Yesterday’s Ask was all about the silver screen, and the car movies you’d like to see return to it in sequel or remake form. As I completely expected, your taste in les automobiles du cinéma proved impeccable, and as I did not expect some gems I have not seen were shared that I will be making a movie night of soon. But mostly, you churned out lulz, sprinkled with acerbic calls to (non)action in the mode of “enough with remakes! Make something new!” Which I respect.
Let’s get into it.
Y2Keith
Obviously we need a reboot of The Italian Job where the new, bloated Minis get stuck in the sewer pipes.
This film would be worth the price of admission for that shot alone.
Emil Minty
With F1’s recent revival, it’s just missing one thing … Ricky Bobby, Les Nuits de Circuit Paul Ricard. Si tu n’es pas premier, tu es dernier!
Thank you, Emil! Now I can say, “If you’re not first, you’re last” in French!
SlowBrownWagon
“King of the Mountain” no CGI. Not sure who to play the Harry Hamlin and Dennis Hopper roles, I’m open. Zendaya and Woody Harrelson?
Now I know what Harry Hamlin was up to between Clash of the Titans and LA Law! And Grizzly Adams is in it! I had no idea this movie existed, will watch.
PlStrtfrd
Goodbye Pork Pie. I’m sure Taika could do it.
That’s Taika as in Taika Waititi, director of What We Do In The Shadows, JoJo Rabbit, and a couple of Thor sequels, among other things. But I suspect Taika won’t be remaking Goodbye Pork Pie, because surprise, it was remade in 2017 as Pork Pie (or Joyride, depending on where you see it).
I’ll watch both versions, double-feature-style.
SpikedLemon
The general trend: remakes ruin things. But what if it was already bad? Torque and the whole FF franchise should be redone.
Torque, OK, that movie is straight up bad. But the entirety of the Fast And The Furious output? A bold take, sir or madam. But you know what? Yes.
Moped
They could remake Gone in 60 Seconds and not fuck it up by resolving the dramatic tension of the car chase with a goddamn gun fight. Seriously, the way they get out of wrecking Eleanor in the car chase in the original is absolutely brilliant. The new one is crap and always has been. Yes, I’m willing to die on this hill.
Shoot, Moped, I’m just sharing this to agree with you.
Nic Periton
Used cars, the one with Kurt Russell in it and the one about an off ramp that has a waterskiing elephant and a rhinoceros and a stretch Zimmer all in the same film. Please will someone remember what it was called, please please.
You’re thinking of Honky Tonk Freeway!
Honestly, I’ll watch anything with William DeVane in it.
TheFanciestCat
986’s The Wraith. It’s kind of like The Crow but with a car instead of a crow. I had pretty much forgotten about it until an episode of Zak’s Planet of Garbage reminded me, but I remember seeing it when I was a kid.
I’m all for remaking stuff like The Wraith, wherein the original film is goofy (albeit wonderfully so) and so very of its time that a remake can’t possibly “ruin” it. Not that I subscribe to the notion that a bad remake or sequel (or prequel) damages the original, but still.
Gene
Those Daring Young Men In Their Jaunty Jalopies.
Mike F.
Clearly, the best choice here is The Great Race.
Great calls there, and these choices made me realize something: these are two different movies! I always thought it was the same film under two different titles, because of the similar look and time period (both in terms of when they were made and the eras they depict), and especially because Tony Curtis is in both of them! And to add further confusion: Those Daring Young Men In Their Jaunty Jalopies is also known as Monte Carlo Or Bust! (The exclamation point is part of the title, but I am actually shouting, so it’s OK either way).
I also got to wondering if either film has been cited as inspiration for Hanna-Barbera’s Wacky Races cartoon, and some sources do say The Great Race got the pencils moving at HB, but I found nothing definitive. Makes sense though. And I’ll take a 3D-animation movie version, please. Just keep it to a tight 90.
And finally, Goblin:
Goblin
Duel, but only after an official written explanation is given to the question that has been haunting me for decades:
How is it that in movies a truck, pickup truck, van, bus, or altogether – the entirety of the World’s vehicle production that has “Naturally and by design limited to 60mph tops” as sole common point, will always chase, catch up to, bump into, then run off the road cars that have a natural cruising speed in the 90s or low 100s, and can top to way over 150?
