The photos on this page are of the recently restored original cars and hauler of the Snake and Mongoose. They are the ones that also appear in the movie. I took these photos at a show in Pomona CA last year about this time when the movie was out of production and into editing before release.
Being a car guy I have always liked any car movie that would come along. Heck, when I was a kid I used to watch the old Route 66 TV show just to get an occasional glimpse of the Corvette. Of course when they announced the new feature film Snake & Mongoose I was anxious to see it at the movie theater. As life happens things got in the way and the next thing I knew it was out of the theaters and gone; bummer.
All of that has changed now, it is out on DVD (click this link to view a promo trailer)! When I got bored of watching Olympians play in the snow this past weekend I popped my copy into the DVD player; cranked up the surround sound and got ready for the racing. We all know the track record for racing flicks, they usually are low budget movies that poorly represent what we love. There have been a few notable exceptions with the recent Ron Howard movie, RUSH, being one of them. Some of you might boycott this most recent release because it doesn’t feature Ford drivers or cars. However, Katrina and I are equal opportunity gear heads and even own a couple of Mopars so we were all excited to see it.
The Shake & Mongoose is obviously also a low budget production and some of the support actors are not very supporting but the movie is a must see. The guys who play Don ‘the Snake’ Prudhomme (Jesse Williams) and Tom ‘the Mongoose’ McEwen (Richard Blake) do a great job and have a strong physical resemblance as well.
We were prepared for another low budget car flick but we were very pleased and liked the movie A LOT. It is worth the price of the DVD just for some of the vintage video and the sounds of the dragsters. The story line provides some real in sight into the changing times of drag racers and drag racing in the late 60s and early 70s. It isn’t just a racing movie either. There is a nice compliment of getting to know the Snake and Mongoose and how they got together.
Some of the highlights include periodic name dropping of names from the past as well as brief vintage video of Linda Vaughn and other car stars of the day. The background music is also nostalgic and appropriate.
This is a DVD that will come off our shelf once a year or so for a replay we liked it that much.
