Product Details

• Actors: Paul Bartel, Lew Brown (II), Barry Cahill, Bill Conklin, Clint Howard
• Format: Color, Original recording reissued, Special Edition, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Concorde
• VHS Release Date: June 25, 2002
• Run Time: 84 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304238134
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #368,341 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Ron Howard directs and stars in this Roger Corman-produced feature-length car chase, and Grand Theft Auto was made to appeal to the 12-year-old in all of us who likes to see stuff blow up. Poor boy Sam Freeman (Howard) and rich girl Paula Powers (Nancy Morgan) are in love, but Daddy disapproves. They steal the Powers family Rolls Royce for a Vegas elopement, Paula's ex-fiancé puts a bounty on her head, and from then on you can just forget about the plot and watch a zillion cars crash into each other, not to mention a couple of helicopters and an ice-cream truck. In many ways this is a quintessential PG-rated '70s movie: plenty of wholesome fun involving the destruction of public and private property, and every now and then someone says the S word to liven things up. And yes, it is surprisingly satisfying to see a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud get smashed all to hell. The 25th-anniversary special-edition DVD includes interviews with Roger Corman and Ron Howard, audio commentary from Corman and Howard, and a reproduction of the original press pack. --Ali Davis

Product Description

It's a balmy, lazy day in Beverly Hills, but two young-and-in-love kids, Sam Freeman (RON HOWARD) and Paula Powers (NANCY MORGAN) have just made the biggest decision of their lives -they're going to elope to Las Vegas. The good-looking couple speeds into the driveway of Paula's family mansion to spring the news on her parents. Mr. Bigby Powers (BARRY CAHILL), a business tycoon with emerging political ambitions, stops polishing his prize possession, a vintage Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, just long enough to tell the solidly middle-class Sam Freeman to get lost and to remind his daughter that, as far as he's concerned, she is going to marry the wealthy heir Collins Hedgeworth (PAUL LINKE) or no one at all. It doesn't matter that Paula thinks Collins is a spoiled, flaky, perverted mama's boy. Enraged by his daughter's stubbornness, Bigby Powers grabs Paula's car keys and sends his little girl off to her room. Undaunted, Paula climbs out the window, makes off with her father's Rolls Royce and picks up Sam as she screeches out the gates of the estate.

The young lovers are off - streaking across the desert toward Las Vegas and marriage. However, Bigby isn't going to take this sitting down, especially since he believes his political chances will be seriously jeopardized if his daughter marries so far beneath her. Bigby calls upon a trusted private investigator, Ned Slinker) (RANCE HOWARD), who promises to use his usual discretion in getting Paula back for Bigby. Meanwhile, Collins Hedgeworth gets winds of his presumed fiancée's flight and takes off in furious pursuit in his Porsche after posting a $25,000 reward for her return. When Collins' mother Vivian Hedgeworth (MARION ROSS) realizes her son has disappeared, she announces another $25,000 reward, this for her son's discovery, and then takes up the chase herself.

The area's most popular disc jockey, Curley Q . Brown (DON STEELE), picks up on the story, immediately starts making contact with all the participants in the chase and, to bring this quickly unfolding story to his listeners live and direct, jumps into the station's helicopter to survey the ever-growing chase from the skies. Motivated variously by law and order, thrills, religious faith, curiosity and especially the big bucks being promised for the apprehension of Sam and Paula, not to mention Collins Hedge-worth, a wild and wide assortment of humanity joins in the frantic pursuit. A fanatical preacher hijacks a police car, the displaced cop commandeers a school bus full of senior citizens, two young and zany auto mechanics drop their tools to speed off seeking adventure and fortune, the highway patrol crisscrosses the desert highways and the goon squad in the employ of Ned Slinker bungles all its attempts to run the errant lovers off the road.

The entire rag-tag collection of Porsches, Volkswagens, vans, squad cars, buses and super-charged vehicles whips down the highways and byways, Sam and Paula weaving in and out in a spectacular trail of near-misses as the road behind them becomes one giant wreck of twisted metal and fuming drivers!

VHS Features - - Video interview with Ron Howard and Roger Corman - Video interview of Roger Corman by Leonard Maltin - Original theatrical trailers of "Grand Theft Auto" and "Eat My Dust"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun movie!, May 22, 2003

By 

R. Swaleson (Tacoma, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grand Theft Auto [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a fun movie! It's a Saturday Matinee "popcorn" type of movie. There's no "academy award-winning" performances here, just good fun watching car chases/crashes.

Note: Why would anyone think a move made in 1977 would be based upon the video/computer game that's popular now? lol

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great review of a movie not based on a video game..., December 9, 2002

By 

David N Adams, III (Garland, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grand Theft Auto [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a great movie with a lot of, yes I said it, car crashes. This movie has the most car crashes in one movie. And it was made waaaay before the games were made. If you want this movie thinking its based on the video game, shop elsewhere. If you want a good car crash movie, check this out.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A real CAR-nival, October 30, 2003

By 

Afrin Argon (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grand Theft Auto - 25th Anniversary Special Edition (DVD)

This is light-hearted, wholesome fun in which nobody gets hurt other than about 200 tons of Detroit (and at the end of the demolition derby scene) British automobiles. How can people disparage the 70's when they gave us a whole genre of movies that fetishized car wrecks to the point of turning them into a form of ballet?

The acting and music in this are vaguely reminiscent of <..> movies that were coming out at around the same time, but rest assured, this movie has a positive message at its core and that is that true love will conquer all, even meddling parents and dozens of loco mercenaries without any sense of restraint or decency. One guy even throws dynamite at a cop!

Best line of the movie: "Get out of the way, you clown!"