Back in the 1970's, we were a lot less demanding of our action flicks. In the same spirit as Peter Fonda's box office hit "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry", 1975's RACE WITH THE DEVIL is a B movie with little aspirations to be anything else.
Peter Fonda and his wife Lara Parker (really bad here, showing all the same talent she displayed in TV's "Dark Shadows) pair up with friends Warren Oates and Loretta Swit for a road trip in their new motor home.
Oates (The Wild Bunch, Stripes) does everything he can with the material and Swit (TV's Hot Lips on MASH) is fine as well, but oof, what a screenplay.
Our two couples are just getting going in desolate Texas when they witness a Satanist Cult's human sacrifice. They meet up with every stereotype you can imagine, from the bumbling local sheriff to the hillbilly garage mechanic and the story goes exactly where you think it's going.
Fonda is his usual dull self, underacting to the point where I thought he was napping a couple times in key scenes.
The stunt team does some decent work, but at one point, a pickup truck in pursuit of our couples leans up on two wheels and drives that way for only one reason: it's a cool stunt.
At less than 90 minutes long, it feels more like two hours thanks to bad pacing and a lot of filler shots of landscape. Twice in the movie, we get a tour of the boxy motor home, highlighting just how cool a microwave oven was in 1975.
I'll give the movie a bit of credit for a non-traditional ending, but not enough to raise our rating anything beyond a D.
Dimwitted, Dull and Dumb, maybe its a triple D.
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