QOTD: How Do You Spot Cars When Watching a Movie?

by Tim Healey

Published: July 5th, 2024

qotd how do you spot cars when watching a movie

Earlier this week I streamed the "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F." As a movie, it's fine -- it's a nice mix of humor, nostalgia/fan service, and car chases.

It's also the type of movie that makes for good car spotting, if you look closely.

This is particularly true relatively early in the movie when Axel Foley's (Eddie Murphy) investigation of a crime takes him to an impound yard. This being Beverly Hills, we got a shot of Axel surrounded by a bunch of high-priced exotic cars.

That said, there's some interesting iron in the background, and Foley tools around Beverly Hills in a beat-up old Ford Bronco from the '90s.

A lot of movies make for great car spotting, especially action movies that involve chase scenes. So I wanted to ask you folks how, when a movie gives you the opportunity, how are you spotting cars?

Are you pausing the DVR, rewinding, really checking things out? Or do you catch a glimpse of something and just know what make and model it is?

Or do you not care? Sure, you may be a car enthusiast but maybe you're too focused on the plot/story/acting to care about the vehicles being shown? Or maybe you just don't notice?

You know what to do. Sound off below.

[Image: Stock-Asso/Shutterstock.com]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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4 of 32 comments

Aja8888 on Jul 07, 2024
Cars? I watch to see the females. LOL!

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Arthur Dailey on Jul 08, 2024
You want to see lots of vintage autos? Then watch It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I watch it just so that I can list off all of the cars make/model/year etc. Also enjoy watching the original Magnum. Of course the Ferraris are iconic. In half the episodes it seems the 'bad guys' are driving Ford Fairmonts. And there are few things more laugh inducing than watching a chase scene between a Lincoln Town Car and a Cadillac Fleetwood. Yes they did have one.

1 Reply
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- FreedMike on Jul 08, 2024
  The Town Car / Fleetwood battle is the closest thing we have to watching Wayne Knight and the guy from "Mike and Molly" going head to head on "America Ninja Warrior."
  
  1
- Arthur Dailey on Jul 08, 2024
  However according to reports, Wayne Knight is a "fantastic" tennis player and he can climb trees "like a ring-tailed lemur".
  
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