Since that first ‘Fast & Furious’ movie twenty-five years ago, there’s been no shortage of knock-offs trying to cash in on the celluloid car scene. There’s been ‘The Fast and the Fierce’ and ‘Superfast & Superfurious’, and Demaras Racing has somehow managed to avoid accidentally tuning into these movies on late-night TV.
While the title of the 2020 release ‘REV’ doesn’t hint at the F&F universe, the marketing is a completely different story. It’s billed as the Canadian ‘Fast & Furious’. Take a look at the trailer; even the font looks like it was lifted from Universal Studios’ street-racing series! In some international markets, the movie was also released as ‘Drive or Die’, which sounds considerably more like a bargain-bin action movie.
Right off the hop, it’s important to know that ‘REV’ is an undercover cop/heist flick, like ‘Point Break’ meets ‘The Fast and the Furious’. It’s not a car movie per se, just a movie that happens to be about cars. The bad guys could have been stealing jewelry or fine art, and only a couple of scenes would need to be reshot. As a heist flick, this one is just average.
What makes ‘REV’ totally above average is the fact that it’s proudly filmed in and around Toronto and doesn’t pretend to be Chicago or L.A. with pine trees. It’s set here and makes no apologies for it.
The opening scene, with a helicopter shot over the downtown core, includes the text, “In the Greater Toronto Area…” which got a little cheer from the Demaras Racing watch party. But then came the rest: “…a car is stolen every 97 seconds. The crime is better known as Grand Theft Auto.” The cheering turned to cringing, knowing Toronto had been cast as the car theft capital. Art mirroring life.
The next scene takes place at Daytona Auto Centre up in Woodbridge. It’s an unmistakable exotic car dealership north of the city, looking like a two-storey jewelry box filled with gems like an emerald-green Lotus, a ruby-red Ferrari and a silver Corvette. The place is well known to local gearheads, and Demaras Racing has mentioned it before. It’s owned by the next generation of the family behind Dino’s Garage, formerly at 1250 Dupont St. in downtown Toronto.
The plot of ‘REV’ is pretty straightforward. Young Mickey is a disenchanted guy working at a computer repair shop. He quits his job and partners up with an old racing mentor to steal cars and fence them for quick and easy cash. Mickey has a long history of stealing cars and even delivers the line, “If you don’t want kids stealing cars, stop making movies out of it!” In short, Mickey gets busted by the cops while stealing a Shelby Cobra owned by a police officer, and they coerce him into working for the fuzz to bring down an international car theft ring.
The old racing mentor isn’t some stereotypical grizzled NASCAR guy. He’s introduced while drifting a 2003 Nissan 350Z around Sunset Speedway!
That isn’t just some random racetrack. That’s where Chris Demaras and Daniel Demaras competed in the ‘King of the Hill‘ competition in the No. 16 MagiSeal Miata and the Bugeye WRX! Despite being a 1/4-mile paved oval, Sunset had a history of hosting drifting competitions before closing last year.
How amazing to see places from the team’s own racing history depicted on screen. The race shop shown in the movie is actually the racing registration room at Sunset Speedway, a room familiar to anyone who competed there. And the Nissan drift car was wearing a big CSCS Drifting windshield banner and CSCS number plate on the door. That’s a series Demaras Racing has been part of for years, now immortalized on the silver screen.
The highlight of ‘REV’ really is the authentic Toronto car spots and motorsports connections. Seeing a car movie filmed in their own backyard must be exactly what gearheads in L.A. felt like in 2001 when ‘The Fast and the Furious‘ was first released. For once, Toronto got to play Toronto.
But on the downside, the movie trailer and all the advertising set the wrong expectations. The viewer is expecting car chases and races, but instead gets a crime story. Once protagonist Mickey was arrested and the dialogue started, the fun ended. Some members of the Demaras Racing watch party actually fell asleep until the big final shootout woke them up! The local racetrack and exotic car dealership were instantly recognizable, but the car movie advertised in the trailer was harder to find.