Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

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.

moonspinner55 B-grade thriller from debuting director Charles Band has a driverless black Camaro causing destruction and death on rural highways and back roads; meanwhile, invalid Jose Ferrer (the victim of a mysterious car accident himself) accuses wife Sue Lyon of cheating and attempts to have her killed, but she's in possession of an occult amulet which may help her turn the tables. Not a bad plot (as these things go), and the cast is certainly solid, but there's barely a semblance of filmmaking talent behind the camera. Band, working with two cinematographers, stages outlandish car crashes and smash-ups without any tension or excitement (though some may say the squashing of a bickering couple in their car has a touch of black humor). The movie is just an exercise in vehicular mayhem--topped with a love of sending cars to their demise in fiery explosions--while the occult asides seem merely an afterthought. *1/2 from ****

Scott LeBrun Be prepared for lots of vehicular carnage and lots of impressive fireballs in this goofy combination of possession themed horror and car-crash action fare. Most genre fans are likely to be more familiar with "The Car" (from the same year as this one) and the Stephen King adaptation "Christine", so "Crash!" could use a little more exposure.Jose Ferrer stars as Marc Denne, hateful towards his hot young wife Kim (Sue "Lolita" Lyon) because he holds her responsible for the fact that he's now a cripple. He tries to arrange for her death, but unknown to him, she's acquired an unusual small figurine at a swap meet, one that possesses weird powers. At the same time, a mysterious, black, driver less convertible has appeared and is sometimes killing motorists.Marc Marais wrote the silly script for this nonsensical but diverting B picture. The cast deserves credit for treating it with such straight faces. The plot isn't fleshed out all that well, but in this kind of low budget entertainment, that usually isn't too much of a concern. This plot tends to take a back seat to weirdness and mayhem, anyway. The filmmaking is fairly crude overall, although it's nice that producer / director Charles Band and his cinematographers, Andrew Davis and Bill Williams, shot this in Panavision. Utilizing the Panavision aspect ratio always gives a bigger look to smaller budgeted pictures, something Bands' peer John Carpenter knew very well. The music score by Andrew Belling feels very '70s at times, but it's fun, and atmospheric. There isn't much in the way of special effects, which is probably just as well. Those frequent explosions *are* pretty over the top, and cool to watch.Co-star John Ericson is utterly stiff as concerned, well meaning doctor Gregg Martin, but Ferrer is a treat to watch, with Lyon trying her hardest as the young wife. Leslie Parrish is likewise sincere as nurse Kathy Logan, and Jerome Guardino is okay as Pegler, the obligatory "detective on the case" character. Band appears uncredited as a helpful motorist; John Carradine and especially Reggie Nalder have great cameos.There's nothing really special here, but "Crash!" is still worth seeking out for B picture completists.Six out of 10.

Jonathon Dabell Crash! from independent film director Charles Band is an energetic but almost totally nonsensical entry in the possessed vehicle stakes. It even throws some wild and woolly occult magic into its jumbled brew, just to tangle its disparate elements a little further. One thing it does have going for it is the presence of horror veterans José Ferrer, John Carradine and Reggie Nalder, although only Ferrer gets any meaningful screen time. Sue Lyon is here too, though seeing her in a cheapjack genre film like this seems dispiriting after the early promise she showed in Lolita and Night Of The Iguana.Pretty young lady Kim Denne (Lyon) buys a curious trinket from a flea market. Later it becomes evident the trinket is a Hittite charm which can give its owner strange powers. Kim is married to the much older Marc (Ferrer), a bitter and twisted wheelchair-bound professor who holds his young wife responsible for his condition. Theirs is a totally broken relationship, and it's no surprise when Marc sets his ferocious Doberman upon Kim while she is driving, hoping to kill her and make it look like an accident. Kim survives this attempt on her life but comes out of it a disfigured amnesiac. While the police and doctors try to ascertain who she is and what has happened to her, Marc learns of her survival and tries to kill her again. Using her newly-acquired powers, Kim summons her car to come to her rescue. The driverless vehicles tears across the miles, destroying everything in its path as it races to its mistress's aid.Crash! is a complete muddle of a movie. It throws in everything but the kitchen sink yet, crucially, fails to tie it all together with any real sense of logic or narrative flow. There's nothing particularly frightening in it, despite efforts to make Lyon look creepy and otherworldly with her scarred face and orange-glowing eyes. The car is certainly not scary at all. It roams, rams, wrecks, smashes and destroys everything it comes into contact with… but the overwhelming impression is more of a Hal Needham/Burt Reynolds-style demolition derby than an ominous chiller in the tradition of Duel. Plus, of course, there's the gaping plot hole that the car is under the control of Lyon, one of the film's supposed 'good' characters. If evil Ferrer was the one guiding the killer automobile, things might make more sense. But in order to save her own life it is actually Lyon who causes the death of countless innocents. How are we meant to empathise with her when she's responsible for the death of half the road-users in the county?!? A strange, senseless and largely unsuccessful film, Crash! does not shine brightly in the possessed vehicle canon.

MichaelFab This movie appeared on CBS late night TV in the early 1980's. That's when CBS reran the old NBC mystery shows (Columbo, McCloud, Quincy) and some TV-movies in their late night schedule. Those were the days before VCR's, so you didn't have much choice for late night TV.Of all the bad 1970's B-movies, this film has the most absurd & disturbing opening scene. It's such an unpleasant scene, I changed channels the first time it was on. Several months later, they ran it again, so I reluctantly watched the entire movie. It opens with a couple on a road trip. You barely see a black sports car approaching from behind. Suddenly their van inexplicably just plunges off the road, and in an eerie slow-motion sequence, goes down a hill and crashes into the embankment, where it explodes into a massive fireball. It is such a distasteful and unsettling scene, it's impossible to sit through the rest of this trashy movie with the bad taste that scene left you with.The rest is average B-grade trash, only worthy for some stupid action car scenes, and for Jose Ferrer, who makes it halfway watchable. The director filmed some good car chases and stunts. But he has no heart or soul presenting the rest of the story. The remainder of the movie plays with the same distasteful, unpleasant style as the opening scene, which regurgitates in your stomach. It's too bad because the story could have been intriguing or original, but comes off as nasty.Jose Ferrer is an angry, bitter paraplegic who blames his wife (and her occult antiques) for the crash that left him paralyzed. It was that unknown car that caused the accident. She was not hurt, but he was left in a wheelchair. She deals in antique jewelry and acquires an ancient voodoo token. When she holds it in her hand, an unmanned black sports car speeds through the mountainsides by itself, running other cars off the road, causing crashes, and then speeding away with no driver.While she's driving her convertible with the roof down, Ferrer send his trained dobermans to jump in and attack her, hoping she'll crash and die. Instead she survives in a coma, then recovers with amnesia and a lot of plastic surgery.Since she has amnesia, he calls her to arrange an antiques sale. When she arrives, she doesn't remember the house, or the sauna (steam room) inside. There is one brief, frightening moment from Ferrer. As he shows her the house, he changes the subject from antiques to asking her if she remembers it. Then they get to the sauna, and an evil look comes over his face. He runs his wheelchair into her, pushing her inside, then locks her in and turns up the heat to melt her plastic surgery face, with some creepy 70's synthesizer sounds playing. Meanwhile her doctor suddenly realizes it was her husband who caused her accident and races against time to save her.