Road Games [Region 2] - Thrilling Australian Outback Suspense Movie - Perfect for Movie Nights & Road Trip Entertainment" （说明： 1. 保持了核心关键词"Road Games"和"[Region 2]" 2. 增加了描述性词汇"Thrilling Australian Outback Suspense"突出电影类型和特色 3. 添加了使用场景"Movie Nights & Road Trip Entertainment" 4. 符合SEO规范，包含主要关键词和长尾关键词）

I first saw "Road Games" in the theater during its initial release; a friend and I had bought tickets to "Caveman", but despite the presence of Ringo Starr, it was so boring we left halfway through. We wandered in to the theater next door and caught the balance of "Road Games" beginning with the hallucination of the eyes in the back of the van. We both enjoyed the film, but I never saw the rest of it until I found it decades later on DVD: it was worth the wait. This is one of the few DVDs I would never part with.I am not a fan of slasher movies, but do like psychological thrillers. Despite the US marketing playing on Jamie Lee Curtis' fame as a horror queen at the time, this is not a slasher movie, but is an homage to Hitchcock on the Australian Outback. Stacy Keach as Pat Quid, an American who drives trucks in Australia (Keach actually learned to drive the truck for the shoot, by the way) steals the show. This was just before his Mike Hammer days, and his classical training in Shakespearian drama aids his array of emotions as he tracks a mysterious killer across Australia. To allow dialogue Keach is paired up with his buddy, Boswell, a dingo (actually an Australian Red dog, which is part dingo) to great effect. The film jumps from light (Keach playing classical music on the harmonica) to the macabre (what is the man in the green van doing and what is in his lunch pail?) Jamie Lee Curtis stars as "Hitch" is a relatively small role; the dynamics between Keach and Curtis worked beautifully, and quantifiably added to the tension in the film.As Keach hauls a load of refrigerated hog carcasses to Perth, he crosses paths with numerous other motorists multiple times to great effect, but it's clear early on that his primary nemesis is the lunatic in the green van who opens the movie with a clever garroting of a young girl with a guitar string. Dialogue from Everett De Roche is sharp ("Why does anybody get up at five in the morning to watch the garbage collectors?") Fortunately Keach is up to the challenge of sometimes complicated and long passages of dialogue ("'Quid'...'Q' as in 'Quartermaster', 'U' as in 'Utopia', 'I' as in 'Ice Cream', and 'D' as in 'Death of a young girl, you cretin!'") Interspersed with the serious plotline of tracking the killer and Quid himself being effectively framed for the murder in a very clever way, there are moments of comic relief involving the other highway motorists, most comically "Captain Careful" who is towing his boat, the "Lady Luck II", on a trailer. It turns out you can drive a semi straight through a boat to great comedic effect.After picking up Hitch (Curtis), they banter about the psychological makeup of the killer and ultimately make a pit stop at a dingy roadside gas station where while dealing with another often-encountered character, "Sneezy Rider", Hitch is kidnapped by the lunatic in the green van while trying to see if the murdered girl's remains are inside. As Keach debates about how the back door to the trailer got opened and why are there 352 pig carcasses versus the pre-departure 350 that were counted, he closes in on the van in a chase scene that gets slower and slower and more and more claustrophobic. Even though it was heavily cut due to time pressures, it is one of director Richard Franklin's true masterstrokes, concluding in a dramatic way where Boswell saves the day by revealing himself to be a dog and not a dingo much to Keach's surprise as he barks to signal the final reveal of the plot in a brilliant conclusion, as dingos can't bark. The film has an added stinger at the very end that Franklin didn't want to do but the producers insisted on to be able to market it more as horror than as suspense. I won't spoil it, but it is the one part of the film I am not totally enthralled with.The DVD comes with loads of worthwhile extras, starting with a great "making of' documentary, "Kangaroo Hitchcock: The Making of 'Road Games'" which features interviews with Franklin and Keach and discusses the project at length. Originally the part of Quid was written for Sean Connery, but unfortunately his salary was greater than the entire $8,000,000 budget of the film (which was the biggest budget Australian film to date) but fortunately they ended up with Keach, who I think was born for the role (and who clearly loved it). Franklin is a great director and explains a lot of directorial choices in a very interesting way; the original storyboards are wonderful. The best extra on the DVD is a commentary track with Franklin and Anchor Bay DVD producer Perry Martin. Simply put, it's one of the best commentary tracks I have ever seen. I was interested that Franklin frequently referred to Keach as the most intellectual actor he worked with (which is why, I suppose, Quid gets away quoting "The Canterbury Tales" and the like); the backstory concerning the union issues involved with this picture were also interesting, though from a more logistical standpoint. There are also a ton of posters, stills, original storyboards, and the screenplay on DVD-ROM included, and all of those are recommended. One final extra are the incredibly detailed star and director biographies: Keach is, in particular, a fascinating person."Road Games" may be a challenge to find, but it really is worth it. It does everything a great suspense thriller should do: it gives clues and sets up situations to maximize tension and builds to a fantastic final reveal which rewards the viewer like few other films in the genre. It is definitely underappreciated, and Richard Franklin and Stacy Keach made what was a good thriller truly great. I love this movie.