Reviews

I seen this movie when I was much younger and really enjoyed it and 30 years later, still do. I think it is a taut well played out thriller and George Segal is good as Harry Calder. Playing the park inspector, his only concern is the safety of it's visitors and so he plays out the young man's silly game of his keeping him on the move until such a time he can safely recover the money as it is left by him (with a little script joke of the young man conveniently sneaking the suitcase of cash out of the park via the frame of the bomb squad van!). Timothy Bottoms gives a decent performance as the unnamed extortionist using bombs as a weapon for the parks to pay his ransom demand, very dry and calculating. The production is also helped by the fact that location filming actually took place in real amusement parks giving a realism to the whole film. The only let down for me is the death of the young man who, after being hit and killed by a coaster going a high rate of speed is shown rather quickly and rather bloodless which is impossible given the circumstances (but then the MPAA at the time would have probably had an issue with the scene being more explicit and graphic so the scene as shot is understandable). I would recommend this movie to a movie goer who hasn't seen it.

Had high hopes like every one with this flick. When Rob revealed that Sid/Captain Spaulding was only utilized for one day of the shoot and not part of the "3", my hopes fell significantly. His only scene (yes, scene) lasted 5 minutes, and like the wind is gone forever. Danny Trejo, same fate of a five minute scene. The plot is predictable (this is the Firefly family after all) and strains credulity at points. Definitely a disappointment for me, perhaps as a stand alone movie this would have worked but as a sequel to DR it fails miserably IMO