Thursday, December 03, 2009

Fast Track: No Limits

It’s starting to look like Lee Goldberg Week here on the ol’ blog. After reading his latest Monk novel, MR. MONK IN TROUBLE, we’ve also watched FAST TRACK: NO LIMITS, the movie he wrote and produced in Germany last year that’s now out on DVD. It’s set in Germany, as well, but two of the four main characters are Americans.

Katie Reed is a beautiful mechanic who owns a garage where she builds street racers. Mike Cassidy is a pizza deliveryman who putters around town on a moped, disguising the fact that he’s actually a former getaway driver who’s wanted in the States for his part in a bank robbery. In a nice little plot twist, there’s no romance between them. Katie’s boyfriend is a young German cop who’s also an expert driver, and Mike falls for the wife of a rich businessman whose car he “borrows” to take part in a street race. Katie needs money to save her garage, and her only real hope is to win a series of races with her cars. (She doesn’t drive herself, just provides the cars and takes part of the purses when they win.) Throw in more cops, some gangsters, a nasty villain, assorted bank robberies, beautiful women in skimpy outfits, several races, and a handful of really spectacular stunts, and you’ve got a highly entertaining action/adventure movie.

Most of the cast is European, but the two leads are American (Erin Cahill as Katie) and Canadian (Andrew Walker as Mike). Everybody does a good job, the script has some funny lines and several very effective dramatic moments, and the stunt drivers really steal the show. I don’t know if Lee has any more of these in the works, but if he does, I’ll watch ’em, you can count on that.


1 comment:

Lee Goldberg said...

Thank you so much, James! With luck, I will be back in Germany (and in Shanghai) this summer shooting another action movie with the same production team.

You may not know this, but the movie was actually a pilot for a TV series (eight episodic scripts were written as well). Unfortunately, the series didn't get picked up. What you saw was the theatrical version.

You can find out more about production, and those great stunts, by checking out "The Making of FAST TRACK" documentary that's up on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5EUd73-l3w

Lee