Eat My Dust (1976)

Why so much hype?

Load of rubbish!!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

From the winning team of Roger Corman and Charles Griffith, with Bill Paxton as set designer... we have a fun little film about a sheriff's son who has a race car and outruns every cop who tries to stop him. Throw in a girl named Christopher and you have a movie! Ron Howard stars, with family Clint and Rance along for the ride. Allegedly, Howard only agreed to do this film after being given the chance to direct "Grand Theft Auto", catapulting his Oscar-winning career. Well played, Opie and Corman! The film as a whole is fun if you like seeing kids outrun cops, but the Chow Fongs car chase scene is the best. How could the building be so fragile and poorly constructed? How can a car flip so easily? It is pure genius!

Eat My Dust (1976) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Hoover (Ron Howard) loves hot rods and when he finds out that the girl of his dreams (Christopher Norris) likes them as well, he steals a professional racing car and the two head off with just about every cop in town chasing them. EAT MY DUST, as the title would suggest, is a chase picture from the drive-in days and as long as you don't take it too serious you should find yourself having a pretty good time. I think a lot of credit has to go to director Charles B. Griffith who keeps the action moving from start to finish and there's really not any dry spots. We get all sorts of wild chases and the director manages to make several of them quite memorable. This includes one scene where a cop car crashes and takes out the front of a store but the memorable thing is that the entire front falls down and we can see what the people inside are doing. Another good sequence deals with a bunch of shopping carts getting hit and this leads to all sorts of trouble for people in the same area as them. Even better are the car's point-of-view shots. These here certainly aren't ground-breaking but they're so interesting and they put you right in the middle of the action. Another major plus is that Howard and Norris are just so charming together that they keep you into the story even when there aren't any crashes going on. The supporting cast is charming as well and that includes Clint Howard playing yet another weirdo. EAT MY DUST isn't a classic by any stretch of the imagination but fans of chase pictures should be entertained.

Hoover Niebold (Ron Howard) steals a race car to impress the girl of his dreams, Darlene (Christopher Norris). It seems that Darlene has a thing for fast cars and the guys who drive them. Hoover sets off with Darlene, but the law is in hot pursuit. And in Hoover's case, the law comes in the form of his father, Sheriff Niebold (Warren Kemmerling). Can Hoover evade his father and all of his friends, find enough gas, and not wreck his car all in the name of love? I hadn't seen Eat My Dust since its initial release way back in 1976. Back then, my brother and I somehow convinced my dad to take us to see the movie. He slept through the whole thing while we had a great time with all the car crashes and comedy bits thrown in. So did it hold up 32 years later? You betcha! I had a great time re-watching it tonight. Eat My Dust combines just the right amount of over-the-top car chase scenes, surprisingly effective comedy elements (Dave Madden, aka Reuben Kincaid, is hysterical as Big Bubba Jones), an enjoyable mandolin-infused soundtrack, an appealing cast, snappy direction and cinematography, and some of the best looking hot pants and go-go boots I believe I've seen into one enjoyable package. I realize that Eat My Dust probably couldn't stand the light of a real critical appraisal, but I'm not a real critic. I watch movies for enjoyment and I enjoyed Eat My Dust. One thing that really surprised me was how much I got out of the plot. The relationship between Hoover and Darlene was actually very well done. I admit it, there were moments that tugged at my heart. Sounds silly for a Roger Corman produced car chase movie, doesn't it? But you just really want to see a guy like Hoover get the girl. I don't use words like "sweet" very often to describe a movie, but that's what I thought about Hoover's feelings for Darlene. It made the ending that much more effective.

Hoover likes Darlene. Darlene likes riding in fast cars. Hoover likes driving fast cars. That's enough to get Eat My Dust off and running. Who would've thought that a Roger Corman produced car chase staring Ron Howard would be so much fun. One thing that this car chase comedy has working for it, that many do not, is that it's actually pretty funny. One funny scene involves a young Corbin Bernsen playing a slow minded gas station attendant. The driving sequences are also very well executed and photographed. One crash in particular at the end of the film makes you think the car is going to jump right off the screen. It's no Oscar winner, but who cares. Shut off your brain for awhile and let Opie do the driving.