Here's what you need to ask yourself to figure out if you'd like Hell Ride. Do you like Quentin Tarantino and the movies that he likes? Does the idea of a movie with Larry Bishop, Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, David Carradine and Dennis Hopper sound awesome? Does the idea of amoral bikers doing whatever they want wherever they want bother you? If the answers were yes, YES and hell no, then Hell Ride is the movie for you.
It's by no means a great movie, but writer, director, lead and classic motorcycle movie dude Larry Bishop definitely loves what he's doing and it permeates the film. Everyone involved really feels like they're having fun, even when spouting off some fairly ridiculous dialogue (the fire for sex metaphor goes on WAY too long).
There's a cool back story to this movie that's related in the behind the scenes featurette on the DVD. Not surprisingly, Quentin is a big fan of Larry Bishop's biker flicks and told him it's his destiny to make the best biker flick of all time. Having not seen any of the others, I can't compare, but it's a cool backstory. Bishop picked up the proposition and ran with it. And I've got to give it to the guy for getting a very impressive cast together. Aside from the guys mentioned above, there are about 100 sexy ladies and Eric Balfour who some of you might remember as Jesse from the first few episodes of Buffy.
The plots probably a little more complex than it needs to be with plenty of flashbacks and all that, but it ends up working int he end and would probably have made a lot more sense if I wasn't so tired when I started watching it last night.
So here's the deal, Bishop leads a gang with Madsen and Balfour as his numbers one and two. Hopper's a part of their crew too. Bishop and his boys run up against another gang with Carradine as the head and Vinnie Jones as the street leader (or something like that). Bishop's character is also trying to make good on a promise he made to a woman who got killed 30 years ago.
I'll be honest, I missed a lot of the plot and got the basics from the extra features on the DVD which was helpful, but I still really enjoyed the movie. There's a lot of just dudes being badass which I appreciate. You definitely won't see another movie like this. I was also impressed with the age of the leads. Not counting the women, you've got Bishop whose birthday isn't posted on IMDb, but he was making biker movies in the 70s (he's also Rat Packer Larry Bishop's kid!), Madsen is 51, Jones is 43, Balfour's the baby at 31 while Carradine and Hopper are both 72. You probably won't get a cast like that in any other movie this year. And man, they're all bad dudes in this flick. And not just cool, but morally all over the place.
Madsen does his usual thing. Hopper's actually less crazy than you'd expect if you've seen some of his other weirder work like that nutty Crow sequel he was in where he played a gangsta pimp. What happened to that guy? Carradine gets kind of a different role than he has in Quentin's movies. And Balfour does a great job as the new kid who's having fun but also working hard to prove himself. And they all look great together on screen, almost like a superhero team.
It's fun stuff. Not brilliant film making, but definitely a freaking fun movie.
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