Review of Hell Ride (2008) by Brad W — 22 Mar 2009

First off, this isn't as wacked out on crack as Mad Dog Time. Here, Bishop does a kind of homage to the Biker Films of the early 70's by way of Tarantino. (Producer here.).

The unfortunate things about this are that Bishop is no Tarantino and he really only has about 45-50 mins. of story. So, he emulates all of the bad thing about Biker Films: padding with crappy improvised scenes. He also pads with the grindhouse elements that helped make them popular: lots of sex and the obligatory drug trip.

In the end, the atmosphere is dead on, some of the cast is wasted (and they probably were in a couple of cases) and the crazy acting is toned down a bit from previous efforts. The thing is, if you're going to this because of your memories or an actual fan of this genre, then your sights are not set too high and this should come in right about where it needs to. Think of this as the missing third part of a fictional triple bill in Grindhouse. After Death Proof you'd no doubt feel better about it than just seeing it solo.