It’s always screaming kids chased by a postal truck while in a W140 S Class.
I’ll take my answer in writing, signed and stamped, thanks ????
You know the answer. Movie magic! (Doug Henning rainbow hands)
Top graphic images: ABC; Mini; Hanna-Barbera
You know if they make a Live action Wacky Races the Cast will consist of John Cena, Chris Pratt, Mckenna Grace, and maybe Anne Hathaway.
We need a live-action Tom Slick movie. “When the Thunderbolt Greaseslapper is on your tail…”
Back in the ’70s my older brother and sister and I were watching Duel on broadcast television. Somewhere in the middle of it, Richard Nixon interrupted broadcasting with a live speech.
It’s widely agreed this was his most egregious act while in office.
Dick Dastardly (Richard Milhous Dastardly) was my favorite* cartoon villain! In addition to Wacky Racesm there was Flying Machines! Stop that pigeon now!
Not just a movie, but enough to carry a franchise for 10-12 years!
*Edging out Snidely Whiplash
Blues
Brothers
.
Explorers or Chargers ?
Shhhhh, nobody tell them, they’ll be happier never knowing
Just rented Duel on Amazon to rewatch it and all I could think of was the character David Mann should’ve screamed at the end, “Can you fly suckah? Can you fly!!!”
Um, thats Clarence Boddicker territory.
Good movie.
I was thinking more of Tremors.
https://youtu.be/b_MjOF6kZpw?si=dkxJwb-HAwVh6x7z&t=331
Great truck in that movie. (Giving you the side eye, David Tracy)
Oh yeah of course 🙂
🙂
Man thats an incredible movie.
Jay Jay did pick a good one.
Wait, what?
I was so sure that I would’ve heard about it that I didn’t bother to check if “Goodbye Pork Pie” had been remade.
Jeeez. That’s embarrassing.
A remake of “The Big Steal” with Ben Mendhelson (Danny would be great. Its a cheesy ’80’s Aussie Comedy / action film with a plot line that starts when he recieves a Nissan Cedric from his parents.
Desperate to impress his crush Joanna after lying about owning a Jaguar, Danny drives the Cedric down to a dodgy car lot run by salesman Gordon Farkas (Steve Bisley) and trades it in for a flawed Jaguar XJ6. Hilarity ensues.
Has anyone ever done a count of how many movies there are with a Mini of any year featured in it?
Here ya go. https://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=&makeId=&model=mini
An undercited resource.
A remake of gone in 60 seconds will never be as good as the original. A “once upon a time in Hollywood” style film about making the original would be super fun to watch.
I don’t think modern audiences would get the impish, joyful glee that Halicki put into finding the most horrendous and offhand ways to disintegrate Mopars. The man had a passion for it.
It’s funny how the Cage remake has become iconic as a car movie for people who don’t really like cars, centered around a fantasy Mustang vs the everydayness of the original’s.
Great ideas but for a reality check can I point out The Dukes of Hazard remake and The Beverly Hillbillies remake? God those remakes sucked so bad all the cars in both movies are no longer made. In fact they aren’t owned by the same company anymore. So before you say hey remake my favorite movie ask yourself if you want modern day Hollywood to remake your favorite movie
If we’re going to do Wacky Races/Monte Carlo/Great Race, I want to see it as a 2d/live action hybrid, because seeing the improbable cars and impossible physics done with modern practical effects would be delightful.
Like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit!” Brilliant!
Kind of surprised they never rebooted Christine.
IIRC there was an Indian remake or at least a movie that was heavily inspired by it. Tarzan I think? Not to be confused with the other movies named Tarzan, that was the name of the car which I believe was some heavily modified Toyota.
Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taarzan:_The_Wonder_Car
The car started life as a 1991 Toyota MR2 and still exists today
That was just a remake of the Wraith but actually pretty well done
I think there is a plan to make a TV series out of it.
