According to the backstory of how Hell Ride got made, it was a meeting between Quentin Tarintino and Larry Bishop, who played a batrender in Kill Bill v2, and was best known as a cult film star of several road and exploitation biker films from the late 1960′s and early 70′s. “It is your destiny to write, direct and star in a movie” Quentin is quoted as saying to Bishop. The Pulp Fiction director would also put his name on it as an executive producer. Actually, Tarintino should have considered taking his name off the film, unless he was simply giddy that his name is connected to a exploitation biker pic for the next generation. It doesn’t work. Hell Ride is indeed an accurate title- the ride is hell, that’s undisputed.
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There were a few fears I had going into the sequel to Step Up, a surprise dance hit from two years ago. Both fears were confirmed within the sequel’s first ten minutes. Despite being entertaining and energetic, the first film had lots of clunky dialog and unbelievable soap opera circumstances. The sequel is made from the same mold, and, no pun intended, really does get off on the wrong foot, at least in the first reel. It takes some time for the film to recover, the lifeline supplied by the dancing and one character who is played by Adam G. Sevani, who I had never seen before, but who steals scenes left and right from everyone else in the entire film. When his character gets interesting? They have him literally step aside.
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This is one picture that has three things going for it from start to finish: Jackie Chan, Jet Li and a ton of fun. The Forbidden Kingdom, of course, was the highly anticipated film that featured the martial arts legends in the same film at the same time. On that level, it does not disappoint. It’s only a let down in my view because there should have been more story-the film almost begs to be more epic on a grander scale and palette.
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It can be easy to understand the public outcry regarding Hollywood remaking the horror films from the 70′s to the late 80′s. There are so many of them being made that it’s tough to keep a, ahem, body count. But now here is one of the worst offenders: a remake which isn’t *really* a remake at all. Prom Night has no remote connection to the 1980 slasher much less the Mary Lou sequels that followed the original. NO. This offender is in name only. So in theory 1980′s Prom Night could still be remade, it just can’t be called Prom Night. Ouch.
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It’s interesting to see how real life influences Hollywood’s subject matter. In the 50′s, the nuclear threat spawned a whole genre of monster movies, in the 80′s it was the Russians, and for a few years now we’ve seen a steady stream of movies about terrorism. Some of those have been brainless action flicks where Middle-Eastern terrorists simply replaced their Russian predecessors, but thankfully there’s also the occasional gem. Like this one.

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