Hell Ride

Director/lead Larry Bishop tried way, way too hard with Hell Ride. The movie wants to be edgy, witty, provocative, outlandish, biting all of this, seemingly in a Quentin Tarantino/Rob Zombie style. But it's not edgy. The references seem forced. The dialog tries to be clever and fails. The humor is never funny. Nice try setting a gritty tone but we'd have to care about the characters or the story for it to remotely succeed.

What you're left with are cool Harleys and pretty girls surrounding a bunch of tired, old and out of shape "bad boys" in what looks like an attempt to do a modernized Sergio Leone western. If this movie can make newer generations interested in 60s and 70s films, kudos for it. But on its own, it is rather boring and irrelevant. I do believe there is a place for style over substance. But this movie is not it.

I have had more boring stretches of 80 minutes in my life, but none are coming to mind right now. Hell Ride is based on the retro cult 70s theme that Tarantino brought back, and did right, in movies like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. The problem with Hell Ride is, unlike PF and RD, the story is garbage and so is character development. How many movies does Bishop think he can blatantly steal from? The brief case in Pulp Fiction, the air gun in No Country, etc. etc. Speaking of Bishop what the hell is he doing acting in this movie? I couldn't help but laugh at those scenes where he's standing with his pelvis trusted out, desperately trying to seem like some hardened biker. Nothing in this movie is believable. And why Dennis Hopper? Did they really need the Easy Rider motif too? I blame Larry Bishop, for his horrible plot and dialogue, not to mention his failed attempt at the leading role. Don't bother watching this movie, it's a waste of time.

Everything negative written about this movie is true, but mainly based on high expectations ("Tarantino" in the titles is absolutely misguiding). However if you have some free time, cola or beer and snack, do not expect ANY fresh idea from a movie and just want to relax - you can go and watch it without hesitations. No really, that's the good "upper B-class" with all attributes of biker's movie like dust, guns, leather jackets, shootings in desert and babes. Authors even added another "cool" killing device similar to cattle gun in "No Country for Old Men". Protagonist's ("Pistolero") face is so sour like he has been fed half-a-dozen of lemons through his rectum, but other actors honestly do their job. Just don't expect anything else besides of features described above and you likely to be satisfied.

While most critics were harsh on hell ride,i thought it was a really good biker movie,sort of reminded me of the 1970's biker flicks by American international.a very good cast led by Micheal Madson,and smaller roles by Dennis Hopper and David Carridine.pretty violent and has the Quentin Tarentino trademark.would have been a good drive in flick.features some great music on the soundtrack like cc rider.which was a biker movie from 1971,with Joe Namith,and William Smith,if you like good biker flicks and exploitation,then hell ride is for you.all i can say is i liked it.and i like Tarentino movies.too bad William Smith and Peter Fonda were not in this.but then again it still works.7 out of 10

If you are easily offended by nudity or swearing, maybe you shouldn't watch this. Actually you shouldn't watch this period! On the other hand it is one of the last (if not the last) movie you can watch the late Hopper and the late Carradine together in one movie. Of course there is one scene with Carradine that might make you cringe, especially if you know the circumstances of his own death.

But there is one other thing that might leave you baffled. It's the story. The fact that you might not be able to follow it through from start to finish. It doesn't even matter that you have a "McGuffin" in there (a very obvious one). What you do get, is a very confident and good Michael Madsen (QT producing might have again brought out the best in him, with a scene on a tree that does look very ad-libbed).

Overall this movie does have a fascination to it (a weird one, that has nothing to do with all the female nudity, though this might make the movie either more or less appealing to you). Not good, but not a bad one either ...