Running Cool

Bikers Bone (Divoff) and Bear (Baker) visit their old friend Ironbutt (Gammon) to find that he is being forced off his land by ruthless developer Calvin Hogg (Gleason). Desperate to protect his marshlands Ironbutt enlists the help of his friends to raise money to save the land and fight off the developers.

This seems to be trying to cast bikers in the role of Native Americans - stewards of the land and the environment. They're mostly sensitive men who love nature and others - any crime they do is only ever self defence and, yes they like a bit of a fight but overall they just want to be at one with their surroundings (and have wet tee-shirt competitions!). This is my first problem with this is that it tries to cast bikers as misunderstood, caring men who have the environment as one of their many concerns (ignoring the effect of their bikes' burning fuel!).

This also means that the developers are portrayed as "evil" while the lawmen are portrayed as "stupid" or "corrupt". This then sets up various confrontations in which the bikers come off looking good. Much of this is the form of fighting, all of which is slow and lazy. Having seen Hong Kong fight scenes where everything is choreographed down to a move this is quite a bore. All the fights are slow and without excitement or tension, they consist of a series of punches where the "bad guys" are stunned and stand awaiting the next punch. Anyway, the plot and the fights continue until the serious conclusion where everyone, including the bikers and the developers learn an important lesson about love, friendship and others....

The cast are quite good - some of the bikers look frighteningly like Ewoks from Jedi! Divoff is quite good but only needs to give an one-dimensional performance as the sensitive, strong guy. Little Pfeiffer is good as Michele and Bubba Baker brings some comedy as Bear. Gleason is good as Calvin Hogg, but Tracy Sebastian is terrible as his son. All the rest of the cast are so-so, but really this isn't material where a shining performance would be really possible.

Overall the film is quite lame, the characters are all one-dimensional with a far too positive shine put on the bikers to be totally believable. The fight scenes are boring and the plot is predictable. The happy "we all learnt a lesson here today" ending is terrible. The only group that'll get a kick out of this movie are those that are or like bikers.

I think this is the greatest biker movie of all time! It's good to finally see a movie that shows bikers not as criminals, but as law abiding hell-raisers!Andrew Divoff and Bubba Baker are brilliant as bikers.

I caught this on cable and--although I have no connection to bikers whatsoever--I ended up not turning the channel and watching the whole thing through. It's definitely what you'd call a genre piece but it's a lot more enjoyable than you'd imagine. If you can take it as just a cool piece of Americana of a certain time and place, you'll have fun.

The story begins in Sturgis, to introduce the characters and their culture, but quickly moves to the South for the majority of the plot. Our hero, Bone, must help an old friend raise money to save his small plot of family land--which happens to be on beautiful Southern wetlands--from the control of developers. He meets dangers and love along the way, as well as gaining an appreciation for the environment and a new sense of home. The characters are pretty much what you'd expect (i.e., not models of complexity a la French New Wave), but the biker characters are actually really appealing and attractively acted.

Also, the town being portrayed is spelled Beaufort (South Carolina), to be irritatingly pedantic and add a slight correction to the summaries above.

A very underappreciated independent film from the early 1990's. Although at times it can feel like a made for TV movie, I love this film with all my heart.

(Andrew Divoff) stars as Bone, a lone biker who doesn't want roots anywhere. And with his biker buddy Bear tries to help their friend Ironbutt played by (James Gammon) save his wetlands from growing corporations.

The acting can get kind of cheesy at times, but the story is good and entertaining. The small town hates the bikers, but they won't leave until they've helped their friend. They even throw in a little love story to boot. A great film to check out.

The movie was great. It really showed the true soft side of REAL scooter people and how they lived and loved the life we live. How we take care of our own as well as strangers that are in need of help. True brotherhood is family and always there for family. Not so much as what we can benefit from something, granted the benefits are nice to have occasionally, but to be there when a brother or sister is down is what we are. Now on with the question of the day..... How can I get the soundtrack? Have searched the web but cannot find it. If anyone knows how or where, please let me know.