Motorcycle Gang

This film essentially begins sometime in the 50's with a man by the name of "Cal Morris" (Gerald McRaney), his wife "Jean Morris" (Elan Oberon) and their teenage daughter "Leann Morris" (Carla Gugino) packing up the car and heading out from Houston to their new home in Los Angeles. Naturally, since the interstate highways system was yet to be completed during this time, Cal figures that their trip will take approximately 3 days. Meanwhile, about 700 miles down the road, a motorcycle gang has recently gone on a killing spree and when they meet the Morris family at a roadside diner, the leader of the gang, known simply as "Jake" (Jake Busey), decides that he can make some money by kidnapping Leann and selling her in Mexico. What he doesn't realize, however, is that Cal is a former Army veteran who has seen his share of combat and is more than willing to take matters into his own hands to get his daughter back. Now, as far as the actual merits of this movie are concerned, I must admit that I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, although the film takes place in the 50's, there was something about the setting that just didn't feel right for some reason. I don't know, maybe it's just me but something seemed off. Likewise, I didn't particularly care for the acting on the part of Jake Busey all that much either. While it's true that his character was quite unsavory, his performance wasn't nearly as menacing as it should have been. Perhaps it was his goofy smile during some of these scenes, but whatever the reason, he just didn't seem right for this role. On the other hand, I thought that Gerald McRaney put in a good performance and--along with the reasonably interesting plot--managed to overcome some of the weaknesses just mentioned. That being said, while this was certainly not a great "biker film" by any means, it wasn't all that bad and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Cal Morris (Gerald McRaney) and his family are driving to their new home in California and are terrorized by a motorcycle gang along the highway.

From the genius of John Milius comes this film, which I believe is a remake of a 1960s Sam Arkoff film, written by Lou Rusoff and originally directed by Edward L. Cahn ("It! The Terror from Beyond Space"). Starring as the bad guy? Jake Busey, whose father previously worked with Milius on "Big Wednesday".

The film is rated R but is still sort of silly because it has that American International Pictures feel to it. There may be sexual assault and violence, but this is not the dark stuff that Milius tackled in "Apocalypse Now".

This is officially THE worst film ever made. It is terrible! The acting is awful, the sets are awful, the editing is awful, the plot is awful, the props are awful, the soundtrack is awful, I simply could not state one positive comment about this movie! Set in the fifties, you can blatantly see 90's cars roaming around, the bikes the 'Gang' use are rusting even though they are ahead of their time, this is diabolical. Words cannot describe it! Take my advice - avoid this piece of junk at all costs! It will be the biggest waste of 80 minutes you could ever imagine.

An ordinary American family, not counting the fact that the head of such is a former Marine, a veteran of the Korean War, once again moves to a new place of residence. Their path lies from Texas to California. In general, a measured trip is episodically interrupted by various small stories, such as a meeting with a couple of beatniks who own a small motel, gradually leading the parallel story to a skirmish with a biker gang led by a blond nicknamed Busey, who kidnaps the daughter and goes to Mexico for a batch of drugs. Remembering his former skills, the hero again takes the path of war and begins to inflict justice in his own way in the vastness, where, apparently, the police are pushed into the background, and various psychopaths and crazy criminal elements rule the ball. The synopsis of the plot introduces some dissonance.

This layout fits in well with the reality of what could be expected in the 1990s, but with the conditional specificity of the 1950s, this form fits rather poorly, and it actually explains the weak presence of action as such. Some philosophical messages do not particularly save the situation.

There is "Motorcycle Gang" from 1957 with a similar theme, but a different story.

It was a dark, cold evening at 48 Hawthorn Avenue, with only my young Asian friend to keep me company. The night seemed to be innocuously drawing towards an uneventful conclusion, when all of a sudden a last desperate bout of channel-hopping produced a remarkable result - Motorcycle Gang. A superbly crafted piece of modern cinema (although it wasn't actually released in theaters - a travesty!), this film merely serves one purpose - to overawe the viewer with sheer class from every quarter, and it succeeds! Much better than others from the Late Night Classic collection such as On The Line (see review), it features another Oscar worthy performance from Jake "son of Gary" Busey, showing once again why he is widely considered to be superior in every way to his great father (watch starship troopers(1997), which is excellent, and the foot shooting party(1994), which is also probably excellent, for further evidence). The Directing is spot on, with John Milius finally rediscovering the flair shown in Conan the Barbarian (Phew, I hear you gasp in relief. The world is a better place with Milius on top form). But in all honesty, the finale is the pinnacle of this epic. The showdown between the gang and former Army man Cal is quite possibly the best fight scene in history. Cal takes on four, yes four, motorcyclists, and takes each one out with chilling yet breathtaking efficiency, and no little style, saving his pretty young daughter from the grasps of the evil Jake, Crab, Volker and Kincaid. You truly have to see it to believe it.

As you can imagine, that cold dark evening was infinitely warmed up by this unexpected gem of a movie, and if it were up to me, this film would be released on the cinema immediately, opening it up to the wider audience that it surely deserves. Masterpiece!