Shaker Run (1985)

The critique of this movie will always be divided by 2. #1-Yes, it is a car chase movie in New Zealand (Home of the Hobbits). Shaker Run is a basic, campy movie without all the glamour most Hollywood movies seem to need as their by-lines. The heroes never use guns, yet the bad guys use lots. They incorporate the 'teary eyed' hero when his past emerges. And the good guys win in the end. Nuff said about Hero versus villain (and it is perfectly clean for the youngest of viewers). #2-The flick was made in 1986 during the Retro/Disco era when cowboys wore Pink. But, again, they didn't lead with the stereotypical Hollywood stuff that spoils most of their movies. There were no equally proportioned ethnic groups in the Hero club and no one was an Ex-Special Forces guy (always ruins things). Yes the girl is pretty. But it isn't as if her bones are for jumping. It is just a nice,as I said - Campy movie. Cliff Robertson is 63 - and plays the part well. Casey should have had more of a Hero status driving - to become like his father. All in all, it isn't a stupid movie like so many others in the same Genre. And it sure isn't like most 1986 movies except for the fact that people were quite Pink in that time. Embarrassing, I know - but when cowboys drive Pink cars, then they have to think they're in the gutter and the only way out is look to the stars (or helicopter, in this case).

Cliff Robertson contributes one of his sturdy, pleasant, reassuring reliable old pro portrayals as Judd Pierson, a crusty, disillusioned crackerjack race car driver whose career has hit the skids. Despite the efforts of loyal, adoring, wide-eyed mechanic Casey (a likably relaxed performance by boyish, fluffy-haired 70's teen heartthrob Leif Garrett), Judd's feeling pretty lousy because he's stuck doing death-defying stunts for a third-rate crash and burn thrill show traveling across New Zealand. So when gutsy, dedicated germ warfare disease researcher Christine Ruben (lovely Lisa Harrow) promises to pay Judd $3,000 to drive her through some treacherous winding backroads, Casey persuades Judd to accept her offer. But unbeknownst to either Judd or Casey, Ruben takes along a sample of a deadly virus she's been working on; it's a top secret bug that the company she works for wants back by any means necessary. Naturally, a lethal team of assassins lead by the sublimely snooty slimeball Shane Briant give chase. Director Bruce Morrison, abetted by a briskly efficient screenplay (said script Morrison co-wrote with James Kouf, Jr. and henry Fownes), Stephen McCurdy's jazzy, hard-blasting score, spirited acting by a fine cast, a sharp sense of dry, biting humor ("There's nothing in our contract about leading us into the valley of death and getting out butts shot off"), beauteous New Zealand countryside scenery, and Kevin Hayward's handsome, gleaming cinematography, pumps up the pace and maintains a neck-snappingly fast sense of constant momentum. The awesomely well-mounted chase sequences are staged with lip-smacking verve and a camera gets affixed to the side of the wildly careening automobiles, thereby infusing the rousing proceedings with a jangly, punchy, invigorating vitality. Sure, this honey doesn't cover any fresh chase/action thriller ground, but it certainly goes through the familiar motions in a most satisfyingly dynamic and straightforward manner. In fact, this solid, neatly executed number would make a swell double bill with the somewhat similar and equally kickin' "The Chain Reaction."

Shaker Run shows more of the New Zealand countryside than even Lord of the Rings. As an added bonus, there are fast V-8 powered cars speeding through it. While it is a bit thin on plot, what is provided is sufficient and more than made up for by the good cinematography, excellent actors and fulfilling chase scenes. Realizing that V-8 powered cars, let alone American V-8 powered are quite rare in New Zealand these days, it is quite fun to behold Judd (Cliff Robertson), a cantankerous American professional driver, blasting across bridges and down roads in the style of Mad Max in a modified Trans Am whilst outmaneuvering the secret police chasing him in sinister black indigenously-produced V-8 pursuit vehicles with air scoops in their hoods. The treat of the movie, in my opinion, was the part where Mr. Carney commandeers a Chevy-powered race car from a downtown dealership, drives it through a storefront window and pursues the Trans Am up a mountain road.Shaker Run is a rare snapshot of New Zealand during the 1980's. The movies is as rare as it is entertaining for travel-oriented and eclectic motor heads such as myself.

This is one of my favourite films, just because it's fun. Cliff Robertson and Leif Garrett might have been down-and-out as actors at the time, but they play a down-and-out race team and as Americans in a country noted for a very tough films industry they are a treat. The interplay between what they expect and what Lisa Harrow's character knows better is a big part of the fun. In the end there really is no bad or good guy-- both NZ and the US are guilty of underestimating the heroes and each other; and the heroes have underestimated everyone but themselves.As a car-oriented film it will please the car-chase fans, but there is more to it than that. First of all you may never see more of the South Island's intense countryside than here, with scenes of wide-open landscape being covered at greater than highway speeds. As a scientific thriller the plot centring round an AIDS-type virus provides food for thought-- just what DO you do with a strain that deadly anyway? Thus the boy-racer speed-thrills and the taut intelligence-vs-science conflict aptly convey the clueless desperation of these three characters as they search for the truth about each other and the next hint of truth about what's going to happen next. Some observations:1. Too much gunfire! I can't imagine NZ cops using automatic weapons in the middle of a neighbourhood.2. I find it hard to believe Robertson shifts the TH-400 automatic gearbox into top at over 100 MPH! Yet the Chevy-powered Trans Am's speedo appears to be in MPH, not KPH.3. With driving like this the heroes never seem to stop for petrol. And although it's cold season in Queenstown they also never seem to slip on ice.4. Shona Laing and her band are wonderful in the pub scene. (Whatever happened to her?) Order in pizza, watch it again and look closer.