Review of Hell Ride (2008) by Steve S — 29 Oct 2008

"The rebellion against all there is".

Veteran AIP genre star Larry Bishop (son of famed Rat Packer Joey Bishop) directs and stars in this gritty revenge tale concerning a biker gang that rallies to avenge the violent murder of a fellow gang member. An homage to such classic biker films as Chrome and Hot Leather and Angel Unchained, Hell Ride was conceived when director Bishop was invited to Quentin Tarantino's home to view a print of The Savage Seven. Upon realizing that there hadn't been a true biker film in years, the pair quickly contacted Bob Weinstein and conspired to produce a lean and mean two-wheeled revenge flick that would more than make up for lost time.

Review.

Hell Ride is all Larry Bishop's fault, I will say that right now. He thought he was making a cool, kick ass bike-sploitation movie but in reality, it was all a horrible snooze-fest and just disappointing in its entirety. The script is weak, it tries to be engaging but you just couldn't care when the leads stutter every word they say. The acting is horrible too, blame it all on Larry Bishop who cast a British actor to play a Western biker and a totally miscast Dennis Hopper post-Easy Rider days. Bishop acts but doesn't deliver, he swears a lot but is out of context. At some point during the film, he will just swear out loud without reason whatsoever, at least that's what it was to me.

Its a shame really because Quentin Tarantino executive produced it, and usually if you have Tarantino's name attached to your film it will lay golden eggs but unfortunately, this one laid green, rotten eggs. There is nudity but strangely enough, all the naked women in the film has the hots for Larry Bishop's character Pistolero. Yeah right, if I'm gonna direct and star in a film might as well get all the hot ladies and screw all the others. A couple of pros before I end this review, first the soundtrack. As much as how bad this movie turned out to be, at the very least the movie's soundtrack was spared. And second, Vinnie Jones. It's odd enough that a British actor is playing an all-American biker but at least he did his best with the given material. He brought his British bad-assery to Western soil and the guy is still impressive as ever.

In conclusion, Hell Ride in its entirety is horrible: lame script, bad acting from leads and amateur directing from Bishop but the music is jivin' and Vinnie Jones is rockin'. Not recommended.