Biker Films

Mad Max (Special Edition)

The Road Warrior is already a classic, sans condescending genre distinctions like "sci-fi" or "action." But the story of Mel Gibson's stately antihero begins in Mad Max, George Miller's low-budget debut in which Max is a "Bronze" (cop) in an unspecified postapocalyptic future with a buddy-partner and family. But unlike most films set in the devastated future, Mad Max is especially notable because it is poised between our industrialized world and total regression to medieval conditions. The scale tips towards disintegration when the Glory Riders burn into town on their bikes like an overamped cadre of Brando's Wild Ones. Representing the active chaos that will eventually overwhelm the dying vestiges of civil society, they take everything dear to Max, who will exact due revenge. His flight into the same wilds that created the villains artfully sets up the morally ambiguous character of the subsequent films. --Alan E. Rapp

Setting Mel Gibson on a sure path to superstardom this highly acclaimed crazy collide-o-scope (Newsweek) of highway mayhem cinematically defined the postapocalyptic landscape (TV Guide). Featuring eye-popping stunts that are electrifying and very convincing (Variety) and an authentically nihilistic spirit (The Village Voice) Mad Max is pure cinematic poetry (Time). In the ravaged near future a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them. But they underestimate one officer: Max Rockatansky (Gibson). And when the bikers brutalize Max s best friend and family they send him into a mad frenzy that leaves him with only one thing left in the world to live for -- revenge!Special Features:New Digitally Remastered Anamorphic TransferNew-To-The-U.S.! Original Australian LanguageOriginal Mono Audio Track Mel Gibson: The Birth Of A Star Documentary Mad Max: The Film Phenomenon DocumentaryTheatrical TrailersAudio Commentary With Jon Dowding David Eggby Chris Murray & Tim Ridge Road Rants Trivia & Fun Fact TrackPhoto GalleryTV SpotsAnd More!System Requirements: Running Time 94 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 027616869241 Manufacturer No: 1002726

Any Which Way You Can

Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood) is back in this sequel to Every Which Way but Loose, once again brawling to make ends meet and just trying to manage his life with a crazy mother (Ruth Gordon), a dimwitted best friend (Geoffrey Lewis) and, of course, Clyde the Orangutan. He's had enough of this life, but when a mobster (Harry Guardino) comes along to make him an offer he can't refuse, Philo must use his wits as well as his fists to get himself out of yet another jam. The humor is thin and sporadic (though Gordon is in fine form), and Eastwood has since gone on to better things; but a film that features a brawl with a monkey and a motorcycle gang can't be all bad. --Robert Lane

Sequel to "Every Which Way but Loose" in which Eastwood is back as bare-knuckle brawler Philo Beddoe. With his 165-pound orangutan pal Clyde Philo is lured out of retirement by a new contender and mobsters kidnap his girl to ensure he'll turn up for the showdown.Running Time: 116 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085391858621 Manufacturer No: 18586

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man

Sheathing itself in bad taste, this film flaunts its tackiness, its machismo, and its very stupidity, which of course makes for a lot of dopey fun. Harley Davidson (Mickey Rourke) returns to his roots, the LA of 1996 (the film was set in the near future, as it was made in 1991). Burbank has become an airport, a new drug called Crystal Dream is all the rage, and Harley's favorite bar is being torn down. To save it, he and the Marlboro Man (Don Johnson, at his most engaging) concoct an armed robbery that goes awry. Instead of cash, they end up with a shipment of Crystal Dream. Hunted by a drug dealer's goons, the two bark, fight, drink, and squint at each other as they try to get themselves out of their mess. This is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for the monster-truck crowd, with plenty of breasts, choppers, broken pool cues, and empty bottles. It's impossible to blame this film for being so emphatically trashy; its creators would consider that a compliment, anyway. --Keith Simanton

In the lawless world of 1996, two motorcycle renegades rob a bank to save their favorite hangout, and find themselves in the middle of a multi-million dollar drug swindle.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 6-FEB-2001
Media Type: DVD

Torque (Widescreen Edition)

A lot has changed in the biker-movie genre since Hell's Angels on Wheels, and Torque may be the new benchmark of feverish chopper action. Martin Henderson plays Cary, a speed king and relatively civilized outlaw with a knack for annoying everyone, including drug smugglers, the FBI, an ex-girlfriend, and, worst of all, biker gang leader Trey (Ice Cube), who thinks Cary killed his brother. On the run from everyone, Cary survives by playing all sides against one another. But the story is less important than the frantic, over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek action surrounding it. The Fast and the Furious producer Neal H. Moritz is responsible for this crazy, violent, yet appealingly sardonic cowboys-on-wheels piece. --Tom Keogh

High-Speed Action Adventure. Biker Cary Ford (Martin Henderson) returns to his hometown to reunite with his girlfriend (Monet Mazur). Once home Ford is framed for a murder he didn't commit targeted for revenge by the victim's brother (Ice Cube) and pursued by the FBI as he tries to clear his name and outrace his enemies.Running Time: 84 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 085392466221 Manufacturer No: 24662

Eye of the Tiger

They stole his pride and destroyed his family and now he'll do whatever it takes to get justice! Action legend Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon) "makes a great rawboned blue-collar hero" (Los Angeles Times) in this hard-boiled tale of revenge and retribution!Buck Matthews (Busey) returns to his rural hometown after serving time in prison for a crime he didn't commit wanting only to live in peace with his beloved wife and daughter. But that peace is irrevocably shattered when a sinister biker gang begins terrorizing the townspeople. When Buck's brave attempt to protect his family from the vicious marauders results in tragedy he embarks on a one-man war against his evil foes and even though he's outnumbered and outgunned he won't give up until the last body drops!System Requirements:Running Time 92 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 027616920553 Manufacturer No: 1008020

