez that he fails to bring Donna's enigmatic family history to the forefront, and we are left wondering why this was even included in the film if it was never going to be solved. The cruelty of authority is (as always) revealed by redneck thug, 'Sarge' who shamelessly will try anything to get rebel Doody out of his town. Primarily, Roadracers is entertaining, and there are countless scenes that are hilarious. One of my particular favourites is the homo-erotic scene which involves 'Sarge', his lieutenant and a sausage roll. Sarge takes such delight in fondling his sausage roll, claiming that his 'momma makes 'em specially for 'im', and instructs his foolish lieutenent to similarly inspect, molest and finally indulge in his own roll. Sarge takes similar glee in producing the pastries firstly from a pocket in his jacket, and then seemingly from another pocket elsewhere... I was almost expecting him to pull one out from another bodily location... Nixer is delightful as Dood's endearing sidekick, and David Arquette does an excellent job on playing the character of the restless teen (he's also mightily aesthetically pleasing- eye candy if you will.) The soundtrack is also great, as are the characters of Teddy Leather and his cronies (my own names for them? :the Pig and Neanderthal Man- I'm sure people who've seen the film know which one is which!!) I basically think that just because Roadracers is a TV movie, it shouldn't be ignored separately from Rodriguez's more recent films - after all you can see in this film the makings of a great director, and most of his usual trademarks.

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:

Fantastic for a TV movie!

Author: BStalker from Oxford, England
30 November 1998

Wow! It's very rare to get such an excellent, entertaining film made for TV. It's a cool homage to 50's road movies with David Arquette on top, TOP form as possibly the coolest character ever put to screen. Rodriguez' unmistakable editing and filming style combined with a snappy soundtrack and a nice dark tone to the story make this a must-see. It should have been released in cinemas.

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