2 lane black top - 3 stars?

Comcast says it's 3 (of 4) stars, and just showed it on one of the odd channels .

I like to watch it once or twice a decade, but even I would not give it a grade that high.

Dan T

 

It's on Retroplex right now and sometimes the original movie trailer runs on that channel.

I agree, it's not a good movie but it's great to see real vintage drag racing so that film has value now as a time capsule of how life was in 1971.

 

Ya that might be a bit much.

 

If it wasn't for the 55 Chevy that movie would be totally unwatchable. The plot is stupid (race across country and stop along the way, in a 55 that is made to go 1/4 mile at a time max.) The acting is HORRIBLE, with so many pregnant pauses between lines it makes high school drama class look good.

Perfect example how we car nuts will watch anything that has a cool car in it, and love it. (I can't wait for it to be on TV again )

Don

 

A moment in time,,I like the movie,,what's not to like?

2 well known musicians,James Taylor and Dennis Wilson racing across the country against the only real actor Warren Oats.

No real plot and none of the musicians music was played in the movie,,,kind of a strange movie and a look at the late 60's ,early 70's mentality. HRP

 

I just found 2 Lane and Hot Rod on VHS at a local estate sale, along with my all-time favorite movie 'Rad'.

 

WELL IS IT BEING CHARGED ON YOUR BILL TO VIEW IT? IF ITS FREE OK, BUT I WOULD NOT PAY A DOLLAR FOR IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO SEE SOME OLD CARS. MAN!!! NO DIALOGUE OR FAMOUS SAYINGS. (GO AHEAD PUNK MAKE MY DAY). Knuck From Indiana.

 

BTW,I see the movie got a better rating than this thread! HRP

 

No good lines?

Make it three yards, motherfucker, and we'll have us an automobile race.

One of my favorite movies actually. Bad, yes, but still pretty awesome.

 

'That Plymouth had a Hemi with a Torqueflite, I believe we sawed him off, even if we did lose 2 hundred'...

 

I agree

 

Warren Oates ruled in that movie.
--"I don't like being crowded by a couple of punk road hogs clear across two states.....If I wanted to bother, I could suck you right up my tailpipe."

 

I watched it last night on Retroplex!
They goofed, when they were looking for a race at the drive in, Dennis Wilson says, "There's a '32 Ford with a 427". It's actually a Model A.

 

Giving it 2 stars would be pushing things a bit but the car makes the show worth watching.

I can't remember if the line is "I'll change the jets" Or "I'll check the jets". but it becomes the catch phrase of movie.

 

"She ain't breathin' right, I think it's the jets". Then he mentions changing the jets like more times!!

 

Dennis Wilson (The Mechanic): You'd have yourself a real street-sweeper here if you put a little work into it.
Warren Oates (G.T.O.): I go fast enough.
James Taylor (The Driver): You can never go fast enough.

Classic.

 

Too funny, my son uses that line all the time. Hell he even used on me here on the HAMB.

 

Back in the early 70's when it came out to the drive in , it was a good movie for the time . That's where I saw the movie the first time . Back then we all knew the actors as being in a band we liked and the cars we all drove were in the movie as well so we all related to it . The trash in the back seat was nothing to write home about even back then ! The movie was just right for the time when it came out . I still enjoy watching the movie now and then only for the cars and the drag racing . I have it on VHS . The movie brings good money on Ebay too since you can't legally buy one because they haven't produced it for a long time ! It's hard to find unless you buy a copy .
I still love the drag racing at the end of the movie from Fremont Drag-way I think . Still it was the way things were back in the early 70's . I have seen the REAL 55 Chev at a show before . Just a BBC in a 55 Chev . Really the basics of the cars we drove back then .
I will agree the acting sucked ! Warren Oats was always kool and a great bullshitter ! Other than that I would have liked to see the crash and burn at the last race !

Retro Jim

 

i watched it and dug the chev.. another movie i watched last night for the first time was "hot rods from hell" o man what a movie.. lots of cool hotrods but i was laughing the whole time.. and the the blond she was quite the rebel, and tina oo so cute and innocent... corrupted by the evil hotrodders, and of course cant forget the cop. hah
chris.

 

Dumb movie...rad car.

 

Good or bad, to each his own.

One thing I will say is I meet Warren Oates (the goat driver) a few years after the movie had been out. They were filming some of the movie the "Blue And The Gray" near our shop. One of the main things he said about the movie was he had a blast while filming it, and then would just chuckle.

 

That Plymouth in the beginning also wasnt a hemi equipped car. It was an AAR with the 340 six pack

 

i''ll watch chitty chitty bang bang over "two lane". i bought "two lane" and "duel" with dennis weaver the same day, and i 've watched duel many times more. two lane seems like a school project.

 

i actually picked it up on DVD, it is bad but still worth a watch if in the right mood. saw it at the drive-in back in the day and we thought the ending was really a projector problem.
my biggest question is where did he keep all the different color sweaters? he has a different color of the same exact type in almost (maybe every) new scene. i plan to count them up if i watch it this winter.
3 stars no, worth a watch, yes, especially compared to what else is on the tube

 

I don't think the film was ever set up as a 'car movie'. I always saw it as a low-budget avant-garde style of surrealism, much along the lines of Jack Kerouac maybe. The fact that no-one has a name, the small almost-deserted towns and strange hitch-hikers all support this. I love the film, but I'm also a huge Dennis Wilson fan.

Laurie Bird ('the girl') was Art Garfunkle's girlfriend. She took her own life in 1979, age 26.

 

I saw it back in the movies originally, thought the ending was the film burning up in the projector! Still a cheesy way to end any movie, maybe the artsy thing escapes me.

I watched it with my son recently, he's a film student and he liked it even with the flaws. I had to explain to him who the rock stars were, lol. Everyone knows Warren Oates as Sgt. Hulka.

Bob

 

Go back to the movie and listen to the conversation that Warren Oates has with the hitchhiker about 3/4 of the way through the film. That piece of dialogue represents everything the HAMB is about. The satisfaction of building a hot rod over the purchase of a showroom fresh musclecar. As James Taylor says earlier about the GTO, "there are lots of cars on the road like the GTO, and they all perform about the same". After Warren Oates rides in the 55 ("are you trying to blow my mind?") he comes to realize what the mechanic and the driver have ,and what he is missing.

You can dislike the plot, script, dialogue, whatever. But Two Lane Blacktop is the movie that defines what it means to build a fast hot rod in an era of factory musclecars.

As it says in my signature line,

 

I liked the movie. The first time I saw it, I was in the thick of street racing in the valley. I also drove a '55 Chevy at the time. (avatar)

 

Say what you want about the script or the characters, this is what the movie is all about!

 

I watched it two days ago and that is one of my favorite quotes ever!