Catch Me If You Can (1989)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

hyped garbage

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I had wanted to see this film for years after seeing a video trailer for it. Now I have finally seen it. Yes, it is undeniably cheesy in parts, but I accept that fact and watch it for the fun. And this movie is nothing short of great. The plot is slim, but it works. The drag race scenes are all done brilliantly, set to a perfect synth score by the wonderful Tangerine Dream and the two main performances by Matt Lattanzi and Loryn Locklin as the reluctant lovers are very good. It's been a while since I've seen Locklin's later movie 'Fortress' so I had forgotten just how attractive she was. Her character, Melissa, starts out as a typical concerned high school kid, but blossoms into a hot mama by the end of the picture. This is the only thing I've seen Lattanzi in, but he handles the hero role very well.Veteran performers Geoffrey Lewis and M. Emmet Walsh are great as the kindly school principal and the evil loan shark respectively, and the rest of the villains, such as the sneering Dirk and Manney and evil racing driver the Widowmaker are all very colourful characters. It surprised me that Stephen Sommers, later known for the first two 'Mummy' films and 'Van Helsing' would start his career with this kind of film. We all have to start somewhere I guess, and 'Catch Me If You Can' was a good place to start for him, especially as he never even had to leave his hometown to film it.The high school kids seem like a bunch of jerks, but at least they later on admit they were and decide to actually do something about the impending school closure that Melissa and Principal Johnson are trying to prevent. Like another favourite film of mine, Charlie Sheen flick 'The Wraith', parents seem to be non-existent in this town. But the authority figure role is filled excellently by Lewis as Mr. Johnson. It is he who turns out to have been a high-school hero back in the 50s who steps in to help when all hope seems lost.The main attraction for me was the cars, of course. The star car role is filled by two vehicles: a lovely black '68 Chevelle driven by Lattanzi for most of the movie, and 'Fast Freddie' Johnson's '57 Chevy, which is brought out of retirement for the final race against the clock after the Chevelle is laid low by Walsh's thugs. There's also a wonderful quotient of American muscle cars present throughout. I also like in the movie how some depth is injected into the character of Dylan Malone, Lattanzi's character. He at first seems like your typical anti-authority James Dean type. It is, however, revealed that he drag races to try and earn himself college tuition money to get out of his currently dead end life. This makes the final battle against Walsh more poignant, as Malone basically agrees to become a slave to Walsh if he loses the final race.All in all, the film is by no means ever going to win any awards. But if you just want a great, fun, popcorn movie, this is one of the best of them. Please Stephen Sommers, dust this one off and give it a DVD release!

If you can get past some of that good old fashioned 80s cheesiness (and there's plenty of it, thanks to a 'PG' rating), then you're left with what actually wasn't a bad drama. It is more like an 80s version of some of those old rebel teen speedway junkies movies complete with leather jackets and fast cars that you see in the 50s. You know, 'Rebel Without a Cause,' and all of that.In this movie, a rather pristine high school girl tries to raise $200,000 to save her school, Cathedral High, from being shut down by the county because of lack of funds. If they get the cash, the school board will match them for the rest. Enter Dylan, a bad ass with a bad haircut who is going to help save the day. In place of detention, he is sentenced to help out with the 'fund-drive' (fundraiser for us modern Yankee blokes). Knowing that without the help of the rest of the student body, the girl isn't going to make that kind of cash from selling prom tickets or hosting bake sales. So, he convinces her to do what anyone in her situation should do: bet it all on him in a drag race. And though reluctant at first, it doesn't take but one win to get her hyped on gambling.Only, when the duo manages to make $100,000 in a bet for double or nothing, Dylan loses the race and, consequently all of the money. Now, desperate to make it all back in a pretty serious bet with a somewhat harmless bookie called The Fat Man (Emmett Walsh), he has to try to win it all back. You should know how the story goes and what to expect. But, if you like fast cherry cars, then it's a good one to catch. I might think it better than it actually is since I saw it after immediately after watching two lame movies (The Allnighter and Ski School). So, what have you got to lose besides a hundred and six minutes (if you watch all the credits)?

Wow! I remember so many awful films that loosely revolved around high school from the early 1980s. They usually had someincredibly strained plot and lots of 27 year old actors pretending to be students. As I watched this film I felt a little of the nostalgia of growing up in the 1980s. However, then I find out that this film was made in 1989? Say what! Well, the nostalgia factor ends right there, this is just bad. The plot has the city preparing to close a high school and threatening to bus all of the students to inner city high schools. Which is odd, in that the students at this school are both wealthy and abundant. In fact, the main character lives in a mansion. Makes you wonder how they cannot find money to keep this school alive, have they never heard of property taxes. Oh, but here is the kicker. The school board says that they will keep the school alive, if the students can raise $200,000. So the seniors go about doing this. Hmmm, you raise $200,000 but instead of saving that for college, you put it towards saving the high school that you are a Senior in? And why exactly would they close an overpopulated school before the year is out? And...ahh forget it, this film was stupid and made in 1989!?

Not Bad Really, a lot of great Hot Rods and some fast Drag Racing as well. The Sound Track was good and the drag racing was excellent. I liked the way they brought back Fast Eddie from hiding from under the High School Football Field from years ago and dispelled the myth.