Scott LeBrun Model-turned-actress Darlanne Fluegel ("To Live and Die in L.A.") is top billed in this thriller, which was officially based on a novel by Deanne Barkley, but which was also prompted by real life crimes in L.A. This is a city known for its amazing 600 miles of freeway, and now a crazed killer is cruising these lanes and sometimes shooting other drivers. Fluegel plays "Sunny" Harper, a nurse whose husband was one of the killers' victims. She's now obsessed with doing her own detective work into the matter, and she soon gets helped by a mystery man named Frank Quinn (James Russo, doing his best Mickey Rourke).Veteran movie villain Billy Drago ("The Untouchables", "Delta Force 2") is at his creepy best playing the deranged antagonist of the story. It's never quite as interesting when it doesn't follow him. His character frequently phones a hot shot radio psychiatrist, played by comedian / actor Richard "The Belz" Belzer ('Homicide: Life on the Street'), believing the shrink to be his prophet. Fluegel is of course gorgeous and a passable actress, but she doesn't have a particularly dynamic presence on film. Russo tries his hardest to project "cool", and comes off fairly well. Also co-starring are other familiar faces like Michael Callan ("Cat Ballou") as the head detective on the case, the incomparable Clint Howard ("Evilspeak") as a predictably quirky service station attendant, Steve Franken ("The Party") as a victimized lawyer, and the great Kenneth Tobey ("The Thing from Another World") as a monsignor.Overall, this is an okay movie, with some pulse quickening scenes, but it's nothing special. Co-writer / director Francis Delia, whose work was mostly in music videos and TV, tells this story in entertaining enough fashion - just enough to keep viewers watching. It offers some fun but is largely forgettable.Six out of 10.

fernando_andrade_martins I had never heard of this film until last night. I saw it yesterday evening on cable. I like to see what some film makers do when they're in a very tight budget, as in this case, but this movie is very far away from Carpenter's fantastic and enjoyable low budget movie "They live".I got caught up but the first 30 minutes or so, I was enjoying the mood, the photography and lighting, camera plans and movements, but that mood starts to fade away, and the argument becomes a bit muddy... Belzer does a pretty good job until the end of the movie, contributing with a decent representation of a somewhat interesting character.James Russo wasn't able to talk anyone into his "bad" attitude, and there are many question marks to put to the weak and sometimes inconsistent argument, namely the relation between Russo and Darlanne Fluegel, which is quite OK and very sexy throughout the movie.After 1 hour, you start wondering what happened to the mood shown at the beginning, and it just gets pretty tedious until the predictable ending, with the blonde angelical nurse/doctor becoming a "devil" in leather driving a red firebird.Gladly, the psycho man in the plot is played by Billy Drago, which is quite entertaining, as usual.Bottom line - see it if you have absolutely nothing better to do, otherwise don't waste your time on it.

deemes I love Freeway! What a four-eyed, club-footed, red-headed stepchild of a movie! James Russo wants to be Mickey Rourke *sooooo* bad--and what issue of Penthouse did Darlanne Fluegel escape from? This is one of those enjoyably bad movies that you might refer to as a guilty pleasure. Richard Belzer is good as the disc jockey who receives phone calls from the psycho killer. And as the psycho killer... well, no one makes a more entertaining psycho than Billy Drago. The most chilling scene in the movie is the one where Darlanne and James find the picture of ol' Billy dressed as a priest. Best watched late at night with a small gathering of smart-alec pals, MST3K-style.

silentgpaleo I think it was Dennis Miller who coined calling Richard Belzer ,"the Belz." Anyhow, FREEWAY was made somewhere in between stand-up dates by Belzer, long before Homicide hit television. Of course, Belzer had done other flicks before(THE GROOVE TUBE), so he was fairly comfortable in front of the camera.And, in fact, Belzer is the only entertaining thing about FREEWAY. The plot itself concerns a road-rager (back in the late 80's, this was un-hip) who blows the heads off of people. This psycho(the ever-employed Billy Drago)gets caught up with the Belz, with one of the killings being heard by Belzer.James Russo, as always, thinks he's tough. But, like Mickey Rourke(sometimes), acting tough and being tough are two separate things.FREEWAY is not so hot, and the low-budget shows. But, if you are a Belzer fan(I know you're out there), then this may be worth a look.Everyone else, beware, THIS FILM IS TEDIOUS AND OVERLONG.