Director Earl Bellamy does a lot here with a limited budget. Unfortunately, the pacing drags like hell. There's some pretty good dirt biking footage, and in between is a dull story that plods along on autopilot. I don't buy that romance between Michael Parks and Susan Howard one bit.
Alex Cord's modified Maico "Sidewinder 1" motocross bike isn't that impressive, but luckily he'll move on to a more successful project with his jet-propelled Bell 222 armored helicopter in the TV…
Was that really the pilot to a TV show? That's extraordinary! I guess you could get away with that in the '60s. I wish they could release shows like that now—all atmosphere and character driven with barely any plot to speak of. I imagine it would make modern Disney audience's brains crack and run down their ears. Now I wanna track down the show.
Because there's hardly any plot, there's no real momentum towards a climax. Michael Parks's character isn't…
Would you like to go on a road trip with a dysfunctional family?
"A funny dysfunctional family, like in Little Miss Sunshine?"
No, a basic, regular, everyday family: a couple and their two young daughters.
"Where are they going?"
From Mexico City to Tamiahua.
"Is it in a fast, cool vehicle?"
No, it's a Toyota RAV4.
"Do they get lost and attacked by inbred cannibals or monsters? Or do they get caught in a disaster, like a volcano or a…
I'm very appreciative of all the smaller, more intimate, indie films I was lucky enough to catch in theaters when I was in college in the '90s. This was when there were many more arthouse and rep theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cold Fever is one that stuck in my head over the decades. It's bleak, quirky, and simply and gorgeously shot. It's like the best Icelandic Jim Jarmusch road movie that Jarmusch never made.
