Fast Getaway Reviews

Is there anyone outside of Hollywood who idolizes bank robbers as folk heroes? That qualm aside, FAST GETAWAY is an engaging, mindless entertainment with energetic performances and rapid motion courtesy of veteran stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos, making his feature directorial debut. Nelson Potter (Corey Haim) is a 16-year-old who masterminds robberies for his father's gang. The kid also attends each stickup, posing as a helpless bystander so he can be taken "captive" by the bandits to ward off the cops. Despite their success there's disorder among the thieves: Sam Potter (Leo Rossi) has a kung-fu spitfire of a girlfriend, Lilly (Cynthia Rothrock), who doesn't get along with Nelson. She splits, taking dimwit Tony (Ken Lerner) with her. Sam and Nelson continue alone, but they're soon arrested. Sam's old flame Lorraine (Marcia Strassman), Nelson's mother, is able to get the innocent-looking boy released, and the son sets about scheming to break his dad out of jail. Lilly and Tony lurk nearby, however, plotting to kidnap Nelson and use him as a bona fide hostage in their own criminal escapade. Corey Haim (LUCAS, THE LOST BOYS), aging idol of the subteen set (he was actually 19 when this was made), delivers a hyperactive, ever-so-slightly deranged performance as the juvenile outlaw, and also looks eerily convincing when he dresses in drag to scope out a prospective heist. He has a nice rapport with veteran character actor Rossi, making the larcenous father and son a credible team. As the villainous Lilly, Cynthia Rothrock demonstrates why she's been dubbed "the female Bruce Lee" in a string of martial-arts vehicles. The petite blonde is sexy, funny and scary, not necessarily in that order. Razatos sometimes shifts gears from comedy to drama, and such transitions work surprisingly well. Action is his forte, however, and FAST GETAWAY climaxes with a terrific, if wholly absurd chase--Nelson, wired with dynamite, hanging onto a mass of chain-link dragged behind a speeding pickup in which Sam and Lilly are fighting it out. On its modestly-budgeted scale it's just as wild as the duel atop a log-laden railroad flatcar at the end of HOW THE WEST WAS WON. The film was shot entirely in Utah and Colorado and takes advantage of the area's twisty highways and gorges. (Violence, profanity, sexual situations.)