R.P.M. (1997)

David Arquette's offbeat charm will likely never make him a leading man. That's part of the fun of RPM, a tongue-in-cheek Euro-American car-jacking adventure about an American techno wizard whose sideline is stealing vintage autos for fun and... well, mostly just for fun. When New York gets too hot for him he flies off to Europe, heists his way through the coolest vintage autos in the south of France, and then hires himself out to a corporate pirate who desires a tightly guarded experimental car that runs without gas. Famke Janssen slinks her way through the film as Arquette's sexy nemesis, who matches him car for car and races him to the prize, and Emmanuelle Seigner costars as one of Arquette's victims won over by his goofy allure. It's a cute, if silly, little picture that plays like a low-budget James Bond spoof: cool gadgets, sexy women, handsome sports cars, all set in the lovely countryside of southern France. Ian Sharp isn't much of an action director but he captures the breezy spirit of the wisecracking script (cowritten by Pulp Fiction's Roger Avary). Like Arquette, he doesn't take any of it seriously either, and it works for this amusing little lark of an action-comedy. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

For race car and collectible car voyeurs, in the youth segment

RPM is a film that, despite all its flaws, visibly was never intended
for any other niche audience, than race car voyeurs and the below 12
year old age bracket. Assuming this was RPM's original design, it
suceeded very well in its objective. For all other audiences, despite
the script's promised excitement, it comes up short in entertainment
value as a rental or at the theatres.

The biggest flaw is the selection of the leading actor, who, despite
all his efforts, easy-going personality, articulate physical and
verbal expression, is a poor match for a provokative, photogenic and
spontaneous woman like Famke Janssen, sporting an image of a junior
high school student. Arquette is also paired with the intriguing,
young beauty Emmanuelle Seigner, and somehow this also doesn't seem
entirely appropriate, although not as much.

The leading actor's conduct seems in line with a 17 year old Peter
Sellers, with nervous, amateur acting, lacking subtlety, clearly
inexperienced, relying heavily on personal mannerisms, subjective
tic's that professional actors don't intermix, or confuse with one
another, the personal and the business. Perhaps to cover this up,
after 2/3 of the movie is spent, the Director apparently suggested
to the Arquette to light up a smoke on a regular basis towards the
last 1/3 of the movie, in almost every scene.

The script's dialog, seems not to flow naturally, and this sometimes
results in all of the actors delivering a "wooden" performance or
interaction.

There is no question, that the filming of over 40 or 50 luxury and
rare collection automobiles is fascinating, and innovative for those
who are not mechanics or visitors of race tracks and museums. The
action scenes involving these cars, is successfully done, and those
are the high points of the film.

As for the soundtrack, too often sewage-grade "rock" music was
selected, meaning instruments apparently were handed to amateur
musicians who had trouble coming up with anything minimally
acceptable. This, when coupled with the leading actor's amateur
acting, turns the audience's experience from bad to worse.

What impoverished the film, (aside from the previously mentioned
aspects), is the lack in the story's coherence, logic and free flow
in terms of following it over 90 mins. Also, the special gizmo
allowing the remote control of race cars from 2 km away seems totally
implausible, and for that reason alone is annoying from the fantasy
such a device exists.

The fact that German and French actors were selected, is fine in
itself, except for the difficulty in natural expression in English
for those same actors. The European filming locations actually are
welcomed, however, in the city and countryside action stunt scenes
mainly.

RPM could have redeemed itself, from the cool cars had there been
humor, but the audience will find only 1 or 2 genuine moments for
laughs in the entire work, as most of it misses the mark, or is
clumsily done.

The fact that there is a "narrative" from Arquette, speaking over the
action is the final nail in RPM's coffin, considering the actor was
already a liability.

Overall, RPM as a project had significant potential, but the flaws
already mentioned when added to its many "rough edges" doesn't meet
the audience's standard, despite a high quality cinematography. June 7, 2007

It deserves it

It really is a good movie, It has a half way decent plot (David is going to steal an expensive car) and it has some cool chase scenes. The cast is b and c list people. It has some pretty crappy acting, but is really worth 1.00 +S&H used. I paid 13.oo for it, and I think it was worth it, I guess I'm just crazy..Well worth to buy in my opinion. A must for people who love car movies. August 31, 2005

I Should Have Read the Reviews Before I Bought This

I'd seen this dvd floating around the bargain bins for some time. Finally I figured the price was right so maybe I'd check it out. I should have saved my money.
Now, I'm a sucker for low budget B-movies. Usually you get what you expect(or deserve) when you buy or rent them. "RPM" had a name cast and was nicely packaged so I expected a derivative but enteraining action flick. Boy was I wrong. Watching paint dry is a much better way to spend 90 minutes.
Actually I couldn't even make it through the whole thing. I'm just not that masochistic. I watched the first half hour and then skipped to the later scenes to see if it would get any better. It didn't.
I can usually find some sort of redeeming quality for even the worst film, but I'm still scratching my head over this pointless and childish affair. Seriously, I'm going to at least read some online reviews before I buy another movie. October 18, 2004

A Car Wreck of a Movie

There are so many things wrong with this movie that I don't know where to start. I think it was Fox's way of capitalizing on the rush of car movies in the last few years.

My biggest problem is the plot. There are holes and side plots that really make no sense. Luke is a lot like Ferris Bueller, he gets in trouble and causes problems. His biggest problem is he's addicted to stealing classic cars, sometimes from right under their owner's noses. When his most recent escapade lands him in trouble with the law he jets off to Europe until it all blows over.

In addition to Luke's escapades as a classic car thief, and his rivalry with Claudia, who turns out is his sister, there's a side plot involving a woman from the states trying to arrest Luke, and an Italian detective who'd rather hop into the sack with her than help her solve the case. These two are thrown into the plot at random times, almost as comic relief, but it's not funny, and really has very little to do with the movie.

The plot gets even more complicated when you throw in a pretty girl for Luke to fall for, who just so happens to be tied into a ring of car thieves who want the RPM, a revolutionary prototype car. They offer Luke lots of money to steal it, and then up the odds by threatening the pretty girl he's gotten himself attached to. The pretty girl seems almost as an afterthought, they would have done better to offer Luke a way out of his problem in the US, it would have made him just as likely to steal the car.

The whole movie is almost like a train wreck. Not only does the plot jump around and take weird side turns when you least expect it, but the dialog is poor, and the characters seem built on stereotypes and have no personalities of their own. Building interesting, complex characters would have been lost on the script though, it too is built on stereotypes and already well used plot devices.

The only saving grace of the movie was the nice cars. There are a lot of nice classic cars in the movie, and you can momentarily lose yourself in their grace and looks before you're pulled back to realize that the plot stinks, the premise isn't very interesting, and overall it's just a very bad movie. If you insist on watching it, please consider renting or borrowing it instead of purchasing. April 5, 2004

So bad its good

For all the folk that were expecting a bargin basement movie that you'd never heard of to be top quality, well, um, you better have a rethink on your expectation list.
Now about the movie. Its totally unrealistic. The premis of the movie is that you have two world class car thieves, a super car that doesn't require gasoline, and two uber-rich and powerful evil guys who don't like each other much. One wants the super car, the other is well, you'll have to watch to find out.
The cars in the movie are beautiful, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Lotus... That alone is worth the lost cost of the film. Throw in Femke and well thats a bonus. Yes the movie is stupid and silly, but its also fun if you approach with the correct mind set. This is a B class movie so dont expect much. Given that, enjoy the show. It really isn't a bad movie for sheer stupidity level. November 4, 2003

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