Freeway

I think it was Dennis Miller who coined calling Richard Belzer ,"the Belz." Anyhow, FREEWAY was made somewhere in between stand-up dates by Belzer, long before Homicide hit television. Of course, Belzer had done other flicks before(THE GROOVE TUBE), so he was fairly comfortable in front of the camera.

And, in fact, Belzer is the only entertaining thing about FREEWAY. The plot itself concerns a road-rager (back in the late 80's, this was un-hip) who blows the heads off of people. This psycho(the ever-employed Billy Drago)gets caught up with the Belz, with one of the killings being heard by Belzer.

James Russo, as always, thinks he's tough. But, like Mickey Rourke(sometimes), acting tough and being tough are two separate things.

FREEWAY is not so hot, and the low-budget shows. But, if you are a Belzer fan(I know you're out there), then this may be worth a look.

Everyone else, beware, THIS FILM IS TEDIOUS AND OVERLONG.

Freeway Killer, Is a Madman who shoots people on the freeway while yelling a bunch of mystical chant on a car phone. The police believe he is a random killer, but Sunny, the blond heroine, played by Darlanne Fluegel detects a pattern. So does the ex-cop, played by James Russo, and they join forces, and bodies, in the search for the villain who has done away with their spouses. Also starring Richard Belzer, this movie has its moments especially if you like car chases, but its really not a good movie for the most part, check it out if you're really bored and have already seen The Hitcher, Joy Ride, or Breakdown, otherwise stay away from the freeway.

I love Freeway! What a four-eyed, club-footed, red-headed stepchild of a movie! James Russo wants to be Mickey Rourke *sooooo* bad--and what issue of Penthouse did Darlanne Fluegel escape from? This is one of those enjoyably bad movies that you might refer to as a guilty pleasure. Richard Belzer is good as the disc jockey who receives phone calls from the psycho killer. And as the psycho killer... well, no one makes a more entertaining psycho than Billy Drago. The most chilling scene in the movie is the one where Darlanne and James find the picture of ol' Billy dressed as a priest. Best watched late at night with a small gathering of smart-alec pals, MST3K-style.

I had never heard of this film until last night. I saw it yesterday evening on cable. I like to see what some film makers do when they're in a very tight budget, as in this case, but this movie is very far away from Carpenter's fantastic and enjoyable low budget movie "They live".

I got caught up but the first 30 minutes or so, I was enjoying the mood, the photography and lighting, camera plans and movements, but that mood starts to fade away, and the argument becomes a bit muddy...

Belzer does a pretty good job until the end of the movie, contributing with a decent representation of a somewhat interesting character.

James Russo wasn't able to talk anyone into his "bad" attitude, and there are many question marks to put to the weak and sometimes inconsistent argument, namely the relation between Russo and Darlanne Fluegel, which is quite OK and very sexy throughout the movie.

After 1 hour, you start wondering what happened to the mood shown at the beginning, and it just gets pretty tedious until the predictable ending, with the blonde angelical nurse/doctor becoming a "devil" in leather driving a red firebird.

Gladly, the psycho man in the plot is played by Billy Drago, which is quite entertaining, as usual.

Bottom line - see it if you have absolutely nothing better to do, otherwise don't waste your time on it.

I'm a fan of Crash and Blade Runner and this movie explores some of those highway death and 80s film noir themes that I like to see, so I enjoyed it.

In general though, the essential stupidity of the film noir protagonist is not pulled off well by the female lead and her hero is nearly a neanderthal, hence the kitch warning.