Motorama (1993)

Joseph Minion wrote this eerie, spooky, unusual film which is expertly directed by Barry Shils. It's subject matter is straight out of the Twilight Zone. The story begins with a pint-size ten year old boy named Gus (Jordan Christopher Michael) who's abusive home environment spurs him to steal a beautiful, mint condition, red 65 Ford Mustang and run away. Despite his inability to reach the foot peddles, he crafts a prosthetic foot device to reach the floor. Along the long stretch of roadway, which he flies over at top speed, he encounters a dozen unusual characters. His secret objective is to gather a series of Collectable cards in an effort to win a Million Dollar Prize. What he discovers is a tribute to the universal law of Be careful what you wish for. Gus is subjected to an odd collection of weirdos, kidnappers, bikers and an occasional helpful nudge towards his goal. What the movie allows the audience is a cruel, insightful look at life. Indeed, for movie buffs, we are treated to a whole plethora of Hollywood thespians. Stars like Michael J. Pollard, Vince Edwards, Drew Barrymore, Dick Miller, Meat Loaf and John Diehl are scattered throughout the film. Interestingly enough the movie itself is fascinating and even at it's conclusion, one has the notion that it must be seen again. I did. Recommended. ****

Motorama viewers should already by keen on other offbeat b-grade desert-based films such as Bagdad Cafe or Repo Man (which more or less takes place in the desert). It also models some of the bizarre humor (and especially eccentric trail of characters) of writer Joseph Minion's comedy, 'After Hours.' In a sort of desert roadtrip fantasy, a metaphor of temptation and redemption, Gus (played well by Jordan Christopher Michael), a clever 10 year-old boy cashes in his piggy bank, steals a Mustang, and runs away from his grossly neglecting parents. It begins as a trip through salvation (which is apparent in the scenes with John Diehl), but once he becomes hooked on a scratch-off game called Motorama, he becomes easily tainted by temptation and looses his childish innocence. He travels from one crazy fictional state to another concocting ways of getting Motorama cards from participating gas stations, just enough so that he might spell out the prize winning word M-O-T-O-R-A-M-A and be eligible for the $500 million cash prize.Along the way, he is embattled with dozens of strange characters such as Flea who plays a high strung busboy, Meatloaf who plays a crazy biker, and Mary Woronov and Sandy Baron (a Seinfeld regular) as two violent kidnappers. The DVD rerelease can be very deceptive, as have previous attempts to sell this film to the non-cult market first with taglines comparing it to Home Alone and Thelma & Louise. The newest calling it a love story with the tagline implying that the film is about Jordan Michael Christopher on an adventure to meet the girl of his dreams...which, despite the size of her picture on the DVD cover, is actually only about a 1 second cameo by Drew Barrymore as the fantasy girl that Gus dreams about. Why didn't they just market it for what it was? Thought it may seem totally bizarre on first viewing, it is actually a well-designed narrative. Motorama is great material for fans of strange b-grade comedies. This was quite an interesting story, and particularly because of the strength of its lead actor--Jordan Michael Christopher (who unfortunately has few other screen credits of note)--and the clever metaphor inherent in the plot. Hopefully its re-release on DVD will make it an easier find for cult fans.

Offbeat film about a kid who runs away from home and steals a vintage Mustang and treks across a surrealistic version of the southwest collecting cards for an oil company promotional game called Motorama. Most of the performances in the film amount to cameos by recognizable actors and actresses, with only the kid getting any real screen time. Although ultimately the film doesn't really go anywhere it's an interesting trip to watch. Be warned that although Drew Barrymore appears on the video box she's only in the movie for about eight seconds. *** out of *****

I'm not going to say too much as this movie isn't worth the effort. To put it simply the movie absolutely sucked! This is the worst movie I have ever seen. The storyline was stupid, you couldn't follow what was happening, the characters were so annoying especially the main guy. I wanted someone to kill that kid and put him and the movie out of it's misery.Very, very bad.