Matialth
Good concept, poorly executed.
BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Brenda
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
hrkepler
'The Wild Racers' as movie is as shallow as its main character Jo Jo Quillico (played by pop singer Fabian) a race car driver living on the edge. Winning a race is his only intention and everything else comes second. Traveling from circuit to circuit, from country to country he conquers the women like racetracks. Until he finds a girlfriend (Mimsy Farmer) who sticks besides him, until she sees she can't get enough love from him.The story is well written, but the most interesting part of the film is it's style - tilted camera angels and quick cuts - there are barely any shots that last more than 20 seconds, and scenes drive into scenes (we can barely set down at the dinner table when we are already back on racing track). The dialogue is minimal, but use of voice over is rather interesting - two characters are having conversation, then there is the change of the shot and conversation has turned into narration. I guess it has to do something the guerrilla style filmmaking as the crew didn't have permission to shoot on location (everything had to be canned on rush) and mixing it all real racing footage that some was colored from black and white.Despite pseudo art house style the film carries the mood and atmosphere of '60s Grand Prix racing very well. Not stylistically as pure as lets say 'Le Mans' with Steve McQueen 'The Wild Racers' is still interesting film that any fans of the genre and racing should check out when the chance.Voice of Fabian was dubbed by Dick Miller who also has brief cameo as pit mechanic, blink an eye and you miss him.P.S. Although the film is about Formula 1, the cars shown in the movie are actually Formula 2 machinery.
al_duke
This story about former NASCAR driver Joe Joe Quilico and his quest of making it big in European Grand Prix and Le Mans racing, and pursue a love life at the same time ought to evoke comparisons to two epic racing movies, Grand Prix and Le Mans. One good thing is the footage of exciting racing, which ought to please many fans of that era's Formula One and sports car prototype racing. It's interesting that we have a NASCAR driver making the switch to F1 (nowadays, it's the other way around-- Juan Pablo Montoya and Scott Speed come to mind), and Fabian does a great job in his role as an American racer adjusting to life on the European racing circuit. Now for the dislike. The editing! The Wild Racers makes use of too many quick cuts and the film's flow is generally "jerky" and the scenes cut too quickly into the next; it is not smooth at all, making it hard to follow the story at times. Compared to its contemporaries, Le Mans and Grand Prix-- the editing in those movies was much more tastefully done and served better in conveying a sense of emotion, or action, where it was needed. I never felt that I lost the storyline in those movies.I agree with the other review that this story written by Max House is excellent. The storyline is great, no doubt-- but the execution simply didn't convey that, in my opinion. I still enjoyed the racing sequences, though. The Wild Racers could, and should, have been up there as one of the great racing movies of all time.
Stephen Bierce (FPilot)
I first saw this movie when I was eleven years old. I was watching TV hoping to find some escape from the grief of losing a relative, and on that level it delivered adequately. But beyond that it meant nothing, because ultimately it's not about anything.There are two characters in this movie: Fabian's JoeJoe and the scenery of Western Europe. Yes, there are more cast members but they are only scenery to JoeJoe. Dancers to dance with, women to bed with, other drivers to run against, team coaches to argue with and so on...but none of these are really characters anywhere near JoeJoe's level. Still, he's pretty shallow and superficial, and he even admits it. In the Madrid Bullfight arena/Jarama racetrack sequence, he calls the bull "dumb" but ultimately invites the audience to compare JoeJoe's pursuit of the Checkered Flag to the bull's pursuit of the Matador's cape. Is JoeJoe's girlfriend dumb for not making the comparison herself, or wise for making the comparison internally but not telling JoeJoe what she thinks?I wonder if Robert Redford drew from this or likable movies when he made DOWNHILL RACER years later.Visually, this is fabulous stuff. The race scenes are genuinely well cut and the travelogue scenes of European cities and landscapes are well worth the effort. But unlike Steve McQueen's LE MANS four years later, or Paul Newman's WINNING two years after this movie, none of this visual art is thrown in service of a plot line. This movie is a traffic circle; it ends how it begins. Neither JoeJoe nor anything else really changes that we don't expect.The music is interesting stuff, a mix of California surf rock and Continental go-go pop for the incidentals, with some French-language pop love songs thrown in for make-out ambiance. Modern audiences would probably find the latter stuff tiresome, but don't worry about it; the two paradigms shift snappily from one to the other and back.It's not said which racing circuit the filmmakers used for this feature, but a little research let me determine that this was Formula 2, which later became Formula 3000 and is to F1 what IndyLights is to IRL and the Nationwide Grand Nationals is to NASCAR. It looks like Fabian did his own driving in some of the scenes and I didn't notice any process shots like were common at that time. The car he has on the track is a Brabham with a Cosworth engine; it belonged to a real F2 team that won five Championship season races that year.
TedMichaelMor
For a low budget imitation of a great classic film, this movie has a certain visual beauty that hints as the physical loveliness of the Formal 1 racing circuit. The women wear exquisite outfits, the montages work as travel log. Fabian looks like a classic Grand Prix driver from the time. Missy Farmer is lovely looking as is Talia Shire.What I saw was dubbed it seems. The dialogue sounds unreal. The music seems to be an imitation of French romantic films.The film does not work. The story does not engage me. I do not care about the narrative and somehow the montage lacks crispness and cohesion. Still, it almost works in a way. It almost seem an undertone or overtone to "Grand Prix" This is like a memory of a dream and that is a compliment.