Motorcycle Gang

Cal Morris (Gerald McRaney) and his family are driving to their new home in California and are terrorized by a motorcycle gang along the highway.

From the genius of John Milius comes this film, which I believe is a remake of a 1960s Sam Arkoff film, written by Lou Rusoff and originally directed by Edward L. Cahn ("It! The Terror from Beyond Space"). Starring as the bad guy? Jake Busey, whose father previously worked with Milius on "Big Wednesday".

The film is rated R but is still sort of silly because it has that American International Pictures feel to it. There may be sexual assault and violence, but this is not the dark stuff that Milius tackled in "Apocalypse Now".

If I had checked for reviews with IMDB prior to my renting this movie, I would probably have still rented it since only one review was available. There are a lot of noticable errors in this film and the plot really doesn't make sense. The ending is just really unbelievable and would not happen even in today's time much less in the era this film is suppose to portray. However, if you are shying away from it because it says it has a Rape scene, the scene is not graphic as I have seen in other movies. Neither person gets their clothes off and there is no nudity in this scene at all. But I would just shy away from this flick because it really isn't good.

This film essentially begins sometime in the 50's with a man by the name of "Cal Morris" (Gerald McRaney), his wife "Jean Morris" (Elan Oberon) and their teenage daughter "Leann Morris" (Carla Gugino) packing up the car and heading out from Houston to their new home in Los Angeles. Naturally, since the interstate highways system was yet to be completed during this time, Cal figures that their trip will take approximately 3 days. Meanwhile, about 700 miles down the road, a motorcycle gang has recently gone on a killing spree and when they meet the Morris family at a roadside diner, the leader of the gang, known simply as "Jake" (Jake Busey), decides that he can make some money by kidnapping Leann and selling her in Mexico. What he doesn't realize, however, is that Cal is a former Army veteran who has seen his share of combat and is more than willing to take matters into his own hands to get his daughter back. Now, as far as the actual merits of this movie are concerned, I must admit that I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, although the film takes place in the 50's, there was something about the setting that just didn't feel right for some reason. I don't know, maybe it's just me but something seemed off. Likewise, I didn't particularly care for the acting on the part of Jake Busey all that much either. While it's true that his character was quite unsavory, his performance wasn't nearly as menacing as it should have been. Perhaps it was his goofy smile during some of these scenes, but whatever the reason, he just didn't seem right for this role. On the other hand, I thought that Gerald McRaney put in a good performance and--along with the reasonably interesting plot--managed to overcome some of the weaknesses just mentioned. That being said, while this was certainly not a great "biker film" by any means, it wasn't all that bad and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

"Motorcycle Gang" benefits from above average performances and interesting, though marginally developed characters. The deliberate pacing is another plus, which allows for more than just the usual cursory dialog. Jake Busey is well cast as the leader of the gang, and Gerald McRaney is good as the dad in pursuit of his kidnapped daughter, Carla Gugino. Nice desert photography enhances the production as well. Overall, this has entertainment value because it never pretends to be anything except an updated 50s biker movie, and at that it succeeds nicely. So what you see is what you get, and that is totally acceptable from my point of view. - MERK

I first saw this film on TV late one night. It starts out with the basic fundamentals of a road movie, a family are driving across the mid American desert to their new home in California in the mid sixties when they become terrorised by a motorcycle gang. The father, Cal, appears to be a mild mannered family man, spontaniously dealing with the angst displayed by his wife and teenage daughter whilst also trying to negotiate moving the family across the country. When his daughter is taken hostage by bikers it would seem he is powerless to alter the events that occur.

Nothing however could be further from the truth, it turns out that Cal is actually a World War 2 combat veteran and despite his humbled and fifty something appearance is a very efficient killing machine. When the final fight sequence occurs the character transformation becomes something to behold, as family man Cal takes on his opponents with a supremely violent and ruthess efficiency.

This movie is a classic. despite being shunned at the cinema, i would recommend it to anyone interested in good film. Neither a road, action or adventure movie, this picture defies a specific genre and in doing so in my opinion has become one of the best low key American classical of all time.