Easy Wheels

My review was written in May 1989 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"Easy Wheels" is a very cute, throwback to drive-in movies of the early 1970s, with genuine cult potential.

Bearing the trademark slapstick/comic book violence approach of the "Evil Dead" team of Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Robert Tapert, pic limns the adventures on the road of a femme motorcycle gang, Women of the Wolf. Its leader is She-Wolf (Eileen Davidson), a tough cookie raised in the woods by wolves.

Opposing force is a scruffy gand of male bikers led by mystic Paul Le Mat. The sexes clash in several hilarious battles, featuring crazy, violent gags and inspired double entendres.

Direction by David O'Malley is functional but uneven, with too many talky, static stretches to satisfy hard action fans. However, whenever the script is really cooking, which is frequently, the combo of highbrow dialog and lowlife physical shtick is terrific.

With his "Melvin and Howard" background, Le Mat is perfect casting as the hippy-dippy biker, and Eileen Davidson, with her Joanna Pacula-like visage and cool manne, is more than his match. Almost everyone in the deep supporting cast gets a chance to shine as well.

Tech credits are modest. Running in-joke satirizes elements of "Raising arizona", whose creators Joel & Ethan Colen previously were writes ("Crimewave") for Raimi & Co.

Not even Hell's Angels' wild women in hot leather could save this from burning rubber on the road! EASY WHEELS stands out okay as a satire of biker / exploitation movies, and not as stupid or sleazy as you'd expect from the late 60s. Still, I'm not gonna get all hyped up about smutty women who prove their sense of superiority over the male crowd, nor the tough men wanting sexual desires over the women. The movie seems told on two different points of view here, making this very incoherent. Are the producers really too afraid to make a true feminist biker flick? It worked well for SHE-DEVILS ON WHEELS, only on a sleaze state of mind. Biker movies, on the other hand, have seen their day, and although this appeared to have revived the genre a while back, it stales on anything new and original. Not bad, but this wasn't my can of beer. Look for Ben Stein as a church minister.

The baby stealing plot is really just a ruse for a movie about an all female motorcycle gang. The black leather clad ladies are all thin, attractive, and of average height. Certainly, capable of beating up an equal number of bigger, heavier men, including a bike joust. The ladies do have an edge, an endless supply of can bombs, with pull strings. So far, so good. I actually seek out this type of stuff. However, the movie is rather boring through out. The low budget compromised the highly edited (fake) action scenes. It should be noted, and not as a negative, that the movie is very tame as the women remain fully clothed, the violence is of a cartoon nature and the language is acceptable. I am suspicious of the honesty of the number of high votes for this film. Maybe they are just desperate for a biker chick movie and will like anything. I can accept that, but please watch the not boring Chopper Chicks in Zombietown instead.

Between Evil Dead 2 and Darkman, the Raimi brothers wrote this film. It is supposed to be a parody of those biker films playing at the drive-ins in the 60s - the Airplane! of biker flicks.

The leader of the Bourne Losers Bruce (Paul Le Mat) and his buddies are looking for another group of bikers known as the The Woman of the Wolves, led by She Wolf (Eileen Davidson), who are being suspected of stealing babies and selling them on the black market.

It's a comedy for fans of the Raimi's. The doo wop version of Rock of Ages made it all worthwhile.

How do you know it's a parody? Easy, all the biker chicks look like they stepped out of Vogue.

Easy Wheels is one of those great independent low-budget films. The movie is nararated from the point of view of a reporter who is rescued by the bikers from a car accident. The leader of the Bourne Losers Bruce (Paul Le Mat) and his buddies are looking for another group of bikers known as the The Woman of the Wolves who are being suspected of stealing babies and selling them on the black market. This movie I laughed throughout. Some younger viewers may not get all the jokes, but I think most adults will get the jokes. I recommend this movie to people who drive and/or like biker movies. I also recommend this film to people who like to laugh a lot.

10/10