MOTORAMA
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1993 Ken Johnson
1:29, R, Comedy, 1992 Director: Barry Shils Cast: Jordan Christopher Michael, Susan Tyrrell, Jack Nance, John Diehl, Garrett Morris, Michael J. Pollard, Flea, Drew Barrymore, Meat Loaf, Dick Miller, Irwin Keyes
Ten-year-old Jordan Christopher Michael steals a car and goes off on a trip through a strange country collecting Motorama cards trying to win the Motorama game. Along his trip, Michael meets some very eccentric people.
MOTORAMA was just released on videocassette and because of its great cast I wanted to see it. Now I want to warn all of you about it. Don't see this film, it is slow-moving, boring, and not very funny. On a scale of zero to five, I give MOTORAMA a one. MOTORAMA is rated R for female nudity, explicit language, and adult situations.
Most of the cast of this film are normally funny, but in this film they either aren't given enough time to do anything or have badly written characters. Jordan Christopher Michael doesn't show any talent in this film, but he's still better than that horribly annoying Macaulay Culkin. Susan Tyrrell (CRY-BABY, FAR FROM HOME) is completely wasted. She is barely on screen long enough for one to recognize her. Jack Nance (WHORE, MEATBALLS 4) just starts to get going and then isn't on screen any longer. John Diehl is on the screen longer than anyone in the cast except for Jordan Christopher Michael, and he is only on for about five minutes. He doesn't do that good a job, but it may just be that his part was poorly written. Garrett Morris (CAR WASH, CRITICAL CONDITION) isn't given time to do anything. Michael J. Pollard (TANGO & CASH, FAST FOOD) also isn't given enough time to be funny, or even establish a character for that matter. Flea (BACK TO THE FUTURE - PART 3, DUDES) may just be the best thing about this film. Drew Barrymore (DOPPELGANGER: THE EVIL WITHIN, SKETCH ARTIST) is completely wasted and shown as just another pretty face. Meat Loaf's (THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, THE SQUEEZE) character was very poorly written. Dick Miller (MATINEE, GREMLINS) isn't allowed to do anything. Irwin Keyes (MOB BOSS) more than being wasted is given a character that many may find to be offensive because it makes fun of mentally retarded people in a poor way.
If you hadn't gathered by now, this film is very poorly written. Jokes are poorly executed, if they even are executed. In one scene, Jordan Christopher Michael loses a Motorama card that he needs out the window next to a reservoir. Instead of falling down into the reservoir, it sails around in the air for a few seconds and then falls in Michael's hand. I fail to even see the purpose for this scene to be added. That's not the only scene like it either. Many scenes are started, but never end up being finished. Like at one point a dead man is dragged down to a river. Michael washes his face in the river then leaves. The dead man is never spotted, explained, or has anything else done with. I sat through it, sometimes in extreme agony, and when it finally came to the end, I felt incredibly cheated. The ending is horribly done and I think all viewers will be disappointed with it. Even the endings to most of the low budget slasher films are better than this ending.
-------- Ken Johnson blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews