This one reminds me of the outer limits ultra-DIY stuff that Miramax was experimenting with in the '80s before they went "legit" with "respectable" art-house fare around 1989.
"The Road Killers" is from a few years after that but you can still see the yearning to be on the cool, cutting edge of the alternafence. It's also extremely interesting (at first, at least) because you get to see sneak peeks at very young versions of some of today's biggest actors (Josh Brolin, David Arquette, Chris MacDonald, a 7 or 8-year old Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
This film doesn't take itself seriously in the least, and that could very well have been intentional as it seems to deliberately ape the sadistic-teen-hoods-go-on-a-rampage genre ala "Hot Rods to Hell." The lead thug, Craig Sheffer (never a very good actor, unfortunately, and a very ham-fisted villain in many flicks) does and says all the hateful things at all the right times, but can't get beyond his ridiculous Motley Crue wig (I really hope it is a wig, for his sake). Brolin and Arquette have scant little to do, and the "good guys," with the exception of MacDonald, never get us very revved up to root for them in the first place.
The script is a complete disaster with long, intermittent stretches where there is no action whatsoever, and the characters are too shallow and boring to expound upon. This is supposed to be an action picture, but it ends up as more of an overlong parody of one.
A huge, wasted opportunity, as nobody had the guts to make deliberately different mainstream films back in the day, except Miramax. Now, they wouldn't touch this kind of stuff with a ten foot pole, unless it was to be helmed by Rodrigeuz or Tarantino.
