Yes, I have heard of the man and I know of some of his feats; however, these days the idea of a person making big dollars jumping things is absurd. The real money is being on Youtube putting on makeup or otherwise doing mundane and boring things. So, the poor guy grew up in a time where you had to kill yourself to get the dollars and was not alive long enough to see the proliferation of people getting money for nothing and their checks for free (I'm pretty sure the line is 'chicks' for free, but I've always heard checks...). Apparently, a movie featuring George Hamilton as Evel Knievel was box office gold earlier in the 70's, so they took it a step further and have the actual man in this one, the result? A very bizarrely paced film featuring drug dealers that are a bit too imaginative for their own good.
The story, Evel breaks into an orphanage after hours and brings the kids his action figure and inspires kids to walk again, yes, that is true. He then is on to his next big jump where Marjoe Gortner drugs Gene Kelly to take pics and Red Buttons is Evel's agent! It's a mad world, one in which Leslie Nielsen is a drug dealer who wants to use Evel to disguise his drug deal while Evel is jumping over lions and tigers and winning over a stone cold gal who wants to photo Evel dying. Occasionally you get to see jumps on a bike, but not as often as you'd think...
Evel may have been a good stunt man and promoter, but the man was not an actor as he does a horrible job and he is just playing himself! One writer already mentioned it, but Marjoe Gortner was in this and he was big in the 70's. I think when he was a kid, there was a cult or something literally formed around him, its complicated. Not sure why he stopped doing films, perhaps he was only allowed to do movies in the 70's then his contract expired. Leslie is more out of place in this one than he was as the crazy dude in Day of the Animals.
So, this film is a movie...a movie that overstays its welcome and has way too much padding when it did not need it. The whole orphanage at the beginning could have easily been cut, for example. Not the worst movie by any means though, they just should have streamlined it or something, perhaps even went in another direction. The whole lets kill Evel Knievel so we can smuggle drugs was just too absurd...
The story, Evel breaks into an orphanage after hours and brings the kids his action figure and inspires kids to walk again, yes, that is true. He then is on to his next big jump where Marjoe Gortner drugs Gene Kelly to take pics and Red Buttons is Evel's agent! It's a mad world, one in which Leslie Nielsen is a drug dealer who wants to use Evel to disguise his drug deal while Evel is jumping over lions and tigers and winning over a stone cold gal who wants to photo Evel dying. Occasionally you get to see jumps on a bike, but not as often as you'd think...
Evel may have been a good stunt man and promoter, but the man was not an actor as he does a horrible job and he is just playing himself! One writer already mentioned it, but Marjoe Gortner was in this and he was big in the 70's. I think when he was a kid, there was a cult or something literally formed around him, its complicated. Not sure why he stopped doing films, perhaps he was only allowed to do movies in the 70's then his contract expired. Leslie is more out of place in this one than he was as the crazy dude in Day of the Animals.
So, this film is a movie...a movie that overstays its welcome and has way too much padding when it did not need it. The whole orphanage at the beginning could have easily been cut, for example. Not the worst movie by any means though, they just should have streamlined it or something, perhaps even went in another direction. The whole lets kill Evel Knievel so we can smuggle drugs was just too absurd...