Hi-Riders

Hi Riders was a film that disappeared off the map, from video shops for years. Then one night, it popped up in this video shop. So I rented it, and popped it in my video. I felt short changed, disappointed but I still didn't quite mind it, but the fact remained it was a pretty poor movie, unlike Greydon's Clark's sci fi horror wonder "The Return". This is just a vigilante themed story, about a group of bikers, who Hinton and his girl team up with. They crash pubs, run illegal car races, etc. The latest one has claimed the life of a bartenders son who ignored fatherly advice and died as a result, where the occupants of the other challenging car were killed too. They involved one of the bikers and a hippie town chick looking for some action that she definitely got. Consumed with vengeance, the victim's father takes the law into his own hands, killing off the bikers, one by one, which brings a retribution of war, the car crashing through house climax, sudden. This is just an action time passer, and hardly passes as a bikie movie, the chick in the blue top, the best thing about it. Just a limited film, is all.

I enjoyed this film, i came across it one rainy day and said what the hell! Ill give it a shot. The story takes a pretty cool twist that i never saw coming! Which is rare for me because most movies are written with such obvious plots. The actors seemed natural and believable and wow the action is crazy cool. The cars where probably the best part of the movie . So all in all this movie is legit!!.

Yeah man!! This is like, so cool!! We got this gang of kids, yeah, who set up a club for those who like to build up some speed on the road. We challenge each other to super fast races, and the winner gets to keep the stakes in a big-stakes gambling game. Radical!! But in one of these recent contests, the son of a rich guy got killed, and now the father wants revenge. Bogus!! And as our number gets picked off one by one thanks to his totally heinous hired assassins, will we survive long enough to ever hit those most excellent highways ever again? Watch and find out, my brothers!! You're gonna love this movie!! It's got the lot: Dudes burning rubber, chicks taking their tops off, teens getting blind drunk, fat guys dancing, cops being blown up.. and all in the space of 90 slammin' minutes!! This is totally the best film ever!! Rent it today!! It's bodacious, peeps..

*COUTH* *COUGH* oops sorry.. I lost control of my senses there for a minute, I don't know what came over me. Anyway, what I REALLY wanted to say was: this movie sucks the big one. Every performance bar none is dire, the much-hyped race sequences are rendered boring thanks to sloppy camera-work and the soundtrack is so loud and obtrusive it will have the climbing the wall in seconds.

But what really puts the final nail in the coffin is the 'moral' which seems to be: no matter how many people die in this little group, as long as the survivors stick together.. nothing else matters because its all about 'street cred'. What a sad excuse for conformity, and if the government wants to know why there are so many individuals out there who can't think for themselves and can only function as a unit, my answer would be: take a look at this screenplay, and draw your own conclusions. 2/10

Writer-director Greydon Clark mixes drag racing and crime melodrama in this b-movie about two Van Nuys drag racers (a boy and a girl) who want to get even with a rival, who gypped them out of a bet and they chase him into a rural community where the boy and girl develop friends with a more complex group of racers. However, trouble brews when the rival is killed in a fiery crash during a grudge race and his wealthy father (Stephen McNally) exacts revenge against the group, with reluctant help from the local sheriff and his drunken deputy. The character development is pretty minimal and the film's shock ending is rather surprising, but not bad for fans of '70s car films.

This flick is notorious for a few reasons. It do contain classic American muscle cars like a Firebird, Dodge Charger and a Mercury Cougar. There are more to see like a Ford Mustang but the 3 mentioned are the most important ones.

The flick itself is a bit slow sometimes and it really starts around 45 minutes when things go wrong while racing. From there on this flick moves faster but still it's tame for today's standards. But the way it was shot is well done and it shows, Dean Cundey was camera man here and he moved further to the classic Halloween (1978). There are also a few common faces to recognise. Just watch the sheriff, Mel Ferrer and his deputy Ralph Meeker but not only that, the bartender is played by Neville Brand.

But what made this flick notorious was that around the end of shooting a terrible accident occurred with Vic Rivers, the stunt man. He died while driving a truck that was meant to fly off an embankment. But Vic undershot the distance and the truck flipped and crashed near the bank of the river. Due the silt it took an hour to find him, death. But the shot was used.

Worth seeing for the cars only.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5