Wizard-8
Although I'm usually a big fan of drive-in movies, I have to confess that motorcycle gang movies kind of leave me cold. So I might be writing this review with some prejudice, but I think that this particular motorcycle movie will be badly judged by other drive-in movie fans. The biggest problem with it is how slow and uneventful it is. In the first half of the movie, almost nothing of consequence happens. It's almost all padding. There's a bit more plot in the second half of the movie, but the movie still feels slow and lacking bite. Another big problem with the movie is that the main character (played by Tom Stern) is not developed very well; we never quite sense what makes him tick and what motivates him. By the way, while the movie got an "R" rating back in 1968, it's not very explicit by today's standards; it would get a "PG-13" rating at most if submitted to the MPAA today.
gavin6942
Mike (Tom Stern), a biker, returns to California after serving in Vietnam. He uses his war-hero experience to organize a new, united super outlaw gang. When one member is shot by police because he killed a girl at a pot orgy, an all-out cop versus biker war results.I have no idea why there existed a period in time where all you had to do was throw bikers, hippies and cops in a film and it just wrote itself. This idea spawned some good films (notably "Easy Rider") and plenty of bad ones. And it seems like many of the bad ones were brought to life by American International Pictures.This is no exception, and unfortunately they did not even manage to cast a single big star. Without the name talent or crew, this is a largely forgettable film from a largely forgettable genre. The most notable name is Von Dutch who designed the titles -- decades before the brand became famous.
Michael O'Keefe
A motorcycle gang flick that has very little to offer. A heroic Vietnam vet Mike(Tom Stern)returns home bitter, cynical and ready to ride. Mike thinks his bad ass military training will help him as he takes back most of his former gang of bikers. He is in no mood to get along with the local sheriff Bingham(Jack Starrett); Mike is obsessed with "sticking it to the man". When one of the gang members is blatantly gunned down by the fuzz; Mike has his gang ready to raise hell after the funeral; big dreams of organizing numerous California gangs to a total of 500 bikers does not seem to bother Bingham. How this movie got its R rating is somewhat odd; violence is all but nil, maybe 20 gang members, no foul language, some pretty girls...but no nudity. This is not even close to a run-of-the-mill motorcycle gang movie. Other members of the cast: Arlene Martel, Ted Markham, Steve Oliver, Suzy Walters, Sandra Bettin, Paul Bertoya, Jay S. York and Dirty Denny.
propsguy
AIP does what it does best, exploitation of stereotypes. Good fun though with the real bikers being used. The real actors aren't as good as them. Incredibly terrible soundtrack.
AD
