There is a little-known movie out there that could have been great – if it had been made correctly. The movie aired in January of 1997 on network television. The main star of the movie is actress Nina Siemaszko.
Nina is the sister of Casey Siemaszko. Casey stared in the 1980s cult favorite titled "3 O'clock High." The little-known movie in which Nina stars is called "Runaway Car." It is about a nurse (played by Nina), who is having a bad day at work. She picks up her car and decides to give a stranger a ride. Ed Lautner has a car that will not be finished. He is in a rush to get to his job.
Jenny Todd, who is played by Nina, picks up another character along the way. The car becomes a mechanical nightmare as the throttle sticks; Ed pulls the emergency brake while the car is travelling at 90 mph. The breaks burn up. The ignition switch does not kill the engine. The car is now a 4,000 pound land-based missile.
From a movie critic point of view, the movie is bad from beginning to end. Some people declaimed the movie as a poor version of the movie "Speed." Speed was about a bus that could not slow down. If the bus was to slow below 50 mph, the bus would explode because of the bomb that was attached. The car in this poor movie just had a stuck throttle and a gear shifter that was stuck in drive.
The movie did have that same edge of your seat action that kept the viewer watching and wondering what was going to happen next. Only two recognizable actors were in this flick: Judge Reinhold and Rick Hurst. Rick Hurst is best known for playing Deputy Cletus Hogg from the '80s television show "Dukes of Hazzard."
Reinhold is best known for "Beverly Hills Cop." A report out there states that Reinhold said that he was sorry he ever acted in Runaway Car. A lot of mistakes are easily spotted. There is a scene where the hood is ripped off the car, but there is a scene later in the movie where the hood is back on the car.
It is possible that seeing the hood on the car again may have been an insert. The car is moving at 90 mph. Some scenes show the car going much slower. The movie felt like it was quickly thrown together. The acting was also poor.
The emotion in the lines delivered was not strong enough to be believable. They should have made this movie with top actors. A lot of scenes were shot poorly. The storyline for the first fifteen minutes of the movie is slow and uninteresting.
A possible reason that the movie was bad could be the small budget the director had to work with. How much money were they allowed to work with on the making of the movie? Good screenwriters, excellent actors and good scenes cost money. If they could make the movie over, they should ensure they have an adequate budget to do a good job prior to beginning shooting.