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Motorcycle Gang
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // R // March 11, 2003
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
"What is life other than a day at a time, baby? You don't know nothin' 'bout tomorrow."
-Jake, Motorcycle Gang
Originally produced for Showtime as part of its Rebel Highway Series, Motorcycle Gang has little to do with the 1957 American International Pictures film that inspired its title. This remake-in-name-only is centered around a pair of intertwining road trips. The Morrises -- pop Cal (Gerald McRaney), adulterous wife Jean (Elan Oberon), and 16-year-old daughter Leann (Carla Gugino) -- pile into the family Ford and make their way towards sunny California. Along the way, they stumble upon a small band of Mexico-bound criminals, who, as you could probably guess from the movie's inventive title, are part of a motorcycle gang. The drug-peddling badniks have left a series of violent murders and robberies in their wake, and their leader Jake (Jake Busey) immediately takes a shining to the innocent young Leann. Jake soon engineers a plan to kidnap her, duping his victim into thinking that he's rescued her from an uncaring mother and a ruthless band of thugs. Father knows best, and after the Mexican authorities prove unwilling to lend a hand, the Korea vet decides to take matters into his own shovel-wielding hands.
I wasn't expecting much from Motorcycle Gang. Between its goofy title, the top-billing of Major Dad and Shasta McNasty, and the laughably lame cover art, I still managed to hold out some hope that the movie would at least offer some campy fun. Motorcycle Gang has absolutely nothing going for it. For one, the movie is dull. That's a word not generally associated with director John Milius, who'd previously helmed such notable action flicks as Red Dawn and Conan the Barbarian. It would seem to take a concerted effort for a movie with multiple stabbings, attempted rapes, gunshot wounds, and a respectably high body count to be so damn boring. Motorcycle Gang is sorely lacking the usual exploitive elements like blood and nudity, and what little violence there is remains extremely tame up until the climax. The meat of the action, using the term loosely, doesn't kick in until the movie is half-over. The red stuff doesn't start to flow until its final moments, when Cal bursts into the bad guys' lair, armed with a shovel and a thirst for vengeance. There's an undercurrent of sexuality that's mostly bungled; there's not much I'd like to see less than Jake Busey pawing Carla Gugino's ample cleavage or Gerald McRaney groping a scantily-clad woman.
Kent Anderson and Laurie McQuillan hadn't written a screenplay before Motorcycle Gang and, proving that there is at least some meager amount of sense in Hollywood, haven't penned a script since. Neither they nor the usually-capable John Milius manage to build anything approximating tension or suspense, and the motorcycle gang is about as imposing as Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch. The overacting is almost cartoonish, particularly from Jake Busey and Robert Miranda. The latter appears briefly as a lawyer who couldn't get Jake off the hook for a murder rap, and Miranda's reaction as his character tries to hold the gang at bay with a pistol might go down as one of the most ineptly-acted moments ever captured on celluloid. The characters are unilaterally one-dimensional, particularly Jake, who somehow manages to squeeze the word "baby" into seemingly every line of dialogue.
Motorcycle Gang is unredeemably bad, and its overpriced release on DVD is nearly as instantly forgettable.
Video: Motorcycle Gang's origins as a low-budget TV movie unmistakably shine through. The full-frame image sports an unremarkable level of detail and clarity, and black levels are often lackluster. Most of the moderately-contemporary movies that spring to mind with a '50s setting tend to feature bright, vivid colors, but Motorcycle Gang's palette is decidedly dull. Some portions are rather noisy, particularly those shot in low light. Detail is often obscured in this darker portions, devolving into a murky, indistinguishable mess. Softness creeps in intermittently as well, contributing to Motorcycle Gang's rather dated appearance. There's also one particularly jittery shot around the 1:17:55 mark, as a cop approaches Cal's ride after the climax. This presentation is probably representative of the movie's original broadcast in 1994, but its not up to the standards typically expected from a DVD release.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 2.0 surround audio fares a bit better. The surrounds are kept busy, frequently reinforcing the score by Emmy award winner Hummie Mann and providing general ambiance. Motorcycles tearing across the highway also offer a number of opportunities for some noticeable stereo separation. The music is accompanied by a decent amount of bass, though the roars of the gang's bikes and gunshots sounded rather flat by comparison. Again, it's probably not a substantial improvement over its airings on Showtime.
