If you've heard of the Crusty Demons before, you're one step ahead of where I was when I put this DVD in to review. Now though, I know that the Crusty Demons of Dirt have been around for 10 years, beating out the X Games by five years, and they have a worldwide fan following, especially in Australia, which is the focus of this DVD. I've seen motocross on TV since I was a kid, but it's never been quite like this.

The Crusty Demons started out as the stars of videos, nine in all, before taking their show on the road as an arena act. The "Global Assault Tour" is motocross meets "Jackass." This is the pro wrestling of motocross. Each rider has their own one-name "character" and there are little skits and bits that are presented throughout the actual riding, be it freak shows or martial arts demonstrations. The Crusty Demons show is the embodiment of "extreme." I'm tempted to call it "corporate anarchy," thanks to the hundreds of commercial sponsors and choreographed segments, but watching audience members punch each other out makes it clear that not everyone is controlled by a paycheck at these events.

After a hugely successful Australian run for the Crusty Demons, this DVD arrived on the scene as something of an infomercial for the group's first U.S. tour. But after four shows, the tour was cancelled, blaming "to the volatile state of the touring market during the summer 2004 season," which sounds like PR-speak for "we weren't selling enough advance tickets." So, all the hype on this disc and hopeful optimism about bringing the show to the states ends up dead on arrival.

Let's take a look at a promotional disc with nothing to promote:

THE DVD

Presented in full-screen, Crusty Demons: Global Assault Tour is a 58-minute mélange of "MTV's Cribs," "America's Funniest Home Videos" and "The X Games," introducing these dirtbiking jesters. The DVD is broken down into 12 chapters, including an intro, a look at the roots of the group and rider profiles for each member of the Demons. An animated menu kicks things off, giving you the option to watch everything at once, or view on of the 12 sections.

The main feature is mostly MTV-style quick-cutting, and heavy metal background music, as you get a look at how each guy lives, some footage of them riding and their thoughts about being on the tour. None of them are particularly eloquent, so if you're looking for insight into the world of freestyle, this is not going to satisfy you.

Also included is a look at the Australian tour that convinced the group to take a shot at America. Simply put, the fans go insane at these shows and riot, destroying everything. The Demons take this as a good sign of the fans' enthusiasm for their show, but one wonders why American sponsors signed on after such fiascos. Apparently, Australia has good legal control, because a show like the one shown in Perth would lead to an onslaught of lawsuits.

Outside of the riots and the brief glimpses at their biking (including a sick crash into a crowd of people), this DVD leans toward the boring side of things.

THE QUALITY

The 4:3 video here is very blurry and soft, with plenty of digital artifacts, especially around the edges of the screens. I haven't seen any of their nine home videos, but it wouldn't surprise me if they looked like this, as it's unlikely that they create anything but low-budget films. The camera work isn't very good either, as there are times when there's nothing on screen. Nice work. Interestingly, for a DVD so heavy on the "attitude," bare breasts flashed by girls in the crowd are censored. Huh?

In sound, you get a choice, with a set-up screen offering either 2.0 stereo or 5.1 surround sound. Consisting mainly of heavy music, the only real audio difference is when the music is the focus, with the center channel taking the brunt of the vocals and the sides and rear speakers pumping the instruments. There's no dynamic use of the sound field during the biking. Also, the mix suffers at times, with the vocals buried or muddied by the driving metal music.

THE EXTRAS

There's plenty of extras listed, but when you dig in, you'll find it's really just more of the same. Freaks, which comes up with the actual title of FreakShow (a mislabeling that becomes a trend, as though the DVD producer never looked at the footage) features more of the shaky, blurry footage of freakshow acts from the main feature. Hanging items from piercings is the theme of the day, with the old irons-hanging-from-eye-sockets gag taking the cake. Edited footage of the original Perth "All Crusted Out" show that started things follows, including more of the fans rioting, accompanied by unidentified commentary (2:48). If you want more, there's 7:25 of raw footage of the same show.

If you want new footage that's not included in the main feature, a pair of "music videos" can be found in the extras. Australian Adventure - real title "Australia" - is stunt footage set to Insignia's song, "Overture", while the advertising heavy Sobe No Fear presents American Bad Asses (a.k.a. Sobe Adrenaline Rush) is more action scored by Grade 8's "Brick by Brick." The promo concept gets heavy play in the extras. MotoSutra, a cute ad for the Fuel TV channel, isn't too bad, but the teaser for Crusty Demons: The Game is simply blurry clips of the game that seem to go on forever. It's not much fun watching someone else play a video game.

Wrapping up the extras is Interviews Raw (or Bonus Interviews.) This feature gives you unedited interviews from the main feature with five tattooed geniuses, Faisst, Twitch, Seth, Bubba and Deegan. There's a bit more here that wasn't heard in the movie, but nothing of much entertainment value. It was a good idea by the filmmakers to break these clips into more digestible forms.

THE WRAP-UP

When the filmmakers first came to Rhino, I could see the studio looking at this being a big money maker as a souvenir sold during the tour. The shows look like they could be a blast for any motocross fan, and I could see plenty of people wanting to take this home to watch afterwards. But now, with no show to promote, this DVD is lost without a cause. One of the group's nine home videos is likely a better pick-up, as you'd get to see real freestyle action, instead of the blips you get here. Skip this unless you really like the Crusty Demons, and want to know more about them.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.