Hells Angels on Wheels

This pair of Joe Solomon-produced biker dramas are two of the better examples of the '60s subgenre. Jack Nicholson stars in Hell's Angels on Wheels as a moody cycle-riding gas station attendant adopted by Adam Roarke's gang when he jumps into a friendly bar fight. It's a fairly blatant rip-off of Roger Corman's The Wild Angels, but director Richard Rush (who next teamed up with Nicholson for the counterculture classic Psych-Out) offers up a lifestyle that's less nihilistic than simply meaningless and winds the unlikely friendship between restless Nicholson and rootless Roarke into an inevitable clash over basic philosophical differences (namely, Jack wants Adam's girl, and Adam wants Jack to kowtow to his leadership). William Smith is an unusual hero in Run Angel Run: he's a sellout on the run from vengeful biker clubs up and down the coast. Director Jack Starrett, a former actor in biker movies himself (Hell's Angels on Wheels, among others), creates a taut little picture highlighted by impressive stunts (Smith jumps onto the flat car of a moving train). Smith's brooding, taciturn performance mellows when he takes a job on a rural sheep farm and connects with a career farmer who used to be a barnstorming biker in the 1950s. "I gotta be free man, I gotta fly," confesses Angel, but at what price? Both pictures were cheaply made for quick playoff, but there's an interesting attempt to explore the tension between the thrill of the road and the hollow activity passing for freedom. The set comes in a cool-looking 8 by 12 tin storage container, but the tapes do not have separate video sleeves. --Sean Axmaker

When he loses his job, gas station attendant Poet (Academy Award-winner Jack Nicholson) falls in with a rough band of Hells Angels who terrorize Northern California in a hellraising frenzy of parties and gang fights. Choppers, drugs, sex, murder and mayhem ensue as Poet and gang leader Buddy (Adam Roarke) head down a dark road to danger. From acclaimed cult director Richard Rush (The Stunt Man) with cinematography by the legendary László Kovács (Easy Rider, Paper Moon) and music by Stu Phillips (Battlestar Gallactica, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls).

Hell's Angel 69

Made in 1969 and 1970, respectively, these movies exemplify all that was good and bad about biker culture of that era. In Hell's Angels '69, two thrill seekers join the Hell's Angels with the plan to use them as cover for a daring robbery of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The Losers is even more bizarre. Also called Nam's Angels, the film focuses on a group of bikers hired by the U.S. government to rescue a special agent in a Cambodian prison. The portrayal of the bikers is similar in both movies. They are hard-drinking people who love to get into fights, are loyal to each other, and hate cops/military police. Oh, and they're white supremacists. Both movies contain bikers wearing Nazi swastikas, and both movies have some racist banter used as throwaway lines. Despite that, the films are worth recommending as good examples of genre biker films. Hell's Angels '69 has some fascinating shots of Las Vegas before the Strip was fully engulfed in neon, and The Losers is just plain weird. Both movies are obviously influenced by Easy Rider, particularly with their endings, and capture a time in America when things were obviously not going right. --Andy Spletzer

Angels Hard as They Come

A band of schizo bikers meets a van of wasted hippies in a weird ghost town and their mutual anarchy evolves into a free-form orgy. This biker movie glows with raw primitive energy rustic location shooting a progressive rock score and a group of the most unscrubbed characters you're ever likely to see. A fascinating 70's look at hippy culture vs. biker culture the two groups seem originally destined for compatibility with goal-less philosophy and wandering nomadic lifestyle but the disparity between the pacificism of the hips and impulsive war-like misery of the alcoholic bikers soon erupts into all- out war symbolized by the rape/murder of a hippie chick. The stoned losers roll between angry despair and reckless bravado ending in mutual impasse that reinforces their elemental hopelessness. This film powerfully discloses the disintegration of a culture that feeds on its own spiritual rootless ness. The verite camera style and the earthy realistic dialogue along with generous doses of nudity and violence make this a startling disturbing ultimately haunting experience.System Requirements:Starring: Gary Busey Scott Glenn Charles Dierkep Gilda Texter James Inglehart and Gary Littlejohn. Running Time: (approx) 85 min. Copyright 2003 BCI.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 787364437696 Manufacturer No: 44376-9

Torque (Full Screen Edition)

A lot has changed in the biker-movie genre since Hell's Angels on Wheels, and Torque may be the new benchmark of feverish chopper action. Martin Henderson plays Cary, a speed king and relatively civilized outlaw with a knack for annoying everyone, including drug smugglers, the FBI, an ex-girlfriend, and, worst of all, biker gang leader Trey (Ice Cube), who thinks Cary killed his brother. On the run from everyone, Cary survives by playing all sides against one another. But the story is less important than the frantic, over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek action surrounding it. The Fast and the Furious producer Neal H. Moritz is responsible for this crazy, violent, yet appealingly sardonic cowboys-on-wheels piece. --Tom Keogh

High-Speed Action Adventure. Biker Cary Ford (Martin Henderson) returns to his hometown to reunite with his girlfriend (Monet Mazur). Once home Ford is framed for a murder he didn't commit targeted for revenge by the victim's brother (Ice Cube) and pursued by the FBI as he tries to clear his name and outrace his enemies.Running Time: 84 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 085392466122 Manufacturer No: 24661

Lone Hero