Bishop plays Pistolero, the "pres" of a motorcycle gang called the Victors. Though he has two loyal lieutenants, The Gent (Michael Madsen) and Comanche (Eric Balfour), the rest of his foot-pedal soldiers are beginning to doubt his leadership. But when longtime member St. Louie (Pete Randall) is murdered, Pistolero sets off on a journey to uncover the murderers -- in the process hoping to repay an overdue debt to Cherokee Kisum (Julia Jones), a woman he once cared for who was killed in exactly the same way more than 30 years before. En route to his redemption, Pistolero encounters an old ally named Eddie Zero (Dennis Hopper), a ruthless biker named Billy Wings (Vinnie Jones) and a crime boss called The Deuce (David Carradine), ultimately f*cking, conning or killing his way to immortality.
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Score: 6 out of 10
Video and Presentation
Hell Ride's workman-like AVC-encoded 1080p high-definition transfer (2.35:1) certainly gets the job done and nothing more. Apart from for the film's highly stylized black and white opening scene that exhibits heavy grain, everything else about the movie projects stable, clean and detailed images. Colors are bright and accurate and look to be slightly over-saturated, leading to high contrast levels, especially during brightly lit scenes. Fine details and textures are never lost and black levels are on the money, even during low lighting scenes. As I mentioned before, this is a good high-def transfer that reminds us why we upgraded to the format in the first place. However, there are certainly other films out there that provide a better reference quality transfer.
Score: 8 out of 10
Languages and Audio
Like the video transfer, the lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack offers the same workman-like presentation. Which is to be expected from a modern film. The roar of the motorcycles immerses the viewer inside the film while the gunfights provide a workout for the surround channels, with bullets zinging by through the use of transparent audio pans. The .1 LFE also kicks in often to complement the on-screen action. The dialogue is crystal clear and is never drowned out by the other much louder aural elements. The only other audio track provided on this disc is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Subtitles are available in English SDH and Spanish.
Score: 8 out of 10
Packaging and Extras
Starting off this section is an audio commentary with writer/director/actor Larry Bishop and the film's Director of Photography Scott Kevan. This is certainly the Larry Bishop show and it shows in his enthusiasm for the film. Bishop talks up a storm but rarely engages me for more than a few sentences. Next is "The Making of Hell Ride," which as the title suggests goes behind the scenes and provides us a glimpse of how the movie was made. Moving on, we have three featurettes, "The Babes of Hell Ride," "The Guys of Hell Ride" and " The Choppers of Hell Ride," all providing a brief look at most of the actors and the sweet rides that were featured in this film. Next is "Michael Madsen's Video Diary," a 10-minute around-the-sets documentary narrated by Madsen. This section closes with the film's theatrical trailer.
Score: 6 out of 10
The Bottom Line
Hell Ride comes with a Quentin Tarantino stamp of approval, which has been so diluted in recent years that it doesn't carry the same weight that it might have at the height of QT's popularity. Larry Bishop (who's this guy anyway?) tried his very best to produce a Tarantino-esque movie but falls flat through lame storytelling. This film is dripping with the style made famous by QT but that's about all that it has going for it. Style without substance.
