Disclaimer: This reviewer does NOT endorse in any way, shape, or form the illegal act of street racing. All racing should be done on a legally designated closed course with appropriate supervision. Street racing endangers the lives of the innocent as well as the participants, which is why it is, and should always remain illegal.

The Movie

The Playersrun is a cross-country rally/race from Los Angeles to Miami in the grand tradition of car races like the Cannonball Run. However, in this race the goal isn't so much to win but to have fun doing it. And it's clear throughout this hour-long movie that our hosts found this rally to be both exhilarating and dangerously exciting.

Mischief Destroy is the third installment in the Mischief series and it picks up right where the last two left off, namely, with a lot of action. The movie opens up with a group of guys filming their car drifting around a sharp corner, only the driver overcorrects and he ends up in the ditch. This scene sets the pace for the insanity to follow. Not only do we join our hosts for the seven-day non-stop rally race, but we also get to see the crazy antics that go on during their interesting stops along the way.

This time the Teckademics filmmakers chose to drive a 1995 a modified BMW M3, which they purchased only days before the race. The car is not registered and the driver can't legally drive. So we learn right away that this is going to be one interesting journey. Joining the Teckademics crew on this high-speed jaunt are a plethora of wealthy businessmen with pockets deeper than the Dali Lama, and crazy celebrities like Danger Ehrin from the popular shock-show "Jackass."

The majority of the film is based around their dangerous high-speed antics on our nation's interstates, but we also get to see some entertaining intermissions along the way. The first stop takes us to the Las Vegas Speedway where our hosts drive open wheel racecars with 600-horse power capable of lap speeds of 150 mph. The next intermission shows us some crazy stunts performed in the snow. Here we get to watch people trash a $50,000 Mercedes SUV like it was a $50 beater car, along with several other tricks and idiotic slip ups in the infamous white powder. Next comes a clip of crazy fast imports in Japan. After that our crew stops at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. Next is a clip of some hot cars at the SEMA show, followed by a wild night in New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

But the meat of this program is during the Playersrun rally. Here you'll see countless in-car camera shots of Lamborghini's, Porsches, Ferraris, and other exotics darting through traffic like they don't have a care in the world. You get to see people pulling off the freeway to hide from the cops, and you get to hear our hosts successfully switch seats after getting pulled over by a state trooper. If there was ever a reason to wear your seatbelt, just knowing that wackos like these are cruising our freeways should be convincing enough.

But even after all this mayhem, I was still disappointed. The freeway scenes were mostly long and boring, with only the cop scenes adding a bit of excitement, and the intermissions were too short. I feel Mischief Destroy needed more shock value, because the truly entertaining scenes were too far and in-between. Some of the skits were entertaining, but for the most part this movie lacked "real" excitement.
I guess you had to be there.


The DVD

Video:
Mischief Destroy is presented in 4x3 full screen. As with most digitally recorded movies, Mischief Destroy suffers from severe pixelation, though not nearly as bad as the other street racing video I reviewed, Redline. Black levels are an improvement over Redline, but still leave a lot to be desired. Some of the in-car camera shots look blurry and discolored, but this is a consistent problem with these types of shot that I attribute to the digital equipment used for filming. If you've seen any digitally filmed privately funded production, than you know what to expect here.

Audio:
Mischief Destroy has a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track. Much like Redline, the audio clarity and quality is pretty lousy, but unfortunately this movie didn't have the luxury a kick butt soundtrack like Redline. Instead the music here is repetitive and boring to the point where it almost puts you to sleep. And as this is a stereo audio track, all of the audio comes from the front three speakers. This movie desperately needed a good soundtrack to keep the adrenalin pumping, but it didn't get it.

Extras:
The bonus footage menu offers up several little snippets of extra footage. Most of this is stuff that for some reason didn't make it into the movie.

Stupid Stuff: The name says it all; stupid people doing stupid stuff. Here you'll see people falling off of moving cars, people crashing on pocket bikes, reckless destruction of ricer-like car spoilers, and a guy ingesting a plate full of butter and sour cream to win a $200 bet. (11:03)

Mischief Parties: Here are shots from several Mischief Parties. I assume these were held to raise money for their productions, but the answer is never given. (2:35)

German News Report: This is a German news report that aired on German TV highlighting the crazy freeway antics of the Mischief Destroy crew. Unless you speak German, this feature will do nothing for you. (2:47)

Leftovers: These are leftover clips that weren't used in the feature movie. (4:22)

Run & Hide: This is another scene of our hosts attempting to hide from the police during another nighttime freeway chase. (1:29)

Showcar/club loop: This is a looped sequence of all the scenes that show off the cars featured in Mischief Destroy. (10:53)

Rounding out the rest are a list of web links to their sponsors, a slide show-style photo gallery, and a list of movie trailers.


Final Thoughts:
Mischief Destroy is filled with a lot of random action. Some scenes are hugely entertaining while others are boring. And although ultimately I found this movie to be much more satisfying than Redline, it's clear that parts of Mischief Destroy were much greater than the whole. But I do think Mischief Destroy is worth viewing and I look forward to seeing what the Teckademics crew comes up with next. Rent It