2
(visions of a dead woman)
2
(a lot of nudity, heavy sexuality, brutal violence, strong language, drug use)
3
(see it only if you have a very strong interest)
I admit it, I’m not big on biker movies. I can count the ones I’ve seen on one hand and it still might take me a while to remember them. If it hadn’t been movie night with someone who had just bought "Hell Ride" and was anxious to see it I don’t know that I would have ever sat down to watch it. And my life would have been just as happy either way.
There were elements of the movie I genuinely liked. The story unfolds pretty well as far as an overall plot. There is a revenge story here that is good, a little mysterious, and never fully explained but in such a way that leaves the viewer with little doubt about the truth. But at the same time there are threads I didn’t follow so well and thus I’m having a hard time thinking of a way to describe it without giving away spoilers. I don’t know if I just wasn’t paying close enough attention (not expecting it to not have too much of a plot) or if it just wasn’t laid out well enough, but either way it wasn’t engaging enough to pull me in until closer to the end. Part of that has a lot to do with the focus of the filmmakers which I’ll cover more in the Morality section.
Essentially there are two biker gangs gunning for each other. There is bad blood between some of the members involving the death of a woman several years ago. They embark on a bloody rampage of trying to get the upper hand on one another. The revenge plot ties into this and takes the foreground eventually.
While this isn’t a Quentin Tarentino movie it is done under his supervision which, typical to his works, don’t follow a linear story. We start somewhere in the middle, near the end if I remember right, then jump back to the recent past leading up to the events we just saw. Periodically throughout the main story we jump back to other years as we explore the bloody murder and characters’ histories. While in some ways this works it's easier to get lost than with a movie like "Reservoir Dogs."
The acting is pretty good with a number of familiar names showing up. The fights are staged well enough, and the bikes-on-the-road scenes are eye-catching. There is a lot of attention given to the bikes, as their riders tend to be distinctive and well-matched to their rides.
Morality
What sets this movie apart from most I’ve seen lately is the sheer amount of questionable content. This was one of their goals with the movie (expressed in a behind-the-scenes video) so it makes me wonder if they set out to get as close to an NC17 rating as they could without actually crossing the line. I think they worked so hard in creating scenes to push the envelope that they lost sight of telling the story which probably contributed to times when the story failed to be engaging as I mentioned earlier.
So what exactly are you going to see if you watch this movie? Lots and lots of bared breasts. There are a few instances of full-frontal female nudity and plenty of other girls in especially tight and revealing clothing. Whether clothed or naked if there's a girl on screen you can bet it's going to be sexual (with one particular exception which I'll mention in a minute) be it by suggestion, dialogue, or people getting physical. There is at least one orgy scene.
The language is not only sexually explicit but laced with very strong and crude language throughout.
Violence is frequent, bloody, and brutal. These include a woman getting her throat cut in graphic detail (the one scene involving a woman that isn't sexual), a guy getting shot in the groin area (ouch!), at least one beheading, and lots of shooting. Life is expendable at the needs of the characters and pain and humiliation useful tools.
There are scenes of drinking (wildly), smoking, and drug use.
What it really boils down to is that aside from porn-level intercourse if there's something you don't want your child exposed to it's probably in this movie. Most if not all the DVD special features would also be rated R containing plenty of nudity and strong language.
Spirituality
There is nothing specifically spiritual in this. We do see visions of the murdered woman which could be a spirit or could be all in the mind. Other than that, the constant, extreme trashiness of the movie speaks to the rejection of the presence of God, but I covered that stuff on the Morality section already.
Final Thoughts
The only reason to see this is if you REALLY like biker movies or are hard up to see some on-screen depravity. While it’s not totally deficient in areas of acting, story, etc, it doesn’t offer anything that makes this a movie you need to see. If you’re easily offended stay as far away from this thing as possible. Likewise if you're easily bored.
Buying Guide
Some of my buying guides take a while to research (which makes me hope that someone out there is finding them useful), so it's nice to sometimes run into ones as easy as "Hell Ride."
You pretty much have to decided between a DVD or a Blu, and there's not much difference between them. There's also a DVD 3 pack with other grindhouse type flicks.
As far as I can tell the DVD is exactly the same as the Blu except that it won't have the HD quality. The listing says the ratio is 1.66, but it also says that about the Blu which I'm sure is incorrect. Either way it's a widescreen image.
The Action Triple Feature with "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" gives only enough details to make a few guesses. It's a 3 disc set, so I figure it's probably the standard DVD releases repackaged. There's no actual listing of extras, but chances are you'll get everything that comes with the DVD.
Final Recommendation:
This isn’t really a movie I would consider necessary to see in high definition. Actually I wouldn't consider it necessary to see in any definition, but my point is that the visuals are not such that they scream for HD quality nor is the quality they deliver anything that impressed me. There are a few features fans might find interesting, but that's about it.
The Blu is a single disc release.
Video
2.35 widescreen at 1080p:
This is a good looking image at times, but the nature of the film itself makes it not the typical high quality picture. There are black-&-white moments that seem to be purposefully grainy as well as fiddling with the color palette for effect.
Audio
5.1 Dolby HD:
It sounds quite good with great clarity but not as much depth as I have come to expect from HD.
Packaging
The case is standard plastic.
The interface is functional but not flashy.
Extras
I don't have access to the Blu-ray anymore so my extras list is going to lack some of the finer details that I usually try to include. The important stuff is here, though.
-Commentary: To start off we have a commentary by Larry Bishop and the director of photography. I didn’t get the chance to listen to it so no comments.
-Making Of: There are 4 behind the scenes type segments. One is a making-of kind of thing covering the history of the concept, Quentin’s involvement, and the inclusion of the sexuality and nudity.
-Babes: Next we have one that focuses on the girls. This looks at the female characters and the actresses playing them. While brief it covers most of the characters. This feature in particular contains a lot of nudity (nothing that wasn't already in the movie just a lot of those scenes grouped together).
-Guys: Next is a look at the guys. It focuses mostly on the 3 main guys, but touches on some of the other important ones as well.
-Choppers: Last is a look at the bikes. It talks about choosing the right style for each rider and shows how much thought they put into all that. I'm not that big into bikes and I still found it fairly interesting – probably the most interesting thing on the disc, actually.
-Video Diary: Another feature is a video diary of Michael Madsen. It’s all shaky handheld shots of raw performances, but he does manage to get a few good shots.
-Trailer: Lastly is a trailer. Even it is at the level of an R rating.