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Such a frustrating disappointment

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

I had wanted to see this film for years after seeing a video trailer for it. Now I have finally seen it. Yes, it is undeniably cheesy in parts, but I accept that fact and watch it for the fun. And this movie is nothing short of great. The plot is slim, but it works. The drag race scenes are all done brilliantly, set to a perfect synth score by the wonderful Tangerine Dream and the two main performances by Matt Lattanzi and Loryn Locklin as the reluctant lovers are very good. It's been a while since I've seen Locklin's later movie 'Fortress' so I had forgotten just how attractive she was. Her character, Melissa, starts out as a typical concerned high school kid, but blossoms into a hot mama by the end of the picture. This is the only thing I've seen Lattanzi in, but he handles the hero role very well.Veteran performers Geoffrey Lewis and M. Emmet Walsh are great as the kindly school principal and the evil loan shark respectively, and the rest of the villains, such as the sneering Dirk and Manney and evil racing driver the Widowmaker are all very colourful characters. It surprised me that Stephen Sommers, later known for the first two 'Mummy' films and 'Van Helsing' would start his career with this kind of film. We all have to start somewhere I guess, and 'Catch Me If You Can' was a good place to start for him, especially as he never even had to leave his hometown to film it.The high school kids seem like a bunch of jerks, but at least they later on admit they were and decide to actually do something about the impending school closure that Melissa and Principal Johnson are trying to prevent. Like another favourite film of mine, Charlie Sheen flick 'The Wraith', parents seem to be non-existent in this town. But the authority figure role is filled excellently by Lewis as Mr. Johnson. It is he who turns out to have been a high-school hero back in the 50s who steps in to help when all hope seems lost.The main attraction for me was the cars, of course. The star car role is filled by two vehicles: a lovely black '68 Chevelle driven by Lattanzi for most of the movie, and 'Fast Freddie' Johnson's '57 Chevy, which is brought out of retirement for the final race against the clock after the Chevelle is laid low by Walsh's thugs. There's also a wonderful quotient of American muscle cars present throughout. I also like in the movie how some depth is injected into the character of Dylan Malone, Lattanzi's character. He at first seems like your typical anti-authority James Dean type. It is, however, revealed that he drag races to try and earn himself college tuition money to get out of his currently dead end life. This makes the final battle against Walsh more poignant, as Malone basically agrees to become a slave to Walsh if he loses the final race.All in all, the film is by no means ever going to win any awards. But if you just want a great, fun, popcorn movie, this is one of the best of them. Please Stephen Sommers, dust this one off and give it a DVD release!

Catch Me...if You Can's story doesn't make a lot of sense, the class president of a high school gets the local race king to race to save the school that's going to close down. But they loose all the money and get into a timed race across town like a local legend "Fast Freddie" did back in the day. Yeah. But the movie has a fun, goofy tone and is sort of a send up of 50's Hot Rod pictures, like "The Wild Ride," none of the young actors are particularly good, and everything about them screams the 80's but Geoffrey Lewis is always fun to watch, not to mention M. Emmet Walsh. It's directed by Stephen Summers of "The Mummy" and "Van Helsing" fame, which is interesting since pretty much all of his films hark back to a different old genre, "The Mummy" was classic movie serials and horror, "Van Helsing" was Hammer films, and Catch Me if You Can did Hot Rod flicks. But The Cars are the stars, the main guy drives a sweet '68 Chevelle takes the main role for much of the racing scenes, as it faces a beautiful orange and white '69 Camaro, a '68 Shelby Mustang, '71 Dart Sport, a Grand Prix SJ, and a pretty goofy '79 Camaro with a big spider graphic on the hood, and after the dastardly M. Emmet Walsh destroys the motor in his Chevelle, Geoffrey Lewis turns out to be "Fast Freddie" and he lets him borrow his amazing '57 Chevy that was buried under the football field to run the race. Can you guess what happens? Not going to win any awards, but it's a good example of some automotive thrills.

Unlike Fresh (1994), where a young, 12 year old African American male pushes drugs in the Brooklyn community, this film has another reference to the innovator, a typology coined by sociologist Robert Merton, where an individual would like to have a share of culturally defined goals, but reject the legitimate means to achieve success. In this film, the local high school is on the verge of being closed, and the student council president (Loryn Locklin) and the principal (Geoffrey Lewis) must come up with $200,000 to save the school from its demise. When Matt Lattanzi steps in, this is where the plot twist occurs.The Malone character engages in illegitimate sub rosa activity, by illegal street racing for money, and when all legitimate efforts fail during the fundraiser, the last resort is illegal street racing, when $3000 of the fundrainser money is betted on a street race. Unknowingly to the high school students, they are dealing with the gambling syndicate, and the loan sharks that run the illegal street racing. Lots of classic cars in this film, which includes a 1968 Chevelle and a 1957 Chevrolet, and watch for the ultimate plot twist where the principal used to be a legendary drag racer! Why does he hide his car on the schoolgrounds? Because his home used to be located there.

A funky little film that was the first effort by "Mummy" director Stephen Sommers. Cliched, unbelievable plot is played in a light-hearted manner by leads Matt Lattanzi (My Tutor) and Loryn Locklin. Co-star Grant Heslov later had a major role in "Congo", while veteran character actors M. Emmett Walsh and Geoffrey Lewis are recognizable from various roles in other films. Somewhat of an ode to director Sommers' hometown of St. Cloud, MN, the film's plot involves high-school kids trying to raise money for their school through illegal road races. Yeah, right. The film is helped by a great soundtrack of 50's & 60's teenybopper staples, and by the fact that none of the major players take themselves too seriously. Trivia alert: Matt Lattanzi is the ex-husband of Australian songstress Olivia Newton-John. Oh, and by the way, being that this was filmed in St. Cloud, yours truly has a "blink and you'll miss it" cameo in one of the football scenes' crowd shots. (As if anybody CARES, I'm wearing a red winter jacket and ski mask.)