Top Speed (2003) (AKA MacGillvray Freeman's
Top Speed)
One of the first thrilling movie
experiences I ever had came at Six Flags over Mid-America
in St. Louis when I was a kid. I laid down in a circular
room with a domed roof and a film was projected on
the dome which featured P.O.V. images of rollercoaster
rides and car chases that took me outside of my skins
and into the seats of the vehicles being shown. At
one point, it appeared that the car in the film was
going to go over a cliff and my heart stopped. I wasn't
the only one. My grandparents and my sister also felt
the effect. As a group, the audience felt an interconnected
experience and it remains one of my most delightful
and vivid memories as an adult. It may be one of the
reasons I love film today.
I was hoping for a similar experience
when I recently went to the IMAX theater here in Austin
with my sister and her young children to see "Top
Speed." No such luck. The powers-that-be dropped the
ball here and have brought us a film that is drab
and random and rarely offers us the majestic view
we've come to expect from IMAX films.
The first clue that the film is
going to be a stinker comes when we realize that Tim
Allen is involved. Chosen simply because of his "more
power" persona, Allen has almost no reason to be here
and adds no warmth and no humor to the proceedings.
It's pretty lame. Worse yet are the flashbacks to
his early stand-up comedy shows. Why would we want
to see this in a little box on a huge IMAX screen?
It's stupid.
No - Worse yet are many of the chosen
subjects. Marion Jones, Lucas Luhr, Marla Steb and
Stephen Murkett may be well known in their respective
sports, but they have little time to express much
of themselves here. With running and mountain biking
being sports that really don't offer much opportunities
for accelerated P.O.V., we are left with Luhr's auto
racing to hopefully make us swoon. It doesn't. Apparently
hooking an IMAX camera to a race car during a race
was too expensive and, of course, wouldn't work. The
filmmakers then rely on footage shot with a regular
camera and it sucks. Too often the film features non-Imax
material presented in a sort of three-panel synced
display that offers very little of the thrill of the
ultra-big screen.
With few P.O.V. shots to captivate
us and little true speed to excite us, the film lays
an egg. (Perhaps that's why they chose a annoying
little animated bird to flit through the film and
act as a transitory effect.) "Top Speed" is near he
top of my list for worst IMAX films of all time.
Note:
Viewed at the Bob Bullock State
History Museum IMAX Theater in Austin in August 2003
with my roomie Amanda, my sister, and her two sons
and daughter.
