Given Grindhouse's shocking box office woes last year, the Quentin Tarantino brand isn't too strong right now. Still, QT's using his name to launch a new film into the marketplace. Quentin Tarantino Presents Hell Ride, due in theaters later this year, may as well be the third installment of Grindhouse -- it's got the same high-gloss, yet supposedly low-budget aesthetic, the same over-enthusiastic embrace of B-movie cliches, the same sophomoric sensibilities. Except it's not nearly as entertaining.
Larry Bishop, son of Rat Packer Joey, wrote, directed and stars in this throwback biker film, which comes complete with knife fights, glorious Harleys-on-open-road footage, nubile breast-baring babes, long-simmering vengeance and hairy guys with tats. Bishop plays Pistolero, the head of a rapidly depleting gang. Chicks dig his tats and leather, and some of his men (including Michael Madsen, Dennis Hopper and Eric Balfour) would lay it down for him. Problem is Pistolero doesn't look all that tough, or all that sexy. He looks like the first biker-movie hero to have gone through the Extreme Makeover regiment.
The best part of the screening at Sundance was Calvin Reeder's short film The Rambler, a surrealistic, bat-shit-funny 12-minute horror-comedy joyride that had the press corps (perhaps a bit slap happy on day seven of the festival) roaring. Watch Reeder's previous Sundance entry *Little Farm *here. If you dare.
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