Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Coventry I never heard about this obscure piece of apocalyptic Sci-Fi trash before, until I watched a few clips and fragments in a documentary called "The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made", and it instantly looked like something worth checking out. Well, just to safe you a lot of time and trouble: "Firebird 2015" is definitely NOT something that is worth checking out! Quite the contrary, it's a terrible film. Not so much because it says so in the aforementioned documentary but merely because it doesn't make a lick of sense and everything about it just plain stupid. In the year 2015, it's prohibited by order of the US Government to drive around in any type of oil-consuming vehicle. To supervise whether or not all citizens obey this unpopular law, the government founded the Department of Vehicular Control, who naturally cruise around on oil-consuming motorcycles. Their job is to hunt down the so-called "Burners", which is a common term for elderly guys living in the desert and racing around in Firebirds that use up copious gallons of gasoline. See, this could have been the plot of a potentially fantastic post- apocalyptic adventure in the vein of "Mad Max", but instead it became a really tedious, incoherent, unmemorable and extremely pointless Canadian exploitation effort. The film is a big fat piece of nothing, with chases that are lame and car stunts that are embarrassing. It even becomes worse when the script fully begins to focus on the developing love-story between the Burners' son and daughter instead of on the rebellion against the system. The portrayal of the year 2015 is weak and cheap- looking. If you seek thrills and exhilarating vehicle action, you better stick to the original road movie "Mad Max" or one of the numerous wacky (Italian) rip-offs, like "The Atlantis Interceptors", "The New Barbarians" and "Survival Zone".

Xoinx I love Darren McGavin, but I couldn't make it past the first twenty minutes of this film--and that included a lot of fast-forwarding past the tedious driving scenes. Boring premise, cheesy dialog, and pacing that made me rather watch my clock's hour hand move. And come on--if the hero is going to restore some classic automobile, why would he ever waste his time and effort on a crappy Firebird?! I literally threw away the videotape when I was done. Lucky for me that it was a gift from a friend (who also saw no reason to hang on to it). If you're looking for a silly high-speed movie, watch Smokey and the Bandit or any Steve McQueen movie. There's no reason to waste time with this drek.

darrylb500 I really hate sci-fi movies that are supposed to go where no one has gone before--to coin a phrase--but this one's still waiting for clearance to take off from the launching pad. And it never does take off.Oh, I guess it DOES take off, in a way, because it's about cars, or rather, as the intro shows, the president of the United States has shut down all the gas pumps in the land (and the bland music playing is a clue as to how the movie's going to be). And you thought it was bad when your car is being repaired for just a day!Of course, some idiots drive their vehicles anyway, known as "burners", which is what the filmmakers should have done with this movie. But instead of doing something useful with their cars--like maybe running over the person who wrote this garbage--all they do is race each other, and then complain how they don't get any "freedom", yet they're treating their autos even worse than The Dukes of Hazzard ever did. (And this is where the sci-fi premise ends, losing it's promise of being a cross between The Road Warrior and the tv movie The Day After, as it sounded in the Tv Guide description when I saw it.)**** POSSIBLE SPOILERS, but chances are you'll never see this movie anyway, or you SHOULDN'T, so why should you care? ****Just when you thought the most nerve-wracking thing in the world is having a cop follow you, the law here, known as the DVC, shoot at the burners, and yet they never hit anyone. Oh wait, in one scene they DID shatter someone's windshield, but then in the next second the windshield had only one bullet hole in it. Duh.This is one of the several dumb parts in the movie--not to mention the dialog--and the fact that the scenery never changes, EVER. At least in something like Psycho, the house is cool, but after seeing desert for even twenty minutes is enough to drive anyone crazy. Oh, I'm sorry, that's a bad pun ("DRIVE anyone crazy"), but at least that pun is better than the film, except for the car mechanic Jill, who's real cute.Another dumb part is when the DVC is shooting at one person, but he keeps on driving around in circles, and then he has the nerve to get on his cb for help, saying "these guys are crazy!" But YOU'RE the one who's driving in circles, making yourself easier to shoot at! Oh wait, there IS a difference between "crazy" and then being just downright "stupid".So, is there ANYTHING cool at all with this blah film, besides it ending eventually? Yes: the owner of the firebird stores it in a pretty neat barn that opens up, sort of like the Batcave. However, this detracted from the movie too, because during the ho-hum race scenes, I kept on expecting Batman himself to drive by, flipping everyone the finger."We have ourselves a legal weapon" is a really inspiring line, which I hope, after reading this, inspires you to go rent one of the Lethal Weapon movies instead, which are a million times better than this (probably, which I haven't seen them all, but I doubt I'm wrong). Trust me.The cars aren't even much to look at, either, so go for a drive instead and/or test watch something better. (In other words, don't be a "burner".)

Patsy-9 Mind you, it does sport some fine Alberta Badlands scenery. Still, I wonder why the creators of this film overlooked a shining opportunity for an approximation of wit. In the fascist America of 14 years hence, private use of petroleum is not allowed. Who enforces this? Why, the DVC, the Department of Vehicle Control, represented by the surly chief, a plainly psychotic lackey, the woman who's secretly sympathetic to the rebels and a couple of other nondescript guys. Did nobody think that instead of the DVC, it should be have been... the DMV?Ponder that, if you're ever bored enough to watch this.