Vehicular Viewing: New to Streaming for June 2021
If you’re looking to start your summer with a little on-screen auto action, you’ve come to the right place. June’s new titles on streaming services like Hulu, Netflix, and HBO Max include quite a few gearhead-friendly movies, and here’s a roundup of the most interesting highlights.
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Convoy (1978)
Before it was a movie, “Convoy” was a novelty country song about truckers who band together to defy the police and evade highway tolls. Sam Peckinpah’s cult chase film expands on that premise with a dose of gritty ’70s action and anti-establishment attitude — and lots and lots of big trucks. (Hulu, 6/1)
Driven (2001)
This movie about Champ Car competition on and off the track got comprehensively slammed by critics when it came out, and time hasn’t been kind either. But if you’re in the mood for auto-racing action and don’t mind the silly storyline and primitive CGI, go ahead and put it on in the background. (Hulu, 6/1)
Fast Company (1979)
Fast Company isn’t nearly as disturbing or transgressive as many of David Cronenberg’s other films. Instead, it’s an action-packed, entertaining genre movie about drag racing and the cutthroat business deals and rivalries that go on behind the scenes. (HBO Max, 6/1)
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The Ice Road (2021)
Liam Neeson isn’t out for revenge in this new action flick. Instead, he and Laurence Fishburne are ice-road truckers racing against time and the elements to save trapped miners in remote northern Canada. (Netflix, 6/25)
Monster Trucks (2017)
Yeah, the trucks are literally monsters in this movie. What else do you need to know? OK, here’s a little more: Monster Trucks is a mix of live action and animation, the monsters were chased aboveground by fracking, one of them befriends a high school student and serves as the actual engine for his beat-up old truck, and wacky hijinks ensue. (Hulu, 6/22)
Streets of Fire (1984)
A mix of rock musical and violent action, this cult movie from director Walter Hill makes a hugely stylish impression. With its warring motorcycle gangs, rock ‘n’ roll heroics, classic cars, and dystopian urban setting, Streets of Fire takes place in a 1980s world where the 1950s never went away. (Netflix, 6/1)
A longtime editor/writer and recently transplanted Hoosier, Caleb Cook lives in Xenia, Ohio. His favorite activities are reading and listening to music, although he occasionally emerges from the heap of books and vinyl records in his basement to stand blinking in the sunlight. Once fully acclimated to the outside world again, he can be observed hanging out with his wife, attempting a new recipe in the kitchen, attending movies, walking the dog, or wandering into a local brewery to inquire about what’s on tap. See more articles by Caleb.