Review of Death Riders (2011) by Michael R — 24 Mar 2011

A super-fast pace, no holds barred film about an university prank gone bad. This deadly serious and enjoyable film is a b-movie that makes lots of beginner's mistakes but its raw passion makes up for it.

One thing I liked about this is that the film does not try to be anything else than it sets out to be, no forced coolness (as in Guy Ritchie) or unrealistic sex and action scenes but utter and crazy mayhem.

The 'story' is simple and it works well because as ludicrous as the film is in parts, the structure carefully unleashes the happenings through a steady downward spiral. Even when you find your way halfway through the film and think, what the heck is going on and what is happening here, the film took you there and does not let go.

One criticism, apart from a few bad casting choices, but hey, it is a proper indie film (and I am not taking Michael Cena, Jonah Hill pseudo Indie) is that nothing random happens in the film. You might ask why this matters to me but it does, because I would not mind things going bonkers when at least some of it is accredited to circumstance or sheer bad luck but all that goes wrong here happens due to decisions that are made by the characters. And as much as enjoy the chaos into which the characters throw themselves, I lost some of my emotional connection with them because they became too comical (as in unrealistic).

Still, a tight and focused production with a nice twist in the end that does not come out of leftfield at all and while it is not a great film, I am impressed by the effort and raw passion that comes with it.