Gimme the keys, I'll drive...

It’s a red letter week here in Couchville. I get to peel the P Plates off my car after three years of sobriety and some hair raising driving moments. Learning to drive at the age of 30 is no small thing. I had been lucky enough to live in the inner city where it was unnecessary and expensive to own a car. But life took some strange turns and I needed wheels. It took me 12 months of one hour lessons but I finally passed my test. And now three years later I can’t believe I did it! So to celebrate my milestone I thought I’d share with you my top 4 favorite car movies.


Christine (1983): when I was a kid I took the dustcover off Dr Doolittle and put it on the hardcover of Christine so I could sneaky read it in my very strict catholic primary school which had banned Stephen King for all eternity (him and Kiss lunchboxes). Scared the bejeezus outta me and possibly the Jesus outa me too.

I loved this John Carpenter movie adaptation. The car was suitably menacing, the teens were cute and the music, well yeah it was that weird John Carpenter music. I have great fondness for the lead actor a young Kieth Gordon who went on to direct one of my top 100 films –an adaptation of the Robert Cormier classic The Chocolate War (1988).


The Love Bug (1968). I’m talking the original and the best. Not the latest Lohan mish mash (not that I hate Lohan, she seems to be the best of a bad bunch). But this was a Disney feature back in the day Disney was doing good work. And it starred their stalwart Dean Jones who was always so appealing. And the car, that was a rockin’ cool car.


Duel (1971). An obvious choice I know but one I can’t resist. You’d be surprised how many of my friends count this as one of their favorites. It’s a film that can only work as a film, it’s a purely visual story. There is very little dialogue, lots of wide angle shots of long winding desert roads. And one mutha of a truck bearing down on us in a relentless road rage that would only end in tears. Spielberg is a genius. Well he was then…


The Fast and the Furious (2001). Now ok just hold on. Before you fall off your chair laughing I actually think this is a really fantastic movie. Ok so it has all the clichés - hot cars, fast women, undercover cops, criminal with a heart of gold. It’s essentially Point Break in cars. It has a great energy to it, and it’s funny and knowing.

Vin Diesel is quite a dish but not quite as delicious as Paul Walker who really was the eye candy for girls so they’d take their dumb boyfriends to the film. The very best thing about it? The stunts are all real. No CGI nonsense. One of the most famous stunts where a car drives under the carriage of a moving semi was performed by a woman stunt driver. So now I’m off my P Plates I could apply for her cool job right?

Maybe I need to do that defensive driving course first.

Honorable Mentions:

LeMans
Bullit
Cannonball Run
Ronin
The Cars that Ate Paris
The Italian Job

Please note Car movies are different to Road movies and Duel is both. More on that some other time…