to grasp. I purchased it for one British Pound because it features Fred Ward as its lead. Moreover, being an 80’s kid as I am, the images and memories of Lea Thompson are forever engrained in my mind. How can one not love and appreciate both of these actors in an action film? This combination is worth a dollar. Although, I didn’t get around to viewing the film until a decade later.
In the movie, Julie Mond dons the cap of a soldier while Fred Ward plays a Military cop. After she abandons the service, he uses all of his resources to find her. Although he is not at the top of his game, he seems to always find her, leading me to believe that he is pretty adept. This leads to an enormous gaping difference in skill. As it would seem, she tries to excel skill-wise but is not competent enough. Dressed in clashing clothes, there are a series of characters who seem fit for the cringe I saw in the movie trailer. Wait let me put it this way. There’s a recently sacked football coach desperately wanting attention with a young couple deeply infatuated with each other. But not to forget the elf child that will later on be manipulated into slaughtering as many people as she can later in the film. Thompson plays a mother who wants to return to her children for Christmas.
Dexter and Wrong Turn star Desmond Harrington is in the driver’s seat as he attempts to make it to his son’s house on Christmas Eve’s day. He is hastily stashing whatever cheap gas station toys he could lay his hands on and starting to wrap them with newspapers. Please disregard the discombobulated behavior angering shielding the unfortunate matters of certainty lost. But, I can foresee most of these questions remain unfulfilled.
For whatever reason, There seems to be some potent sobering about this collection of characters. They are put together to make the last bus ride on Christmas Eve, however, there seems to be a change of plan when the bus driver comes head-to-head with a group of bikers. In a forgettable ride, one of these bikers escapes over, and now, the bikers have everything to lose and the bus’s purpose is somehow compromised. Within a few seconds, the bus residents are treated to an amusing series of actions where bikers begin attacking the bus and screaming their heads off. The windows on the bus are smashed, while the bikers rev the engines, and the bus slams into something Middle of the road, let’s call it a low-budget nightmare. The remaining members on the bus now have to reset their entire strategy, and duck inside the gas station Wrecking yard Fortress. The bus is now infested with bikers waiting to show the rest of their gang what they are dealing with before attacking.
Rev and Julie’s stories are moving along parallel, but Fred is walking around in the area looking for Julie and notices the bus she boarding is off route. The film continually cuts back to Fred in order to build tension in their simultaneous storylines.
Exit Speed focuses on one thing and it has no problem cutting out reality. As I said, the film was somewhat healthily Mad Max-inspired and it’s in more ways than you might think. For one, the biker gang would easily fit one of Max’s exploits if they had more contemporary bikes. Furthermore, the area of Texas where the action is set may well have been a post-apocalyptic wasteland. No mobile service, no landlines, and the only vehicle on the road apart from the bus and bikes is Fred Ward looking for the bus and bikes. It turns almost absurd that we are to believe that the roads are empty on Christmas Eve and this biker gang operates without law or the FBI chasing them down.
The biker gang is easily the biggest problem in the film. They are a collection of faceless goons, in cheap Halloween costumes, attacking characters they are familiar with. Aside from some basic details about them that a sidelined character gives to footing them in fear, they do not make sense in the modern United States. There is little backstory. The film also includes some gore when these characters are killed. There is also a single noteworthy scene, where Ward figures out where they hide.
Then we move to the compound that our heroes consider their Alamo, they are waiting for Mexicans. Here, is everything needed to survive. One of the missing bus youth does not speak English and spends most of his screen time rambling about something while building a device knowing very well he is missing a key element for it. When folks seek what he is trying to hide, they somehow find a vast new collection of something far better than they expected.
Fred and Lea bring quality performances to Exit Speed.
Almost all of the cast is bearable but one can see the star power on display when Fred and Lea are on screen. The movie does indeed manage to get the two together later on. Both of them look to be glad to be here and are having fun with the nonsensical concepts and reasoning.
Scott Ziehl the director has a rather brief but fascinating list of credits, having directed Cruel Intentions 3, the unknown direct-to-video sequel Road House 2, and the fun Dan Aykroyd thriller Earth Vs. the Spider. The screenplaft is by Michael Stokes who also wrote Iron Eagle IV and No Contest II. He has the ability to switch between writing directly to video action and kids’ TV with ease.
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