Though the car culture stuff in The Wraith is straight out of the '50s, the movie is so '80s, it hurts. The crazy high concept - Charlie Sheen is killed and returns from the dead to take revenge as a guy who can turn into a killer car (Turbo Teen with sex'n'violence, basically) - should be enough to make this a quirky B-movie winner, it's missing a vital ingredient. That ingredient? Acting. No one, except maybe Sheriff Randy Quaid, acts in this. Sheen and his leading lady use no reactions or inflections and seem like dead puppets, and the bad guys chew up so much scenery, the movie has to take place in the desert. The Wraith certainly doesn't deserve its memorable '80s soundtrack, and even that potentially brilliant high concept isn't delivered very well. It's confusing. So what we have left is plenty of explosions and a couple of actually good car stunts. Oh, I laughed, but not where I was meant to. I feel like this would make a great MST3K episode, and I guess that's something.
Add your comment
Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Siskoid
Though the car culture stuff in The Wraith is straight out of the '50s, the movie is so '80s, it hurts. The crazy high concept - Charlie Sheen is killed and returns from the dead to take revenge as a guy who can turn into a killer car (Turbo Teen with sex'n'violence, basically) - should be enough to make this a quirky B-movie winner, it's missing a vital ingredient. That ingredient? Acting. No one, except maybe Sheriff Randy Quaid, acts in this. Sheen and his leading lady use no reactions or inflections and seem like dead puppets, and the bad guys chew up so much scenery, the movie has to take place in the desert. The Wraith certainly doesn't deserve its memorable '80s soundtrack, and even that potentially brilliant high concept isn't delivered very well. It's confusing. So what we have left is plenty of explosions and a couple of actually good car stunts. Oh, I laughed, but not where I was meant to. I feel like this would make a great MST3K episode, and I guess that's something.Xondar
The most 80s movie I've ever seen.