5/10
the racing scene
16 February 2024
Sports docs don't come duller than this James Garner vanity project, which was the first film directed by Andy Sidaris. He would go on to helm some very diverting B movies but diversion is about the last thing in evidence here as the movie is basically a series of monotonous and unremarkable races with second and sixth place finishes (kinda like this film). I bailed somewhere between the contest in Connecticut and wherever the final race was after becoming officially sick of Garner's droning narration which thinks it's funnier and more perceptive than it is, even dragging in poor old Walt Whitman for poetic validation. I also wearied of the film's draggy pace that makes the races seem like they're being run under water. And if an auto racing pic cannot move at a good clip, with a sense of danger in the air, which is also absent in Sidaris' vision, then why bother making it? To flatter its star, I suppose. Solid C.

PS...I also could have done without the film's sexism which renders women as either eye candy or clueless, poky drivers.
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