Review by Adam Stephen Kelly
Featuring Avenged Sevenfold, Tony Hawk, Dennis Rodman, Caprice Bourret,
Travis Barker, Matthew Pritchard, The Fuel Girls, David Hasselhoff, Rick Thorne, DJ Muggs
UK Certification 18 | UK RRP £19.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 80 minutes | Directed by Maximillion Cooper
Coast to Coast chronicles the seven-day journey that 100 of the world's greatest supercars partook in during the first week of May back in 2009. It was the 10th annual Gumball 3000, where 3000 miles of the United States were traversed between Los Angeles and the finishing line in Miami, in the most colourful rally in existence. But surely a feature-length documentary would be pretty lifeless if it just focused on nothing but the cars, right? That's where the no holds barred wild side of the rally is revealed.
The only problem is we don't get to see much of that wild side. We get a taste that gives us an appetite, but in the end we go hungry. Following a multitude of celebrities on the road proves to be somewhat fun, but it gets old quick when all we get are segments that fly by. Most nights are capped off with hijinx-filled, alcohol-fueled parties that everyone says they're having a blast at, but we get to peek inside those parties for about twenty seconds. If we're taking the celebs' word for it, they can't have been boring events, so why must we skip the majority of the occasions and move on to the next day so suddenly?
The documentary chooses to switch between cars to mix things up a bit, but fails to hold interest. We get to see the stunning locations that the supercars zoom past, except we can't see just how stunning they truly are because the handheld cameras are moving all over the place. I'm by no means a petrol-head, so looking at a shed load of high-speed vehicles doesn't do much for me, but I'd imagine even the keenest car enthusiast would get a little tired of seeing so many choppily-edited montages of motors roaring along the road. But I'm not quite sure who would be entertained by seeing Pritchard from MTV's Dirty Sanchez urinate in a plastic bottle and then take a sip outside a fast food drive-thru—certainly not me.
The Gumball 3000 rally seems like it would be a hell of an experience, but this documentary by no means captures the high-octane spirit of the week-long annual event, not unless all it really involves is driving way over the speed limit and getting pulled over by police officers who are all too forgiving when they've got a camera on them.
EXTRAS ★★ Interviews with director and Gumball 3000 founder Maximillion Cooper and Vice President Julie Brangstrup, a photo gallery, and a condensed day-by-day video diary.