| "The race that drove Africa wild!” |
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Safari 3000
BOOTLEG/APPROX. 92 MINS/1982/USA R
BOOTLEG/APPROX. 92 MINS/1982/USA R
3
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On paper Safari 3000 looks to be a sure thing. Take the road race movie made popular by films like Cannonball, The Gumball Rally, and even
Death Race 2000, move it to Africa to allow for more exotic scenery and incidents and give it a cast that includes David Carridine, Christopher Lee
and Stockard Channing. But does it translate from paper to film? That is the question.
Unfortunately it doesn't translate well at all. Casting Christopher Lee as a villain descended from the Borgias is a great idea, (assuming the
audience has a clue who they were) but then they have to ruin it by having him dress in a stupid helmet and cape. He looks like an early version of
Rick Moranis's character from Spaceballs. Similarly his rivalry with Carradine's “Eddie Mills” is never given any real background despite the fact
they are supposed to be mortal enemies even before Eddie steals a motor from him.
Stockard Channing rounds out the leads as a stereotypical female reporter. All eye candy and no common sense. Add in the “City girl in the
Country” stereotype to the mix and that's it for character development. At least she and Carradine have good chemistry in their scenes together
with her as his navigator and target for his jokes.
Of course we all know in a movie like this the actors are secondary to the cars and stunts anyway. So even a second rate script can be saved by
some good vehicle design and inventive ways to destroy said vehicles. And here again the film falls flat. The cars are basic stock rally vehicles and
there are almost no stunts at all in the film. And as a final insult to the audience the African setting is left almost totally unused. The few plot points
involving “wily natives” could, (and in some cases have), been done in a US set film with rednecks. Even the magnificent African scenery is barely
used..
This release from SuperHappyFun is on a plain DVD-R with no extras. That's about as barebones as it gets people. The image quality is good for
something sourced from a VHS tape. With a price of $10.00 it's maybe worth a go for car film completists, or for the chance to see Lee in a rare non
horror role but for everyone else, that tenner is better used grabbing 2 films from WalMart's $5 bin.
Death Race 2000, move it to Africa to allow for more exotic scenery and incidents and give it a cast that includes David Carridine, Christopher Lee
and Stockard Channing. But does it translate from paper to film? That is the question.
Unfortunately it doesn't translate well at all. Casting Christopher Lee as a villain descended from the Borgias is a great idea, (assuming the
audience has a clue who they were) but then they have to ruin it by having him dress in a stupid helmet and cape. He looks like an early version of
Rick Moranis's character from Spaceballs. Similarly his rivalry with Carradine's “Eddie Mills” is never given any real background despite the fact
they are supposed to be mortal enemies even before Eddie steals a motor from him.
Stockard Channing rounds out the leads as a stereotypical female reporter. All eye candy and no common sense. Add in the “City girl in the
Country” stereotype to the mix and that's it for character development. At least she and Carradine have good chemistry in their scenes together
with her as his navigator and target for his jokes.
Of course we all know in a movie like this the actors are secondary to the cars and stunts anyway. So even a second rate script can be saved by
some good vehicle design and inventive ways to destroy said vehicles. And here again the film falls flat. The cars are basic stock rally vehicles and
there are almost no stunts at all in the film. And as a final insult to the audience the African setting is left almost totally unused. The few plot points
involving “wily natives” could, (and in some cases have), been done in a US set film with rednecks. Even the magnificent African scenery is barely
used..
This release from SuperHappyFun is on a plain DVD-R with no extras. That's about as barebones as it gets people. The image quality is good for
something sourced from a VHS tape. With a price of $10.00 it's maybe worth a go for car film completists, or for the chance to see Lee in a rare non
horror role but for everyone else, that tenner is better used grabbing 2 films from WalMart's $5 bin.
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