You'd probably think by judging the cover of this old action flick, it's average. And you'd be dead right. This film actually even had a book too, if you can believe. What this film is basically about, is about petrol heads racing each other on the snaking high top road, above the twinkling lights of L.A known as Mulholland Drive. Everyone wants to be the fastest, hence claim the title of this film. Good luck to to them. We have an array of known actors. Even Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty gets in on this one, as an older and wiser mechanic who gave up being a petrol head, cause he knew it was his time. He lectures Hamlin, the new wannabe winner, to mull his future if continuing to race, and where is it leading. This is basically the message: Do you wanna keeping racing cars or make something of yourself. Some of his friends too play in a struggling band, Hamlin's new love (Van Valkenberg) a singer. Some of racing scenes at night are impressive, I must admit, but what this story rides low is any real kind of story, which here is devoid of plot, yet near the end, racing nutter Cal (Hopper) challenges Bottoms to a race or vice versa, where he accepts, this leading to tragedy, where Hamlin becomes the avenging racer. Really a film for speed freaks.

Here's a quintessentially rough'n'tumble early 80's high testosterone macho-posturing men being men gruntfest that John Milius would have been proud to make. Overconfident garage mechanic Steve (solid Harry Hamlin),engagingly impudent aspiring songwriter Buddy (the ever-puckish Joseph Bottoms),and stuffy junior record company executive Roger (essayed with utmost gravity by Richard Cox) are three longtime buddies who regularly engage in car races on the steep, winding and highly perilous mountainside roads of L.A.'s Mulholland Falls in order to alleviate the grim, unrewarding tedium of their everyday lives and inject some much-needed excitement into their otherwise second-rate existences. Steve's cockiness and unbeatable status as the current King of the Mountain raises the intense ire and fiery jealousy of scraggly, burnt-out, washed-up, pony-tailed hippie and former champ Cal (a deliciously wacky Dennis Hopper in one of his patented moody loony parts). Cal challenges Steve to a big high stakes race so he can regain his title and status. Sultry go-getter would-be singer Tina (a superbly sparky turn by the tantalizing Deborah Van Valkenburgh of "The Warriors" fame, who belts out a couple of songs in a terrifically tart'n'torchy blues wail) gets caught in the middle of this fierce competition.

H.R. Christian's rugged, no-kidding sinewy script, heavily suffused with manly man deep-think introspection and inspired by David Barry's "Thunder Road" article in "New West" magazine, trenchantly examines the many intriguing facets of male obsessiveness: the obdurate refusal to grow up, pushing yourself to the limit ("Ya gotta ride the edge in order to win"),not compromising your values, succeeding in life on your own terms, the deep-seated desire to amount to something in life and achieve a certain lofty stature, hyper-masculine competitiveness, and even knowing when you're beat and just learning to accept your losses, especially when said losses may very well mean the possible untimely end of your life. Donald Peterman's garishly bright, glowing, neon-hued cinematography vividly captures the steamy and crackling California night life. The thrillingly quick and dangerous no-holds-barred car race scenes are handled cinema verite style: no music, short, snappy edits, and unfancy ground level camera-work. Nice bits by Seymour Cassel as an obnoxious hipster record company president, Dan Haggerty as a gruff mechanic, Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson as an annoying neighbor, and the late, great Steve James as a meddlesome cop. Director Noel Nosseck treats the potentially silly subject matter with laudable seriousness, injecting a strong sense of underlying despair, a feeling of going nowhere fast and wanting something more out of life which transcends the mundane and explicable, which makes this mighty fine and satisfying unsung sleeper one hell of an excellent car race drama.

Although there are some death scenes, this movie captured the LA culture of the late '70s, early '80s spot on.

The movie captures the freedom and the energy America had some years ago before it started to shift to more of a beehive mentality. It also features the pre Gen-X culture when the ME generation ruled the world.

One thing I can say about the ME generation is that they can party like nobody else. Music was big part of it, and the music in this movie is great.

The women of this movie are also great. I'm sure some women would say the same about the men in this movie too.

What this country lost in terms of the car culture seems to be still going in parts of Asia, especially Japan. Initial D is almost a transplant of this movie to the hills of Mt. Akina.

The good old days. I like this movie better than the Easy Rider. It really brings back the good times.