They keep remaking Carrie and have a series coming out for that. There was suppose to be Christine out a few years ago. They must be getting stuck in car casting as it’s spelled out as a 58 fury and don’t think it will work. Obviously for a current remake it needs to be something red concord or intrepid maybe a charger.
Are there enough Concords and Intrepids out there to do that.
How about modernizing it and use a Tesla Taxi?
I’m sure they could gather enough Chrysler or Dodge something from the last 20 to 30 years. They need to modernize it for sure. Right now the delta they had in the movie would put it as a 2001 model year. Not sure what the Greaser replacement would be. Maybe jar head, punk, emo, cholo?
It’ll have to be an ACR Neon, the first shot can be a stained version of the original Hi! ad, on the floor of the garage next to the car.
I suppose it could be an 80’s car, in the late 90’s. Fast and furious crowd against say a Wood clad turbo Lebaron Convertible.
If Netflix does it I could see a trilogy released every few months to a year. Spaced about a decade apart. 80s business guy or finance bro would be an amusing theme. Or new wave.
Punk/Deathmetalheads with the Doc Martins.
I intended to offer “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Not car movie per se, but a movie with a lot of cars in it.
Oh, that was definately a car movie! That would have been my choice in response to the original post.
Totally a car movie but I feel like that’s already been remade?
Ah no, it was called Rat Race. I guess there’s a remake of It’s a Madx4 World in the works right now, involving Eddie Murphy? Huh.
There were also various crazy races in the Hanna Barbera “Laff-A-Lympics” series which featured more recognizable characters organized into three teams “The Scooby Doobies”, “The Yogi Yahooeys” and the “Really Rottens”.
Talk about abusing a franchise
Nobody could whine like Dennis Weaver.
Clearly someone needs to remake “No Man’s Land” but with AV equipment, and racing!
I looked up the specs on the truck in Duel: there were a couple of trucks used, or not – it’s a bit of a convoluted history. But the truck, whichever one it actually was, absolutely topped out at 65 mph. Even the bottom-tier Valiant available as the protagonist’s car could have easily outpaced the truck pretty much all day.
There’s no way he could catch him on the grade…
But seriously, I think the entire point is that it’s a malaise era Mopar, probably with a slant-6, in the heat with a faulty radiator hose…we’re not talking about a ’10 Altima with 189,000 miles and a spare on the rear, we know those can run 115 mph all day long.
Look at the odometer the next time you watch the movie. 1970’s quality right there with failure 4,500 – 6,000 miles depending on the insert shots used.
That closeup of the VERY ’70’s era Mopar speedometer was re-used in so many different shows of the era…
Yes I believe a 1968 company car. In the desert and tanker was probably empty until the final crash scene. I wonder if western movie sites list the movies for the most shots taken without reloading? What was that King Movie with vehicles and other stuff coming to life? Perhaps it could be saved.
That should be the next question, what crappy car movie could be improved from the original and how?
Are you talking about Maximum Overdrive from 1986? If so, it did get a remake, as a made for TV movie at any rate. It was called Trucks (which was also the name of the Steven King book MO was based on) and came out in ’97 on the USA Network. I remember seeing it around the time it came out and it doesn’t seem to have that good of reviews.
Maximum Overdrive was another King adaptation, for a change somewhat more adherent to the source material than some (looking at you, Lawnmower Man) that underscored just how 80s the 80s was. AC/DC, Emilio Estevez and Stephen King all in one title.
Oh sure, ruin a movie I loved! LOL
That wasn’t a love type movie maybe liked. Movie with benefits, Coyote Ugly movie, last chance at closing time movie, a going to a $1 movie in the afternoon because it’s fucking hot outside and I don’t have AC but the theater does and it sells beer.
If I recall correctly it was an ABC Movie of the Week.
It was, and it did well enough that they expanded it a bit and put it out theatrically.
I owned a 1974 Plymouth Valiant, and when it was working and on a flat road it could exceed 65 but stalled on left hand turns, once on the Fla Turnpike stalled and I opened the hood to see my engine block glowing orange. And don’t forget a maniac truck driver could easily override an old fashioned governors pin because they all were not governed
Let’s be honest. The truck did the guy a favor.