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David Carradine and
Kate Jackson spend
most of their time
peering over dashboards
and revving up outboard
motors in this extended
chase film about
moonshiners engaged in a
frantic racing contest.
Carradine is Harley
Thomas, a Florida
moonshiner who
challenges Ralph Junior
(Roger C. Carmel), the
father of his girlfriend
Nancy Sue Hunnicutt
(Kate Jackson), to a
competition to determine
who can produce the most
moonshine. Ralph Junior
takes up the challenge
and the two adversaries
struggle to get the brew
from their home stills
to thirsty patrons
without the cops or the
mob trying to confiscate
the firewater. ~ Paul
Brenner, All Movie Guide
 Thunder
and Lightning
has just about
everything in the action
department but Dracula
loping after
Frankenstein's monster,
packing thrills and fast
movement as stunt
drivers have their day
in some wild pic
mileage.
Film picks up in tempo
and ends on a socko note
as David Carradine, an
irrepressible booze
runner, competes with
girl-friend Kate
Jackson's pop in his
chosen field. Script
laces comedy with the
action, and director
Corey Allen expertly
maneuvers his chase
sequences with stunting
both with Everglade
buggies and fast cars on
the highways.
Carradine shows he has
the stuff of which
action stars are made,
and distaffer Jackson
lends a distracting note
as an actress who
doesn't mind getting her
hair mussed.
Thunder and Lightning is
an action-filled comedy
in the vein of "Smokey
and the Bandit." Films
like these were the
staple during the late
70s and were mostly
designed around car
chases and crashes,
booze, tough guys and
some light funny. This
film is no different.
Starring David Carradine
and Kate Jackson the
film is entertaining but
not a whole lot more.
The acting in the film
is good, and especially
the two stars manage to
bring their characters
across believably. A
number of great side
characters are part of
the story, ranging from
the goofy to the plain
old dumb. The Florida
backdrop is nice and the
filmmakers made great
use of the locales in
the Everglades.
When the astute
movie geeks fall
all over
themselves
calling Roger
Corman the
B-movie king,
it's mainly
because, well,
the guy has
produced almost
400 movies in
his career, so
clearly he has
"quantity"
working in his
favor. But those
who sit down and
actually watch
Corman's output
respect the
filmmaker for an
even better
reason: a lot of
his schlocky
flicks are
actually pretty
damn
entertaining!
Once you get
past the
well-known
Corman classics
like Death Race
2000, Big Bad
Mama, and Boxcar
Bertha, you'll
still have well
over 350 movies
to pick through,
one of which is
the 1977
car-crash comedy
called Thunder
and Lightning.
 Starring
a pair of TV
stars fresh from
two rather
popular programs
(David Carradine
of Kung Fu &
Kate Jackson of
Charlie's
Angels), T & L
exists mainly to
showcase some
pretty
spectacular
chase scenes and
crash-stunts,
and the flick
does its job
with very little
extraneous
baggage.
Basically,
Carradine is an
amiable
moonshine-runner
who is engaged
to the
Everglades'
cutest little
rich girl.
Unfortunately,
her Daddy is
mixed up in some
really nasty
business
affairs, which
means the
mismatched
lovers must stay
one step ahead
of local goons,
the Florida
state police, a
few mobster
hit-men, and
various
alligators,
bees, and
chickens. (Don't
ask.)
Director Corey
Allen sets up
the simplistic
affair with no
delusions of
anything beyond
B-movie fun,
which explains
much of T & L is
packed with
familiar faces,
crazy car
crashes, a few
stray boobies,
and a whole lot
of high-speed
pursuits. The
screenplay is
just a tiny bit
wittier than you
might expect
from a car-crash
flick, and,
barring a few
dry side-trips,
Thunder and
Lightning moves
at an
appreciably
brisk clip.
(Interesting
note: T & L was
the
screenwriting
debut of a man
named William
Hjortsberg;
following this
flick, he'd do
another
moonshine movie
for TV before
penning Ridley
Scott's Legend
and several
novels, one of
which was called
Falling Angel,
the book that
was used as the
inspiration for
Alan Parker's
fantastic Angel
Heart.) |
