Hell Ride DVD Review

The Movie

"Bad-ass biker Pistolero (Larry Bishop) hits the road to avenge the killing of his lover Cherokee Kisum (Julia Jones) by a rival motorcycle gang the 666ers, along with his brother The Gent (Michael Madsen) and the mysterious Comanche (Eric Balfour)."

Okay folks, pay close attention here. What you're about to watch is what a mid life crisis is going to feel like when the time comes for you.

Larry Bishop is a tried and true veteran of the biker exploitation flick genre, and he comes back here to direct, write, and star in this throw back to the dusty and greasy genre. He promises ass kicking, babes, bikes, and more. What he delivers is a sad attempt at reliving his glory days in a disjointed conglomeration of scenes with bikes in them. There's a thin underlying plot here but by god, if you can follow it you're a better man than me.

At the basest form of the work, the plot revolves around two biker gangs, The Victors and the Six-Six-Six'ers. Both of these gangs are proverbial 'bad asses' and tend to ride around looking old and over stylized on their bikes. Larry Bishop strays off from the pack over and over again to show himself having sex repeatedly, Michael Madsen cruises around in a tuxedo with his colors on the back and talks a lot about nothing in particular, David Carridine shows up tied to a chair, and Dennis Hopper is about the only actor to show up and do anything of interest on screen. When I say that the movie is nothing more than a disjointed conglomeration of biker scenes, I mean just that; this movie jumps back and forth with no rhyme or reason. One moment you'll be watching a pack of bikes rolling down the road with Larry Bishop trying to look menacing at the front, then we'll cut to Larry Bishop and some lady cavorting on a pool table dropping F bombs every other word, to Michael Madsen and somebody having a fist fight. There is no flow whatsoever to this movie and it suffers greatly for it. Really, it feels nothing more than a vanity project to make Larry Bishop feel good about himself again.

The movie is packaged well enough for what you would expect from DVD's in this day and age. Widescreen formating, Dolby Digital and clean transfers are all as expected.

The Extras

· Feature Commentary By Writer/Director/Producer Larry Bishop & Director Of Photography Scott Kevan - We got enough of Larry Bishop in the movie. Do you REALLY want to listen to him talk about the movie too?

Frankly, I was so disgruntled by this flick that I couldn't stomach going through the rest of the extras. Here they are for your perusal however!

· The Making Of Hell Ride
· The Babes Of Hell Ride
· The Guys Of Hell Ride
· The Choppers of Hell Ride
· Michael Madsen’s Video Diary

The Rating

I had such high hopes for "Hell Ride"; with Quentin Tarrantino's name slapped on a violent action fest, what could go wrong. Obviously plenty as you will see. Sadly, disappointment colors my review colors; "Hell Ride" score 3 out of 10 for the movie itself. The DVD on the other hand is well put together and comes with a good bunch of extras. If it turns out you did in fact enjoy this movie, there's plenty extra on the disk to keep you entertained.

"Hell Ride" hits streets on October 28th.