Alright, already! Enough with the Hitchcock, please.
If I read one more review of Road Games with the words "Hitchcockian" or "homage to Hitchcock", I'm going to scream, and it will not be out of Psycho.
Let's start with something else. Road Games is labeled as a Thriller and can be found in the States in the Action section, but it's got a comedic script and Brian May's aloof, campy score. And yes, the early genius of Jamie Lee's comic finesse.
Only problem is, Quid talks entirely too much; to himself, to his dog, to anyone within earshot who will listen to his Chaucer and Bronte quotes, or judgment calls on other motorists. Unfortunately for you, as the captive audience of Road Games, you don't have a choice.
He gets his comeuppance by two female smartasses, both of whom give as well as they take. Keach seems to have fun riffing off of straight shooter Marion Edward ("Sunny" Day -- did they really dress her in a Santa Suit?) and America's Sweetheart of Sarcasm, Jamie Lee Curtis ("Hitch"). Hitch. But of course.
The score also quotes liberally, from the obligatory nods to Bernard Hermann, to Elgar to Holst to Copland to Wagner to John Williams. Oh wait, that's not a very long span, is it? Suffice it to say you'll get lots of military marches and funny malaprop film western pastorales.
One musical element that provides much of the humor, at least to musicians, is the recurring character of the guitar, whose steel strings are used as murder weapons. (As someone already noted, Keach goes to bed with a guitar and walks away at the end with a mandolin.) The Mozart Harmonica Concerto offers a silly and decent lampoon.
Add some swell POV shots, the backdrop of the Australian desert, some raw meat sight gags, a hazardous looking finale, and you've got a fairly watchable movie. 8/10.
If I read one more review of Road Games with the words "Hitchcockian" or "homage to Hitchcock", I'm going to scream, and it will not be out of Psycho.
Let's start with something else. Road Games is labeled as a Thriller and can be found in the States in the Action section, but it's got a comedic script and Brian May's aloof, campy score. And yes, the early genius of Jamie Lee's comic finesse.
Only problem is, Quid talks entirely too much; to himself, to his dog, to anyone within earshot who will listen to his Chaucer and Bronte quotes, or judgment calls on other motorists. Unfortunately for you, as the captive audience of Road Games, you don't have a choice.
He gets his comeuppance by two female smartasses, both of whom give as well as they take. Keach seems to have fun riffing off of straight shooter Marion Edward ("Sunny" Day -- did they really dress her in a Santa Suit?) and America's Sweetheart of Sarcasm, Jamie Lee Curtis ("Hitch"). Hitch. But of course.
The score also quotes liberally, from the obligatory nods to Bernard Hermann, to Elgar to Holst to Copland to Wagner to John Williams. Oh wait, that's not a very long span, is it? Suffice it to say you'll get lots of military marches and funny malaprop film western pastorales.
One musical element that provides much of the humor, at least to musicians, is the recurring character of the guitar, whose steel strings are used as murder weapons. (As someone already noted, Keach goes to bed with a guitar and walks away at the end with a mandolin.) The Mozart Harmonica Concerto offers a silly and decent lampoon.
Add some swell POV shots, the backdrop of the Australian desert, some raw meat sight gags, a hazardous looking finale, and you've got a fairly watchable movie. 8/10.