Easy Rider: the Ride Back

While this is a sequel it's also kind of a prequel, looking back on what happened before the Original "Easy Rider" (ER). Of course some people might feel offended just by that simple fact. And that impression will not fade with the beginning of the movie. Actually while there is a resemblance (haircut and the general look), the acting feels like a TV soap. And that is not good at all.

Fortunately Jeff Fahey comes along and the "fun" sort of begins. It elevates the movie a bit and it's almost a shame you don't get more of him and his character interaction. But it's more about, where were and were are we going (concerning the characters). There is still a lot of bike love and people who are fond of that will cherish those moments. For everyone else, it's not really that worth while, while not really bad either.

Where do I start?

1. This movie has essentially nothing to do with Easy Rider. They just use some of the character names.

2. They insert extremely dated movie tropes in order to try and up the tension, like the dad having world war II PTSD episodes.

3. This is shot so poorly that a kid with a camera purchased at Walmart could make as good a quality film.

4. They try and recreate iconic Easy Rider scenes like sleeping on the ground (at these guys' ages) pretty much everyone is advanced in years so they can tie it in to the original so I'm not sure who this movie is intended for.

5. The music in the original was iconic, the music in this film sounds like a pornographic movie.

6. Voice overs that if anything make you less invested in the film.

7. This movie plays less like counterculture and more like a bunch of old geezers in a bar talking about how cool they used to be.

I always wait to finish the movie before writing a review, I'm writing this 28 minutes into the movie. It is terrible and I wish I could get my money back.

The way HOME has a great story line of Hickok's coming of age as of Morgan's coming of age. The story of how the 60's pulled families apart. I can see how the reviews were low on this movie because of the acting but the cinematography is wonderful, as well as an excellent soundtrack to portray a vivid and heart warming story of family, friends and times. Possibly you need to have been raised it this time line to fully understand. I highly recommend the viewing of this movie, if it doesn't effect your soul, then you are truly in trouble as a human being.

The attention to detail on the motorcycles is very good, even the blue Billy bike that Wes is riding is an exact replica except for the color. And the other vintage motorcycles makes the watch worth while.

I feel the lack luster of this movie was do to the director not being able to pull the best and most realistic performance from his actors. With better direction this could have been a top ten movie.

It's a vanity project for a former lawyer, only reason this was made is because he exploited legal loopholes to get sequel rights despite zero approval from the original's cast and cre

This creation has little to do with the style, direction or intent of the original 1969 film.

It tries to explain in a rather technical and overly melodramatic way effectively how Wyatt and Billy ended up on the road in the first place. In doing that, each character is dissected and re-introduced from childhood on up, in a cinematic style that attempts to replicate some of the original's fragmented and flash-back style, but can't quite seem to keep the energy and story direction clear enough to attain a connection to the audience of any of the characters.

Jeff Fahey (Wes Coast) and Sheree J. Wilson (Shane Williams) are individually interesting to watch in their character's depth but it's hard to carry a full 90 minutes on the supporting roles.

The motorcycle riding scenes are decorative more than substantive to the story (similar to what you'd experience watching an advertisement from a manufacturer, sans a voice-over.) There are a plethora of many gorgeously restored antiques and collectibles thrown in scenes that are dropped in as just set decor, which doesn't portray the connection between their owners and the bikes. For a film that has a lot of biker characters, it seems odd that you never see any sweat, dirty hands, nor unpolished chrome throughout the story. Even the tires seem to get cleaned between scenes, even though being ridden on dirt back roads.

Technically, the locations and sets were well-developed, but there's very little tying those beautiful settings to what they mean to the characters (very similar to the bikes). Kind of like watching Clark Griswold having just arrived after days of driving at the edge of the Grand Canyon saying, "Gee, nice. Hey, let's get going to Wally World!" Ultimately it's hard to believe the development of the storyline - you are left wondering why each character went to the effort of overcoming whatever obstacle was thrown into their path by the script. They could have just turned away and had the story go in an organic direction, but instead from scene to scene, you can almost hear the actors' inner voices saying "Not sure why I'd do or say that... but, oh well, that's the way it's written." There was a LOT of time, energy and budget behind this film - that's apparent from the attempt to recreate 70 years of historical time-line locations, events and settings. Perhaps it was too much trying to tie together the back stories of 10 different characters, for that span of time, leading to the iconic pair that took to the road in Easy Rider (1969). I would have preferred a trimmed-down version of the story focusing perhaps simply on the father's anger and angst, the son's need to return, and the sister being caught in-between trying to understand why these polar opposites are a family, apart.

As presented, it strongly resembles a social media fan page for ER (1969) with fan-produced character fiction stories, photos and video clips posted to it, each one stating "Here's why I liked ER, and why I thought such-and-such happened."