User Reviews

I collect "cheap" Biker movies, not inexpensive, but tacky. This one is cheap/tacky, but may have the worst ending of ANY movie ever made. I'm surprised no one mentions that. About the ending...how and why does Buddy's bike explode? Why does the front tire explode in flames? Well, I know. When Buddy bites down, they wanted the bike to blow up so he would die. They did not have the money to do it more than once, much less authentically. I got knocked down by a pick up truck while on my '72 XLH, but it didn't blow up. (I guess I wasn't supposed to die) The tire blows up because it is hard to get a bike to fall over (while being ghost ridden) right on the mark. They had one chance to make it land on the explosive charge and failed. That's why I love these "Biker Movies". The cheapness. Horrible acting. Worse plots. But LOVE the bikes! '60's style choppers are the greatest. Old school. As the Biker said in the (cheap) Biker scene in the movie DUTCH TREAT, "We geek chickens on Saturday night...Know what I mean?" That's what Bikers do. Rape, pillage and geek chickens. By the way, in Dutch Treat, I am the "Biker" seated to the "Chicken Geeker's" left. Got paid to drink beer. Took 12 hours to do that 2 minute scene. No drinking on the set, tho. I smuggled cans of Coors Light in my sock and poured them in my empty bottle, so I am the only one actually drinking beer in that "Biker" scene. When you see someone drinking booze in a movie, the bottles and cans are empty. Anyway, that was my 15 minutes of fame. Had a ball. Long live cheap Biker movies!

Jack Nicholson is poised and relaxed here, but he doesn't get to show much wit as a good boy who decides to run with the Angels' dastardly misadventures for a spell. In so doing, he hooks up with the leader's gf, the better for them to offer their detached commentary on the varied depravity. This 'redeeming social value' move is extraneous and entirely unconvincing, even if the filmmakers believe every word; it's pure gamesmanship, something for the eggheads to chew on. The actual content of the film resides in the episodic procession of set pieces, each chosen for maximum visual interest - an amusement park brawl, a body-painting party, a biker wedding, a duel to the death amid some scenic ruins. Cinematographer "Leslie" Kovacs makes the most of these, but in the end it's pretty thin gruel. The big musical interlude in the middle sums things up: "Moving but going nowhere". Going nowhere fast, too, as in the absurdly abrupt ending; not that there was anything that really needed doing beyond that.

Wow, of all the silly motorcycle gang movies of the 1960s and 1970s, this one is THE WORST, and that's saying a lot, since most all were just awful.

Jack Nicholson was lucky his career survived this nonsensical slop, especially since he kept being referred to as a "kid", even though he was 30 years old but looked 40, with a deeply receded hairline and a forehead with so many wrinkles it looked to be made of linen. But everybody loves Jack now so we can forgive him this junk.

Jack's career somehow survived and kept on growing. The same cannot be said for anybody else involved in this cinematic abortion. The director, whose name I've already forgotten in the last two minutes, seems to have limited his directorial efforts to telling the actors to "act zany and whacky until I say 'Cut!'". There's not much plot beyond the premise of Jack joining up with the Hells Angels until he rubs the leader the wrong way, then yet another very poorly choreographed fight scene ensues, which ends with the death of one of the absolute worst stunt dummy's ever seen on screen. It doesn't even look as life-like as a store mannequin.

The script is ludicrous, the acting is tediously bad, and all the filler scenes of bikers and hippies "making the scene" in the legendary sixties are nothing but boring and goofy. I guess you had to be there to have fun because watching others act like idiots is not entertaining.

The use of "real" Hells Angels added nothing to this movie. They surely cannot act and they have a hard time struggling not to look at the camera. They are self-conscious when it comes time to show off and act bizarrely, so it's hard for the viewer to believe this comes naturally to them. There's one hopelessly plotted scene where Sonny Barger (who was out of prison for a change while this junk was filmed) jumps off his bike at a red light to deeply kisses the Angel sitting on the bike next to him. It's supposed to be shocking to the "squares", but it just comes off as forced and pointless. And Sonny acts like he obviously is aware he's performing for a camera.

The several fight scenes in this movie are very poorly executed and unrealistic - especially when somebody ends up dead (beaten to death, we are told) in a fight any Girl Scout could have skipped away from. Most of the fights involve compliant stunt men patiently waiting for an actor to wind up and throw a big punch that anybody else could have easily blocked, ducked or slowly walked away from.

