Rebel Rousers, The (1970)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Silly but mildly entertaining biker flick about a man (Cameron Mitchell) who travels to a small town to try and get back his pregnant wife (Diane Ladd) but while the two are talking he's beaten and she's kidnapped by a biker gang led by Bruce Dern. The battered husband manages to make it back to town where he tries to find someone to help him. The highlight of this film is the wonderful cast as we get not only Mitchell, Dern and Ladd but supporting performances by Jack Nicholson and Harry Dean Stanton. As far as biker films goes this one here is a long way away from titles like EASY RIDER and THE WILD ANGELS but there's enough mild charm here to make this worth viewing. The film runs a fairly short 78-minutes and I do wonder if there's some stuff on the cutting room floor as there are a few side plots that never really add up to much and we even get some questionable moments from start to finish. We're told that Mitchell and Dern played football together but this never really adds up to anything. We get the escape scene with Mitchell taking off yet it's never quite clear why his wife doesn't try to escape with him. Probably because if she had then the movie would have ended right there. The kidnapping leads to a pretty good ending when some Mexican guys with rakes show up to get back Mitchell's wife as well as one of their daughters who was delivering tacos to the bikers!!! Mitchell is a real head-scratcher here as he pretty much sleepwalks through the role and his scenes crying are pretty funny as there's obviously no real emotion behind them. Ladd is charming as the wife and it's always fun seeing Stanton no matter how small the role is. Dern clearly steals the show as the "mature" biker who is always saying the right thing even though it's hard to trust what he's saying. Finally, there's Nicholson wearing some zebra colored pants that are a real hoot. Fans of the genre will want to check this one out but others should see the classics first.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Silly but mildly entertaining biker flick about a man (Cameron Mitchell) who travels to a small town to try and get back his pregnant wife (Diane Ladd) but while the two are talking he's beaten and she's kidnapped by a biker gang led by Bruce Dern. The battered husband manages to make it back to town where he tries to find someone to help him. The highlight of this film is the wonderful cast as we get not only Mitchell, Dern and Ladd but supporting performances by Jack Nicholson and Harry Dean Stanton. As far as biker films goes this one here is a long way away from titles like EASY RIDER and THE WILD ANGELS but there's enough mild charm here to make this worth viewing. The film runs a fairly short 78-minutes and I do wonder if there's some stuff on the cutting room floor as there are a few side plots that never really add up to much and we even get some questionable moments from start to finish. We're told that Mitchell and Dern played football together but this never really adds up to anything. We get the escape scene with Mitchell taking off yet it's never quite clear why his wife doesn't try to escape with him. Probably because if she had then the movie would have ended right there. The kidnapping leads to a pretty good ending when some Mexican guys with rakes show up to get back Mitchell's wife as well as one of their daughters who was delivering tacos to the bikers!!! Mitchell is a real head-scratcher here as he pretty much sleepwalks through the role and his scenes crying are pretty funny as there's obviously no real emotion behind them. Ladd is charming as the wife and it's always fun seeing Stanton no matter how small the role is. Dern clearly steals the show as the "mature" biker who is always saying the right thing even though it's hard to trust what he's saying. Finally, there's Nicholson wearing some zebra colored pants that are a real hoot. Fans of the genre will want to check this one out but others should see the classics first.