Dialog as banal as this makes several scenes more than a little cringe-worthy. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I saw this movie years ago as a rental and the guys I watched it with along with myself laughed quite a few times at some of the implausible things we saw, as well as the absolutely BAD dialog and cardboard cutout characters. As a matter of fact, we still use the "9/16ths" comment as part of our expressions at the track, mostly as a method of disrespect. Once things got to the dragstrip, however, "Hot Rod" was a bit more palatable. I enjoyed the rocket Funny Car making a pass down the track (rocket cars having been outlawed for nearly 20 years now), and some of the old school drag cars really gave a look into the late 70's drag scene. Being a drag racer myself, I appreciate the history. The story is standard TV movie fare (this was an ABC Friday Night Movie after all), and even after saying this, I still went and bought a copy on VHS. Should it be on DVD? Considering the dreck that's already on DVD ("reality" shows and the like), I'd vote for a DVD release. File this one as "so bad it's good".
