Hollywood Hot Wheels

From the days of silent comedy, when the Keystone Kops, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton built elaborate gags around the novelty of the automobile, to Back to the Future, where filmmakers made a time machine out of a DeLorean, cars and movies have shared an ever increasing popularity with consumers. Granted, that's not a shocking revelation, but Hollywood Hot Wheels doesn't really have anything more profound to offer…beyond an hour of innocuous engine revving, custom-made cars, and male posturing that may appeal to casual viewers who just want to see icons like James Dean and James Bond with their cool vehicles. Adam West, the man behind the wheel of the Batmobile, provides suitably hammy narration, while expert testimony from legendary customizers like George Barris, Dean Jeffries, and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth point out tidbits such as that the Batmobile was actually a modified Lincoln Futura and that the Green Hornet's Black Beauty started life as a 1966 Chrysler Imperial. Unfortunately, the documentary's affiliation with Universal and Fox steers the focus in otherwise inexplicable directions, prioritizing The French Connection over Bullitt and Knight Rider's K.I.T.T. over The Dukes of Hazzard's General Lee. Optional. Aud: P. (D. Fienberg)