Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Race for the Yankee Zephyr (1981)
Director: David Hemmings
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
The Yankee Zephyr of this amiable treasure hunt yarn is a US Navy cargo plane, missing since 1944, with a shipment of medals, a crate of Old Crow, and 50 million dollars in gold bullion aboard. The race to claim the salvage rights involves jet boats, beat-up helicopters, and mechanical abortions of the latter's parts, with Pleasence as a wheezy old sot who discovers the wreck. Pitting him and his macho partner (Wahl) against the suave penthouse chic of Peppard's businessman, Hemmings operates the race at a stop/start pace that leaves you feeling genial enough to forgive the stereotyping and the thin running jokes. It's all so lightweight that the action has to be anchored into place by a picaresque script involving crocodiles and their various genitalia.Author: FL
Cast & crew
Director: David Hemmings
Producer: Antony I Ginnane, John Barnett, David Hemmings
Cast: Ken Wahl, Lesley Ann Warren, Donald Pleasence, George Peppard, Bruno Lawrence, Grant Tilly, Robert Bruce full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Duration: 108 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Review: Penélope Cruz more raunchy than ever in 'Nine'
Dave Calhoun reports on Rob Marshall's Oscar-touted musical with Daniel Day-Lewis playing a troubled director
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Jim Jarmusch on 'The Limits of Control'
Jim Jarmusch has followed ‘Broken Flowers’ with an esoteric crime mystery. Dave Calhoun speaks to him from his New York office
Richard Linklater on 'Me and Orson Welles'
Dave Calhoun meets the 49-year-old, Houston-born filmmaker Richard Linklater to discuss his new comedy
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations












What do you think?
Post your review now