There I was, in the video shop, and here was a desperate pic as I couldn't find any others to watch. My friend watched it me. Twice, one time about thirty minutes into it, he said "This is f..ked", the other time as it's sudden end, he said "That was f..ked". I too shared his opinion somewhat. I happened to like John Laughlin as an actor, this his first film I'm pretty sure. That's the reason I hired it. I started taking an interest in this guy's acting after seeing him in Crimes of Passion, and most recently The Rock, which he was great. Here, the director was going just on his good looks. Also known as Summer School, not mistaking that Mark Harmon movie of 88, Mag Wheels is simply a story set at a Californian high school where Steve and his buddies, and their chicks, chill out at the beach. Steve lays his eyes on a new honey, Anita, which his current girlfriend's not too happy about. You know you're man's fixated on another girl, when he keeps repeating her name, after having just met her, and that doesn't sit well with his old lady. So her and her friends, decide to teach this new fish a lesson, by having Steve arrested for drugs, and setting her up as a fibber which has dramatic consequences for her, involving a rape and a near death at the end in a van dare on a canyon, where you find out Steve really cares for her. So, guys are only human right. The bitch fight scene, earlier, in the classroom, between the two girl enemies, also works to Anita's disadvantage. So it's proper they should write a song after her, also used in a montage, featuring Laughlin and her as they get to know each other better. So you got a crappy film that starts out as a comedy and ends quite dramatically. The first three minutes at the beach, with the guys and girls getting wet, playing volleyball over music is absolutely pointless, you might as have them improvising. There are funny parts to this movie, this older geek (Saul Rubinek looking guy) trying to fit in with Steve and his mates, forever belting out tunes on his guitar. In one scene while he's playing one of his songs, (this actor has quite a potent voice) a couple are doing it in a van, as it rolls back and forth. This scene, I loved. It's about the only dirty scene in the whole of this dry film. Mag Wheels as this film is better known, falls pretty weak, into a status that's pretty pathetic. It's has quite dramatic moments, here and there, that work, the rape scene a bit hard to take, but the whole affair is pretty fruitless. This piece of 70's American crap, that runs similar lines with that much higher quality flick, Malibu High, does have some funny moments too, but this is just a time waster of little substance. Keep this film where it belongs, at the drive in, it's existence in video stores, almost not worth the hassle.

Another sunny 'van' comedy of 1970s America. This features a good looking young cast of high schoolers who get caught up in a plot motivated by jealousy, rivalry, double dealing and eventually darker plot strands emerge. The acting is of a basic standard as you'd expect, but this was never going to be a movie where thespians were required; they look good in their swimwear and that's the important thing, I guess. A light and breezy sex comedy-style narrative eventually gives way to a shocking attempted double rape and from that point it turns into a revenge flick, which I definitely wasn't expecting.

Cool van-driving stud Steve (handsome John Laughlin in his film debut) gets the hots for Anita (gorgeously buxom and shapely knockout Shelly Horner),who's the new girl in town. However, this doesn't go over well with his bitchy and jealous girlfriend Donna (venomously played to the snarky hilt by the cute Verkina Flower, the daughter of the one and only George "Buck" Flower),who sets Steve up by telling the police that he's a cocaine dealer. Donna covers her tracks by claiming that Anita ratted Steve out to the cops. This incurs the wrath of Steve's fellow van-driving buddies. Writer/director Bethal Buckalew covers all the pleasingly low-rent teensploitation bases: Unruly and undisciplined adolescents smoking pot, swilling beer, and making out, a satisfying smattering of tasty bare distaff skin, hot babes in bikinis, a ferocious catfight between Anita and Donna, laughably terrible acting by a lame no-name cast (only Laughlin went on to have a pretty decent career in the wake of starring in this movie),raunchy humor, several surprisingly mean-spirited moments (there are a couple of truly nasty attempted rapes),a token Asian gal who busts some karate moves, lots of shockingly un-PC sexism and male chauvinism, tin-eared dialogue laced with hopelessly dated 70's slang ("I don't wanna rap -- I wanna talk!"),and a neat variant on the usual chicken race called a "Drag-Out" which consists of two automobiles tied together by ropes playing a deadly game of tug of war over a steep precipice. Moreover, this flick serves as a nifty time capsule of the 70's Californian van and skateboarding scenes. Both Bill Schereck's funky-throbbing score and a handful of groovy songs by The Word hit the right-on happening spot. The competent cinematography by Willie E. Hines provides an attractive sunny look. An absolute cruddy riot.