The Movie

"Fast cars, furious fights, explosive action, and hot girls."

Gosh, with a description like that, how could a movie go wrong? Well, it's not that this action-packed comedy spoof of The Fast and the Furious does anything wrong, it just doesn't do many things right. Granted, this is an independent film and was not financed by any major studio in any way. And it was shot in 14 days with a budget just shy of a million dollars, but despite all that this film could have been so much better. If one were to judge this movie on equal terms to any other major studio release, it would get slaughtered. But if you don't take The Fear of Speed seriously, and except it for the type of movie that it is, (a very silly, very erotic, action film) than you'll most likely enjoy it.

The plot, if you can call it that, for The Fear of Speed is about as bizarre and lame as they come, but remember this is a spoof. Brittany Sears (Ada Mae Johnson) suffers from "Tachnophobia", or the fear of speed. She must ultimately overcome her fear to help her boyfriend, Max Spears (Dale Rutter), win an underground car race. (Why this race is so imperative is never fully explained) Brittany and gang team up with master fighter Zendo, (played by Chyna McCoy, best known for his body-double work for Laurence Fishburne, in the Matrix movies) to face off with Horneo Martino (Don Hart), a not-so-vicious drug lord, and his son Rico Martino (Alex Torre). Not so bad you say? Well here's where it gets interesting. It just so happens that Horneo's secret weapon of mass destruction that doubles as his new street drug of choice and his top-secret power source for his son's vehicle is, umm, well let's just call it his "man juice." That's right; Horneo was raised next to a military nuclear test site, which gave his ejaculate powerful and destructive properties. That alone should tell you were this movie is headed.

Now if you were thinking these names sound like they came straight out of a low budget porno movie, you wouldn't be that far off. Because The Fear of Speed is filled with as much soft porn in it as it is bad acting. But for young men who are into cool import cars and naked girls, this is one of the greatest attributes to this movie. So keep in mind this movie is definitely not appropriate for children.

The Fear of Speed actually does one thing very well, which is show off its choreographed fight scenes. It was nice to see accomplished martial artists brought into the production. Ultimately these scenes still look low budget, but the stunts themselves are entertaining. Sadly, though, what looked genuinely bad were the actual race scenes. This is detrimental because this movie is centered on fast cars, and unfortunately these exotic cars look to be going anything but fast. But really, how fast can a guy go driving a couple of laps around a vacant parking lot? The race scenes actually come across as comical because they all occur in one place; a small, uninteresting multipurpose track/parking lot. And to make matters worse, you never know when the races are finished because the camera work is so shaky and there is no clear finish line. You just have to wait for the actors to tell you when they've won. Where's the excitement in that?

Movie aside, it's clear a lot of thought and effort went into the development of this DVD. For an independent film, I was shocked at the amount of extras found on this disc. It's people like these who truly understand the potential of the DVD format, and realize the importance of producing a really great DVD.

The DVD

Video: The Fear of Speed is presented in a 1.33:1 full screen aspect ratio. Interestingly the entire movie was shot with digital equipment, which is why the movie definitely lacks a film-like appearance. You can clearly see compression artifacts, which are most likely a direct result from the poor digital equipment from which it was filmed. Throughout the movie the compression artifacts are so noticeable and ugly, they resemble what looks like the worst case of edge enhancement ever administered. So I guess that's the downside to filming with digital equipment that's anything less than what George Lucas uses now a days.

Audio: Surprisingly, this movie comes with both a 5.1 Dolby Digital, and a DTS audio track. All the more reason to get annoyed with major studios that release DVD's without either. Both tracks sound good; with perhaps the edge going to the DTS track which seems to have a little more punch. But I noticed more audio synch problems with the DTS track than with the Dolby Digital. Also there are several times in the movie where the audio cuts out. Dialogue can be hard to hear at times, but the music is always pumping. And there is plenty of bass to be found here, especially with the lead song "The Fear of Speed" performed by Chyna McCoy.

Menus: The menus are actually quite nice, and were much better than what I was expecting. The fast car theme is visibly apparent with 3D graphics of racing cars leading you into every menu. The scene selections menu is not static, giving you a brief video clip displaying each chapter in the movie.

Extras: It's apparent director/producer Jeff Centauri really wanted to make a statement with this DVD, because the amount of extra features on this disc is staggering. The extras are as follows:

Director commentary: Jeff Centauri gives a lighthearted and down-to-earth description of how this movie was created from its conception to its final release.

Battle of the imports game: This isn't so much a game, but more like gambling. The object is to pick which of two sports cars will win the race. If you are successful and pick the winner for all three races you are treated to a very short snippet of footage of the film Attack of the Virgin Mummies.

The modified auto featurette: This is a behind-the-scenes look at the cars and their owners featured in the movie.

Behind the fear of speed: From here you can pick from three featurettes: Behind the Speed, Behind the Stunts, and Bike Trix. All are very entertaining and give a very good look at what went on behind the cameras to create this movie.

Music video: This is the official Fear of Speed music video directed by Jeff Centauri and performed by Chyna McCoy.

Behind the music video: This is a behind-the-scenes featurette of the making of the music video.

Phat sites: These are links to sites related to A55films.

Storyboards: This is a slide show of storyboards that were done for the movie.

Trailers: These are trailers for other movies by A55films.

Slide shows: Here you can chose from six slide shows: Artwork, Behind the Scenes, Cast & Crew, Crazy Stunts, Fast Cars, and Hot Girls. The slide shows are set up as an automated image gallery accompanied by music.

Biographies: Here you will find biographies for Ada Mae Johnson, Dale Rutter, Chyna McCoy, executive producer Edy Ong, and director Jeff Centauri.

Cast and crew interviews: Here you will find interviews of the cast and crew. These are entertaining and give a good look at what these people are like in real life, although they aren't particularly long, or indebt.

Fear of Speed bloopers: Here you'll find the blooper reel. It's the same montage of bloopers that you see at the end of the movie.

Voice over bloopers: These are bloopers of the actors trying to re-dub some of the audio for certain scenes.

Action sequence demo reel: If you click on the "Nos" button on the dashboard of the main menu, you'll be taken to the demo reel for Kamikaze Stunts, the agency that performed all of the stunts for The Fear of Speed.


Final Thoughts

For all practical purposes The Fear of Speed is a really awful movie. However it dose possess that certain quality that people either hate, or passionately love. And when you factor in that this is an independent film, shot in 14 days with a budget of under a million bucks, and remember it's not meant to be taken seriously, you ultimately can't rip on it. It is what it is.

The Fear of Speed has all the makings of a cult underground smash hit. So if you know what you're getting into, this movie is definitely worth a rent. And if it turns out you really love this movie and want to buy it, you can feel confident that the DVD is a worthy purchase, with its dizzying list of special features and extras.