Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

jimbo-53-186511 Lou-Jean (Goldie Hawn)visits her husband in prison with the sole intention of helping him escape from prison. Lou-Jean informs her husband Clovis (William Atherton) that she has lost custody of their son and asks her husband to assist her in kidnapping their son from his foster parents. Initially, the plan is working until they take a police officer hostage...Based on a true story, The Sugarland Express starts out quite fun and Spielberg gives the film a mostly light-hearted and playful touch to it which makes it moderately enjoyable. Unfortunately, the screenplay does little to develop the main characters making them rather one-dimensional, thinly-drawn and rather uninteresting as people. Presumably this is intended as part road-movie and part character-study, but it isn't fun enough to be classed as a good road-movie (a lot of the film sees the couple being followed round Texas very slowly which hardly makes for an exciting picture). It also fails as a character study because there is precious little to study - the film occasionally mentions the state determining that Lou-Jean is a bad parent and her argument to the contrary, but this is never really explored or given any focus which is a shame because this probably would have made the narrative that bit more involving.Later in the film, there is almost a Stockholm syndrome scenario developing between the kidnapped cop and the couple which again was an interesting direction to take the story in, but again it never really developed into anything; in fact this aspect of the story started out interesting and grew more and more ridiculous as it progressed...The Sugarland Express isn't all bad and does have a few good points about it; Goldie Hawn once again puts on a good show and is great fun to watch here, the supporting cast are all OK, but Hawn easily outshines everyone. The film also has some amusing moments - the car being pushed to the petrol station was one such example.Whilst it starts out well, unfortunately The Sugarland Express has already stretched its thin plot beyond breaking point by the midway point in the film and it starts to become repetitive, tedious and a tad boring. The Sugarland Express once again proves that having Steven Spielberg's name against a film isn't always a cast-iron guarantee of a good quality film.

Leofwine_draca THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS was the first film that Steven Spielberg made that was released to cinemas. A year later he would make JAWS and never look back, so this quirky oddity, mostly forgotten about today even by Spielberg fans, is worth a look. It's a familiar car chase caper, a genre which was all the rage back in the '70s.The film charts an odd line between intense character drama and comedy. Most of the humour comes from the quirky supporting characters and the situations in which they find themselves. The crowd scene at the climax is chaotically done and very well handled by a director in his prime. Goldie Hawn looks impossibly young as the female lead, but the real star for me is William Atherton, a decade away from his typecasting as the usual '80s baddie in the likes of GHOSTBUSTERS and DIE HARD.The film is packed with well-shot car chase scenes, the scale of which is remarkable given the obviously low budget Spielberg had to work with, although none of them are particularly thrilling or exciting. You never get a chance to feel really involved with the storyline or the characters. Some of Spielberg's cinematography is very good, and the film as a whole has a naturalistic feel to it. It's not my favourite '70s car film, but it's certainly not bad. Plus, it has an ending nearly as downbeat as the one in DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY, which is very unusual for a Spielberg film.

SnoopyStyle Lou Jean Sparrow Poplin (Goldie Hawn) tells her imprisoned husband Clovis (William Atherton) that their child has been taken by Child Welfare to Sugarland. She plans to breaks him out of minimum security with four months to go. They get into a chase and kidnaps Officer Maxwell Slide (Michael Sacks). Captain Tanner (Ben Johnson) takes charge of the chase.Right from the start with the old couple, the movie is a fun ride. It needs some more jokes but it's quirky car chase movie. They certainly use a lot of cars. Goldie Hawn is a bag full of fun crazy. I prefer somebody funnier to be Clovis or Maxwell. It does have a gritty real-life edge to it which Spielberg doesn't do anymore. The ending is a downer but that's kind of interesting too.

Mr-Fusion "The Sugarland Express" is an altogether satisfying movie-going experience, and ably shows off Spielberg's skill as a director. He knew from the very beginning how to get great performances out of his actors (namely Goldie Hawn, William Atherton, Ben Johnson and Michael Sacks), how to ratchet the tension with clever editing as the climax approaches, and there's some interesting camera work with the continuous shots in and around cars. And the story itself is so out there that you just have no idea how this thing will end. Things move at a steadily outlandish clip, with one getaway car pursued by fifty, and our main characters even stop for some fried chicken and a pee break. Then the car lot shootout changes the mood, double-crosses start to unfold and the foreboding really sets in. Hawn's daffiness is a delight here, and really underscores the goofy ride that is most of this movie. And that snide change in tone is what really gives "The Sugarland Express" its lasting impact. 8/10