The best parts of the script of this late 70s action-thriller are the car chases when nobody speaks, and when the script designates what Los Angeles Street the car driven by Ryan O'Neal will be speeding down, and when the cop cars turn over or crash. It's obvious that this film was written and directed for people who enjoy watching the cops lose, and lose they d9 mightily as professional speed driver O'Neal operates the escape vehicle that gets criminals away from the scene of the crime. Not only do cop cars crash or turn over, parts of the vehicles fly off of all of the cars driving, and all O'Neill has to do is operate the machinery in an automobile demolition lot to get rid of the evidence.
Some decent actors really don't get a chance to do much acting, although Bruce Dern (nominated for an Oscar that year for "Coming Home") does get the most opportunity. Isabelle Adjani, nominated for an Oscar just a few years before, is merely window-dressing as the player, credited as such as the majority of the characters do not have names, just descriptions. The film itself is certainly watchable but not really all that memorable outside of the chase sequences, rather violent and outside of Dern as the detective not at all character driven. The streets of downtown Los Angeles get a lot of wear and tear as these prop cop cars and the escape vehicles aggressively fly over them obviously in the middle of a pre-dawn Sunday. Fun for a while, but after a bit it gets completely tedious.
Some decent actors really don't get a chance to do much acting, although Bruce Dern (nominated for an Oscar that year for "Coming Home") does get the most opportunity. Isabelle Adjani, nominated for an Oscar just a few years before, is merely window-dressing as the player, credited as such as the majority of the characters do not have names, just descriptions. The film itself is certainly watchable but not really all that memorable outside of the chase sequences, rather violent and outside of Dern as the detective not at all character driven. The streets of downtown Los Angeles get a lot of wear and tear as these prop cop cars and the escape vehicles aggressively fly over them obviously in the middle of a pre-dawn Sunday. Fun for a while, but after a bit it gets completely tedious.