Other audio options include closed captions and English subtitles.
Supplements: The only extras are trailers for Wes Craven Presents Dracula II: Ascension (0:59), Malevolent (0:51), Asunder (1:20), and Below (1:41). All four trailers are full-frame and include Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
Motorcycle Gang feature 4x3 static menus built around shots of the cast, and the movie has been divided into nineteen chapters. The cover art is about as low-rent as it gets, and it looks like the casts' heads have been Photoshopped onto other people's bodies.
Conclusion: Motorcycle Gang wouldn't even be worth fishing out of the $5.88 bin at Wal-Mart, let alone its ridiculously overpriced MSRP of $29.99. Lousy movie, lousy DVD. Skip It.
-Jake, Motorcycle Gang
Originally produced for Showtime as part of its Rebel Highway Series, Motorcycle Gang has little to do with the 1957 American International Pictures film that inspired its title. This remake-in-name-only is centered around a pair of intertwining road trips. The Morrises -- pop Cal (Gerald McRaney), adulterous wife Jean (Elan Oberon), and 16-year-old daughter Leann (Carla Gugino) -- pile into the family Ford and make their way towards sunny California. Along the way, they stumble upon a small band of Mexico-bound criminals, who, as you could probably guess from the movie's inventive title, are part of a motorcycle gang. The drug-peddling badniks have left a series of violent murders and robberies in their wake, and their leader Jake (Jake Busey) immediately takes a shining to the innocent young Leann. Jake soon engineers a plan to kidnap her, duping his victim into thinking that he's rescued her from an uncaring mother and a ruthless band of thugs. Father knows best, and after the Mexican authorities prove unwilling to lend a hand, the Korea vet decides to take matters into his own shovel-wielding hands.
 |
| A sampling of the "High octane thrills!" the box art promises. |
Kent Anderson and Laurie McQuillan hadn't written a screenplay before Motorcycle Gang and, proving that there is at least some meager amount of sense in Hollywood, haven't penned a script since. Neither they nor the usually-capable John Milius manage to build anything approximating tension or suspense, and the motorcycle gang is about as imposing as Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch. The overacting is almost cartoonish, particularly from Jake Busey and Robert Miranda. The latter appears briefly as a lawyer who couldn't get Jake off the hook for a murder rap, and Miranda's reaction as his character tries to hold the gang at bay with a pistol might go down as one of the most ineptly-acted moments ever captured on celluloid. The characters are unilaterally one-dimensional, particularly Jake, who somehow manages to squeeze the word "baby" into seemingly every line of dialogue.
Motorcycle Gang is unredeemably bad, and its overpriced release on DVD is nearly as instantly forgettable.
 |
| "...but don't fall in love...!" |
Audio: The Dolby Digital 2.0 surround audio fares a bit better. The surrounds are kept busy, frequently reinforcing the score by Emmy award winner Hummie Mann and providing general ambiance. Motorcycles tearing across the highway also offer a number of opportunities for some noticeable stereo separation. The music is accompanied by a decent amount of bass, though the roars of the gang's bikes and gunshots sounded rather flat by comparison. Again, it's probably not a substantial improvement over its airings on Showtime.
Other audio options include closed captions and English subtitles.
Supplements: The only extras are trailers for Wes Craven Presents Dracula II: Ascension (0:59), Malevolent (0:51), Asunder (1:20), and Below (1:41). All four trailers are full-frame and include Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
Motorcycle Gang feature 4x3 static menus built around shots of the cast, and the movie has been divided into nineteen chapters. The cover art is about as low-rent as it gets, and it looks like the casts' heads have been Photoshopped onto other people's bodies.
Conclusion: Motorcycle Gang wouldn't even be worth fishing out of the $5.88 bin at Wal-Mart, let alone its ridiculously overpriced MSRP of $29.99. Lousy movie, lousy DVD. Skip It.
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