Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto
Description
Cross Romeo and Juliet with the Demolition Derby and you have Grand Theft Auto, Ron Howard's directorial debut. Can a young runaway couple get hitched in Vegas before two sets of parents, a jealous boyfriend, a private dick, and a mob of bounty hunters catch them? Amazon.com
Ron Howard directs and stars in this Roger Corman-produced feature-length car chase, and Grand Theft Auto was made to appeal to the 12-year-old in all of us who likes to see stuff blow up. Poor boy Sam Freeman (Howard) and rich girl Paula Powers (Nancy Morgan) are in love, but Daddy disapproves. They steal the Powers family Rolls Royce for a Vegas elopement, Paula's ex-fiancé puts a bounty on her head, and from then on you can just forget about the plot and watch a zillion cars crash into each other, not to mention a couple of helicopters and an ice-cream truck. In many ways this is a quintessential PG-rated '70s movie: plenty of wholesome fun involving the destruction of public and private property, and every now and then someone says the S word to liven things up. And yes, it is surprisingly satisfying to see a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud get smashed all to hell. The 25th-anniversary special-edition DVD includes interviews with Roger Corman and Ron Howard, audio commentary from Corman and Howard, and a reproduction of the original press pack. --Ali Davis
Grand Theft Auto