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From my favorite movies..

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This is one of numerous movies that were featured on Video On Demand from Rifftrax and it's easy to tell why. I didn't even know that was the real Evel Knievel. I was probably just so taken back by how dumb and boring this movie was, I didn't notice. This film features guys who want to take Knievel's body to smuggle cocaine. I couldn't even comprehend this plot. I was able to understand the jokes as he really did attack someone with a baseball bat before this film was released. The riffing was great with some of my favorite bits being, "We were told there'd be Christians to eat!". An easy one was "Evel!" with "I'm not referring to your name. It's just evil that you're here!". I loved, "I'm going to sit here and regret "Dracula: Dead And Loving It"." I also liked, "It was easy" followed by, "And hugely wasteful of helicopter fuel". You really have to find the Rifftrax version. *1/2

Oh, what an incredible trashy bad movie from the '70's this is, starring none other than Evel Knievel himself and Hollywood celebs from the 'old' days Gene Kelly, Red Buttons and Leslie Nielsen as a villain.The movie has a real shaky plot that doesn't make an awful lot of sense. I don't know it has something to do with an evil Leslie Nielsen wanting Knievel death so he can smuggle drugs with Knievel's death body as a cover. Meanwhile there are also several side-plots that makes you wonder why they are even in there. It makes the movie often disjointed to watch and halve of the time you don't know what is going on, also because there is often very little actually happening in the story.The movie was an obvious attempt to launch Evel Knievel a movie career. He was known for his daring motorcycle jumps stunts but he is perhaps even better known because of his inability to land. He crashed- and broken more bones during his stunts than a regular race-car driver would in his entire career.Evel Knievel is in this movie presented as an all American hero. He is loved everywhere, he gets the girl and also does charity. Meanwhile he also gives important life lesson's to kids. by telling them they will eventually blow up once they start using drugs. He gets a standing ovation as well from the crowd after this inspiring speech.The only last month deceased Evel Knievel just wasn't much good as an actor. It also didn't really helped him that he had Hollywood-cannon's Gene Kelly and Red Buttons opposite him. He turns all the more pale in comparisons to them. It's true that Kelly's and Buttons' careers already had their best time and the same goes for Leslie Nielsen, who in this movie plays one of his last 'serious'. This is basically also the only reason why those three appear in this movie. It was a bit weird to see Kelly as an 'old' man, mainly of course since I'm used to seeing him in only just '40's and '50's movies. I can name at least a dozen movies out of the top of my head that are way worse than this one. So perhaps this movie is not entirely deserving it's title of 'one of the worst movies ever made' but nevertheless, this is a great example of bad movie making, which at the same time also makes this movie some delicious bad trash from the '70's to watch. Viva Knievel! 3/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Evel Knievel is the world's leading motorcycle jumper. When he is asked to accompany his friend Jessie (Marjoe Gartner), the second best motorcycle jumper, on a tour of Mexico he accepts. However Millard, the tour's organiser (Leslie Nielsen) plans to use Knievel to smuggle drugs back over the Mexican border, using Knievel's fame to escape detection.This is very much a star vehicle of it's time - it screams 70's all the way through - from the clothes to the attitude, from the stars to the cheesy theme song it's all very dated. However we should allow this to put us off - although it is hard to see past the terrible flares and big collars. This is actually a reasonable plot - if a little far fetched - but the 70's definitely produced worse crime thrillers. This manages to be quite clever and have an exciting chase conclusion. That's not to say that it's brilliant - but for an Evel Knievel movie anything that is better than OK is good. There is a side plot involving Knievel's mechanic Will and his estranged son - but this doesn't really add any value to the plot.The main weakness of this is that it is a Knievel vehicle (pardon the pun). Several times the film slows down and loses the main plot so that Knievel can be kind to kids, or lecture about the dangers of drugs etc. If the part had been played by a "normal" actor then it wouldn't have stolen as much of the focus as Knievel did. That said - there are times that this doesn't seem like a star vehicle. Knievel overall is played as a kind man who is good to kids etc, but quite often during the film he is an unpleasant man - arrogant, rude, selfish and, in one throwaway remark, racist. It just surprised me that he would let himself be portrayed in that way - unless of course he is like that and didn't see it in the finished film. For the most part though this is a star film that shows him as a moral, kid loving, God-fearing American.The rest of the support is quite surprising, Gene Kelly plays Will quite well, but overdoes the emotions in his subplot. Leslie Nielsen is good as the bad guy, pre-spoof days, and plays it straight (read boring) and steady. Even Red Buttons pops up momentarily as Knievel's organiser. But most are sidelined as the story focuses on Knievel.Overall a good 1970's crime movie, but both Knievel and the other subplots slow the plot and take away from the film. For what it is - it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I realize that the movie was about Evil Knievel, but I was more interested in Gene Kelly. This was not the charming, debonair, singer dancer that we are used to,. Gene was a run down, alcoholic who was trying to impress a son he hadn't seen in years. Knievel starts to show off, and Gene's son looses interest in him. Gene has to work hard to regain his son's love. It was a very emotional role for Gene, I enjoyed watching him emote more than I did Knievels stunts.Lauren Hutton was an over the top, harridan of a photographer; and " love interest" for Knievel. Had Gene Kelly not been in the film, I never would have watched it. He adds dignity and strength of character to any role he plays.This was not one of Gene's better films, but it was good to see that he hadn't lost his "magic" on the screen.Kitty