'Hell Ride' review

Michael Madsen in "Hell Ride" (Credit: Will McGarry/Third Rail Releasing)

Biker gang leader Pistolero (Larry Bishop, who also wrote, directed and produced) and his buddies the Gent (Michael Madsen) and Comanche (Eric Balfour, the only guy under 40 in the cast) set out to avenge the murder of one of their own by rivals the 666ers.

Skip it: Opening with a woman’s throat getting slashed before she’s set on fire, “Hell Ride” sets the stage for vengeance but instead spends a seemingly endless 85 minutes wallowing in narratively-shapeless, self-indulgent, audience-punishing misogyny. If you want to see out of shape middle aged guys messing around with buck naked surgically-enhanced younger women between boring biker action, this one's for you. Thank Quentin Tarantino, who serves as executive producer, for getting Bishop's vanity project the theatrical release it doesn’t deserve. It’s further proof that QT may have a knack for turning trash into treasure as a director, but the films he champions are usually just trash.

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