For a movie that is of no interest whatsoever, this has quite a lot going for it, especially in the acting department: Larry Hagman, Susan Sarandon, Joe Don Baker et al are relaxed and agreeable. But no one manages to channel the glib repartee into anything resembling a character, in part because their contributions are mere slivers of celluloid crammed between pictures of cars driving around. Which does make a depressing kind of sense, since it's a racing movie; what makes no sense at all, especially given some promising set-ups, is the total absence of kinetics or pyrotechnics. It's a total arbitrary mess, looks like it wasn't even storyboarded. The filmmakers revert to slow motion every single time anyone does anything other than drive in a straight line, but that doesn't fool anyone. The one punctuation mark of the whole movie comes at the climactic Baker-Alan Vint coin toss, and I laughed as hard as anyone, but a REAL movie has one moment like that per scene. Allow me to lodge a special protest on behalf of poor Daina House, who is required to regress from classic tough-chick to wilting sex object the moment some creep gives her a flower.

Feeble off-road racing action pic that raises a flicker of interest due to the presence of a young Susan Sarandon (who is given very little to do) and Joe Don Baker in his brief early career as a leading man. Joe Don stars as "Walkaway" Madden, a hard-core racer whose "crash or win" attitude brings him into conflict with his fellow racers. Sarandon is a journalist in the George Plimpton mode, out to get the inside view of a 1000-mile race held in the Philippines. Larry Hagman also features, in a bold casting against type, as a fast talking wheeler-dealing Southern entrepreneur who runs the race.

The film bogs at the start and never recovers, due to woeful dialogue and absent character development. After journalist Wainwright (Sarandon)persuades a reluctant Madden to allow her to ride in his race car during the event, the next half hour or so consists of the two leads engaging in a stilted and repetitive dialogue about what to do if Wainwright develops motion sickness, interspersed with reasonably well-edited race footage.

The 3-day race format imposes a rigid structure to the film, with race days interspersed with character "interaction" in the pits. There is a tiny romantic sub-plot with an anonymous black clad biker ("acted" by Playboy playmate Daina House) getting off with a stereotyped suave Latino Grand Prix driver. No sex scene, though - this is an action picture!

The action footage is not bad and the stunt guys really earned their money on this one, but there are too many camera in the car shots on rough roads where the camera is jolting around so much that the picture is hopelessly blurred and the effect is quite nauseating. Perhaps this film inspired the camera work on "Blair Witch Project", I don't know. There are a few picture-postcard shots of delightful Filipino scenery, and I just wonder if some Marcos money was behind this film.

In summary, a waste of the talents of Sarandon and Baker, who have both done vastly better when given better material. Despite being a documentary, "On Any Sunday" is a superior off-road racing film in every respect. Susan Sarandon fans would be better off sticking to her later roles if this is anything to go by. I imagine that casting agents saw this talented young but unconventionally beautiful actress and had no idea what to do with her. As for Joe Don Baker, yet another blot on this underrated actor's record. It's a shame he wasn't born in London instead of Texas. Watch "Edge of Darkness" if you don't understand what I mean.

Don't listen to these others posters - this is a great film. How can you go wrong with the great Joe Don Baker, Susan Sarandon (although this is one of the few films in her early career where you don't get to see her breasts. and what breasts those are - the lemon scene in Atlantic City is probably the defining moment of this great actresses career!) larry Hagman doing an early riff on JR Ewing as an unscrupulous Off Road Racing promoter, and Parnelli Jones - as himself.

I always thought Ms. Sarandon had bought up all the prints of this movie - but if you get a chance to see it - definitely give it a look.