Despite The Car: Road to Revenge's low review score, I wanted to give it a try since I love so-bad-they're-good movies, gore (mentioned in other reviews), and hot cars. The Car showed potential at first; everything's clearly low budget, and one particularly bad CGI moment early on made me cringe, and I love cringing. Unfortunately, the film ended up being too boring and lackluster to recommend even to those who like bad movies.
Here's the story in a nutshell: a district attorney named Caddock is murdered by some criminals, becomes one with his car after death, and hunts down his killers in a rampage of revenge. Caddock's character is underdeveloped (as proof, the IMDB summary doesn't even use his name, just his DA title), but what we do know about him before he dies and is rebirthed as a vengeful car is that he's a crappy human being and potential domestic abuser. I love anti-heroes, but there was no rhyme or reason for it here that I could really get behind. Honestly, I don't understand why the director bothered with such a complicated backstory. I would've enjoyed just a random possessed homicidal car more than this get-up (which is apparently the story behind the 1977 original, which is reviewed far better).
The murderous car itself (a heavily modified Chrysler 300, which is immediately obvious to all us car gals out there) is attractive and intimidating. Other than the car, only one other character intrigued me: a nameless gothic villain with a top hat played by Keith-Lee Castle who has as much sass as eye makeup and a robotic-enhanced pointer finger that stabs people. This character was eccentric and interesting, but the filmmakers don't give him the time he deserves (as evidenced by the fact that the movie's credited cast does NOT include either the character's name or this actor). This is mind-boggling, and once this character kicked the bucket halfway through the film, I called it quits. He was the only enjoyable aspect of it other than the car, and the car already had plenty of screen-time.
A few short tidbits: the gore in this isn't particularly impressive. There are no giblets or prolonged torture scenes; when people die you just tend to see a splash of CGI blood. As a gorehound, I was immensely disappointed. The whole film has this cheap, low-lighted, bluish-tint that ended up fatiguing my eyes after a few scenes. If you're looking for a movie that's actually good and has cybernetically-enhanced people fighting it out in a sci-fi setting, I recommend Upgrade (2018). The Car: Road to Revenge attempts this and fails, and in many ways I see how they attempted to imitate Upgrade.
I don't recommend this, even for those of us who like bad movies. All its potentially enjoyable aspects are cut too short to matter. On the plus side, now I know about the original movie from 1977, so I've added that to my watchlist.
Here's the story in a nutshell: a district attorney named Caddock is murdered by some criminals, becomes one with his car after death, and hunts down his killers in a rampage of revenge. Caddock's character is underdeveloped (as proof, the IMDB summary doesn't even use his name, just his DA title), but what we do know about him before he dies and is rebirthed as a vengeful car is that he's a crappy human being and potential domestic abuser. I love anti-heroes, but there was no rhyme or reason for it here that I could really get behind. Honestly, I don't understand why the director bothered with such a complicated backstory. I would've enjoyed just a random possessed homicidal car more than this get-up (which is apparently the story behind the 1977 original, which is reviewed far better).
The murderous car itself (a heavily modified Chrysler 300, which is immediately obvious to all us car gals out there) is attractive and intimidating. Other than the car, only one other character intrigued me: a nameless gothic villain with a top hat played by Keith-Lee Castle who has as much sass as eye makeup and a robotic-enhanced pointer finger that stabs people. This character was eccentric and interesting, but the filmmakers don't give him the time he deserves (as evidenced by the fact that the movie's credited cast does NOT include either the character's name or this actor). This is mind-boggling, and once this character kicked the bucket halfway through the film, I called it quits. He was the only enjoyable aspect of it other than the car, and the car already had plenty of screen-time.
A few short tidbits: the gore in this isn't particularly impressive. There are no giblets or prolonged torture scenes; when people die you just tend to see a splash of CGI blood. As a gorehound, I was immensely disappointed. The whole film has this cheap, low-lighted, bluish-tint that ended up fatiguing my eyes after a few scenes. If you're looking for a movie that's actually good and has cybernetically-enhanced people fighting it out in a sci-fi setting, I recommend Upgrade (2018). The Car: Road to Revenge attempts this and fails, and in many ways I see how they attempted to imitate Upgrade.
I don't recommend this, even for those of us who like bad movies. All its potentially enjoyable aspects are cut too short to matter. On the plus side, now I know about the original movie from 1977, so I've added that to my watchlist.
