MovieChat Forums > Race for the Yankee Zephyr (1984) Discussion > Worthless (with one exception)

Worthless (with one exception)

posted 12 years ago by gsfsu
7 replies | jump to latest

And that is the beautiful New Zealand scenery. Everything else in this waste-of-time is a .....well, waste of time. The acting of Warren and Peppard is atrocious. And if Donald Plesance was one of your favorites before it won't be after you view this. He is the central figure in this movie and his drunken sot character (kind of like Walter Brennan on a binge) will definitely get on your nerves. The only redeeming feature is the jet boat chase and even that managed to kill two stunt men during filming.

Suffice to say it would be possible to pick this movie apart piece by piece and it could easily become an example of how not to do a movie but it simply isn't worth the effort.

If you want to watch the scenery, which is generally outstanding, turn off the sound and enjoy. Otherwise, skip it. You haven't missed a thing.

[–] erikaridpath 12 years ago

A Kiwi acquaintance insisted I watch this film, but after seeing it I want nothing more to do with her! When I heard the story I thought it could be not too bad, but I was wrong. This is just awful, and even the beautiful scenery can't make it any less bad. After seeing this and the unbelievably terrible Price of Milk ( another Kiwi horror!!! ) I have to ask if anyone in New Zealand has EVER made a film that wasn't utterly embarrassing and appalling.

[–] steveintucson 12 years ago

Agreed. It has everything I would like in a movie but I can hardly pay attention to it for more than 5 minutes at a time. I think in part it's the over acting by everyone that shows up on screen. In complete agreement on the scenery; best thing about it.

[–] Anscules 11 years ago

Lesley Ann Warren... well. I was going to make a comment about...nevermind.

DERP!

"Rampart: Squad 51."

[–] Blueghost 11 years ago

What movie did you see? It's just a simple action flick.

[–] GoodbyePorkPieHat 10 years ago

Yeah, I agree. It's not intended to be a contender for movie awards - it's just a bit o' fun, and despite its many flaws, I found it to be an entertaining bit of fluff to watch while drinking a beer and eating some popcorn.

So it goes.

[–] Blueghost 8 years ago

Yeah, you know I thought it was a decent popcorn flick, and I'm a pretty hard guy to please when it comes to media. But I wasn't expecting Citizen Kane, just a decent actioner, which is what all this was ever meant to be.

[–] gschwertley 7 years ago

Some of the acting in this movie was dreadful. Starting with George Peppard, whom I've never considered all that stellar in the craft anyway. That bogus accent was awful. Was Leslie Ann Warren supposed to be Kiwi? If so, she hardly made an attempt at accent.

Even as a not-art actioner, it sucked for me. Hardly believable, poor attention to detail.

The only redeeming part, the boat chase scenes. Fortunately, the boats didn't have lines to learn or say.

My gold standard is, will I watch it again? Not this one.