|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— by Ben Cosgrove
For as long as there have been movies, cars have been stars. And why not? Tricked-out rides and motion pictures seem made for each other. With the Rock set to star alongside the transmogrifying G-6155 Interceptor in John Woo's upcoming "Spy Hunter," and Lindsay Lohan scheduled to hit the big screen in June in a NASCAR-happy retelling of the 1968 Disney classic "The Love Bug," it seems a perfect time to remind ourselves that chase scenes, escape scenes, make-out scenes, racing scenes — they're almost always better if you add nitrous tanks, superchargers, ejector seats, or a paint job featuring stripes, sparkles or laced-out flames.
Movie fans, start your engines.
 "Taxi" (2004)
 |
|||
|
|
Belle (Queen Latifah) drives a New York City taxi, but she dreams of being a NASCAR star. When her friends kindly provide her with a "titanium super charger" for her already heavily modified ride, her need for speed is duly satisfied. With Jimmy Fallon tagging along as an inept Big Apple cop on the trail of a gang of female Brazilian bank robbers (that's right, female Brazilian bank robbers), Belle barrels happily through the streets, paying only slightly less attention to traffic laws than her real-world, hack-licensed counterparts usually do.
"The Fast And The Furious" (2001)
 |
|||
|
|
Take your pick: Vin Diesel's jet-black, quarter-mile-in-11-seconds, supercharged 1970 Dodge Charger? Paul Walker's Lamborghini-orange, 19-inch-wheeled, rear-winged Supra Turbo? The lime-green, nitrous-powered '95 Mitsubishi Eclipse? Any one of these rides will put you in the race. Remember, though, that it's not the horrible, fiery, multiple-flip crash and the resulting toxic fumes and jagged metal that'll kill you — it's the sudden stop. (Note: For more Dodge Charger mayhem, rent or buy the 1968 classic "Bullitt," and brace yourself for the granddaddy of all movie car chases, as Steve McQueen's fastback GT 390 Mustang outclasses a black 440 Charger with two mob hit men unhappily strapped inside.)
"Wayne's World" (1992)
Who can forget it? Garth, Wayne and their buddies cruising the nighttime streets of Aurora, Illinois, furiously head-banging as the operatic maelstrom of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" roars in their ears. Would the scene have so quickly entered movie legend if the lads had been rocking in a car other than that light blue, 1976 AMC Pacer, with its wonderfully lame orange-and-yellow flame-job, steely mags — on the back wheels only, of course — and the sexy, ultra-hip, state-of-the-art eight-track player? (Answer: No.)
"Back To The Future" (1985)
 |
|||
|
|
No list of tricked-out movie autos would be complete without a nod to that classic mad scientist's invention, the gull-winged, time-traveling 1983 DeLorean that Marty McFly drives (or flies) 30 years into his own past. As the sex-obsessed, guitar-playing, time-traveling Marty, Michael J. Fox is perfectly cast — as is the DeLorean itself. In 1985, what other car could the filmmakers possibly have considered worthy of such a journey? A Chevy Citation?
"American Graffiti" (1973)
Harrison Ford, Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss — nope, it's not the guest list for "old white guys night" at the Beverly Hills Bingo Hall. They're just a few of the young actors who starred in George Lucas' classic look at boys, girls and cars in a small Northern California town circa 1962. But none of the humans in the flick made as much of an impression as the superfine, chopped, canary yellow 1932 Ford "little deuce coupe" driven by the movie's bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold, John Milner (Paul Le Mat). Was this the car that single-handedly revived the hot rod industry in the 1970s? Well, no one can prove it wasn't.
"Vanishing Point"/"Two-Lane Blacktop" (1971)
For fans of impressionistic, quasi-existential road-racing movies, the early 1970s were an embarrassment of riches. But two flicks stand out: In "Vanishing Point," Barry Newman plays a near-mythic Vietnam vet piloting a 1970 alpine white 440 Dodge Hemi R/T Challenger from Denver to San Francisco while seemingly every authority figure on the planet wants him not only stopped, but dead, dead, dead. The Challenger's custom black-and-white houndstooth vinyl interior is a special treat. "Two-Lane Blacktop," meanwhile, finds James Taylor (as "the driver") and the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson (as "the mechanic") racing a beautifully refitted, mag-wheeled, primer-gray 1955 Chevy coupe across the empty American landscape against the magnificently weird Warren Oates and his 1970 Pontiac GTO. Very few films better illustrate the American obsession with speed, open spaces and heavily modified internal combustion engines as brilliantly as these two cult classics.
"Goldfinger" (1964)
This was not the first Bond movie — that honor goes to "Dr. No," of course — but it did feature the mother of all pimped-out rides: Bond's Aston Martin DB5, equipped with radar, ejector seats, machine guns, a bulletproof shield, and a few other naughty enhancements. With apologies to the Batmobile, we can say with some confidence that this is the one that real movie buffs covet — the slickest, smoothest, sexiest car in the history of film. Period.
Honorary Doctorate In Cinematic Vehicular Trickology
"The Straight Story" (1999)
One of finest films of the 1990s, David Lynch's underappreciated gem stars the late, great Richard Farnsworth in the true story of Iowan folk hero Alvin Straight, who drove a John Deere rider mower and a 10-foot trailer 240 miles to Wisconsin in order to visit his ailing brother (played to perfection by Harry Dean Stanton). No mag wheels, no hydraulic jacks, no fuzzy dice, no glitter-flecked paint, no oversized exhaust pipes — but when Farnsworth is riding that John Deere all alone down the empty highway, with the huge sky above him and the asphalt rolling away to the horizon, the heart still beats a little faster. After all, as every car lover knows, the feel of wheels on the open road will do that to you.
|
|
|
|
Photos: Universal Pictures
|
|
|
|
|
|
