HTF Review: Rockstar Games presents Sunday Driver

Sam Posten · 06-14-2006, 10:15 PM

Rockstar Games presents: Sunday Driver

Title: Sunday Driver
Rated: R
Screen format: Not listed, appears to be 1.85:1 non Anamorphic widescreen
Studio: PALM Pictures
Year first released: 2005
DVD released: June 2006
Director: Carol Strong
Starring: The Majestics Car Club members
Sound Formats: Stereo 2.0
Length: 58 Minutes
Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese

Plot: NA but positive - Documentary

This film chronicles the state of the hobby known as Low-Riding in the late 1990s and early 2000s for the Compton, Los Angeles Car Club known as The Majestics. Seen as videotaped interviews and historic film footage, we are introduced to the major players in this oldest and most highly respected predominantly black Car Club. Started as an outgrowth of the Compton Crips gang, the members work to establish their legitimacy as a real club without gang associations and earn the respect of Low-riders around the world as the premiere innovators and masters of this hobby.

Sound Quality: 2/5

Stereo is as good as we are gonna get on this one, but it features a great mix of classic California lowrider tunes from the 60s to modern hip-hop. Dialogue is as clear as can be expected given the accents of the interviewees. Disappointing that War’s Low-Rider is nowhere to be found however!

Visual Quality: 2.5/5

While the interview segments are relatively sharp and well balanced color wise, the outdoor sequences are often a bit blown out and of uneven quality. Given the budget of this production we shouldn’t be too critical, but there weren’t any scenes where I felt blown away. Non Anamorphic as far as I can tell.

Extra Features: 3.5/5
About 20 extra footage clips are packed in, and these are as interesting as the movie itself, and the quality of the clips matches as well. Particularly interesting are the clips from Japan, where lowriding is just starting to catch on, and some of the Majestic’s cars have made a new home. There are also a handful of previews and weblinks which I did not check out.

Overall: 3.5/5 (not an average)

While I enjoyed the contents of the feature documentary and the added clips, I’m not sure how I feel about the members themselves. Frequent references to their criminal past (and present!) makes it hard to take much of what they say seriously, although the final segment which shows the current state of several of the members gives an interesting twist once we have had an hour to form opinions of them. One surprise is that no other car clubs are interviewed, so we are left in a kind of vacuum as to how other groups view the Majestics, but perhaps that was the intent all along. Again, given the production budget, the quality of the sound and video are sufficient, and the documentary itself is satisfying. It would also have been helpful to know just how Rockstar Games got involved in the production of the movie, I never did see any info on that.

Bottom line: An interesting little package, and a nice introduction to the hobby if, like me, all you know about Low Riders comes from Grand Theft Auto 3.



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