There's minimal blood considering all the alleged violence, and there's even a fatal car wreck that didn't appear to have wrinkled a fender because the car just went off the road and rolled down a hill. The driver was an old man, so maybe he had a heart attack. But that doesn't stop Jack Starrett from making his obligatory appearance, as he did in all biker films of the day, as the menacing cop with a deep, smooth voice who is always showing up to spoil the fun and threaten the happy-go-lucky bikers with all sorts of imprisonment. In this flick he gets his man (his second choice, anyway) but doesn't hold on to him long. I never did understand how the Angels thwarted the motorcycle cops who were supposed to be escorting the evil Angel to jail, but the cops did roll down a hill for some reason. And the Angel rode off on his bike. Were cops really that stupid back then that they'd arrest someone for causing the death of an innocent and then let him ride his motorcycle to jail while they rode along as escorts? And all the cops in cars took different routes? Wow, it must've been great to be a criminal 50 year ago.

Then at last there's the final fight and a fake dummy dies, and the movie very suddenly ends. Really strange way to end this thing. I'm willing to bet everybody just got bored and wanted to go home.

Despite the downbeat ending, this movie gives off a clear feeling that the cast really enjoyed making it. There is a sense of fun and playfulness about the bikers' way of life, in stark contrast with the grim, depressing storyline of Corman's The Wild Angels.

The conventional views of straight society are expressed by different characters bewildered by the bikers' aimless lifestyle. The go go dancer argues with gang leader Buddy about jobs and marriage, which he casually shrugs off with the remark that he's tried that already. Jack Nicholson's leading character Poet is continually ridiculed by biker girl Shill as being a square with a middle class set of values, when he tries to have a serious relationship with her. The movie honestly portrays both the attractions and the negative aspects of the freewheeling biker way of life without judging. Ultimately, Poet becomes disillusioned with the Hell's Angels and clashes with Buddy, as it becomes clear that Buddy expects unquestioning obedience from his followers, and imposes his own rules on them, not unlike the Establishment he's supposedly rebelling against.

This movie is a fascinating time capsule of a time and place most of us never knew in real life. Adam Roarke as Buddy and Jack Nicholson as Poet turn in two excellent performances in a meandering, casually thrown together movie that seems almost a documentary of the Hell's Angels lifestyle in the Sixties.

Worth seeing, even if you don't care for biker movies in general. More than one viewer has commented on the movie's strange, indefinable quality, as if the whole thing were a dream. See it and decide for yourself.

If you were to take a time capsule back to the 1960's and told anybody that eventually Jack Nicholson would be one of the most honored actors at the Academy Awards, they'd probably try to have you committed. Having been around for a decade when this was made, he certainly wasn't anybody's favorite this video, a cult actor eventually made it into the mainstream. But his 1960's work is worth seeking out for a time capsule because indeed, it is a look at a generation that moved on and a lifestyle that thankfully restricts its activities to appearances to rare occasions and gets more laughed at as a dinosaur of modern times.

This is a vile and ugly, senseless film about a bunch of idiotic rebels with no causes seen traveling across the country in many famous hotspots over some snazzy opening credits, led by Adam Roarke. He makes the hugs mistake of recruiting gas station attendant Nicholson who moves in on Roarke's squeeze, Sabrina Scharf. She looks great in a mullet by the way. There really is no plot, just a bunch of violent segments filled with really bad actors, and with no plot, it's not really worth seeing, unless you're a sixties hipster looking for a flashback. How dozens of these films got made is beyond me, but they do represent 60's counterculture, so I guess for that aspect, it does hold a little bit of Interest.

The film opens as the title characters drive into town and immediately start annoying everyone. They pull into a gas station, where the owner tries to shoo them away. The attendant, played by Jack Nicholson, is having his own problems with a surly motorist, and finally tells the customer to stick it. Jack is promptly fired, which earns him the respect of the Angels' leader, played by Adam Roarke. The rest of the movie is essentially brawls, brawls, and brawls. In the teaching profession, we refer to this as the first day of school.

Jack, who coincidentally rides a motorcycle and wears a leather jacket, runs into the gang again, and one of them breaks his headlight. Jack brawls with the loser, until Roarke steps in. Jack rides off with the gang and they end up at a go-go club (if you weren't alive in the 60s, you can google the phrase). In short order, a rumble breaks out between the Angels and another gang. Naturally, the Angels win, and they take one of the go-go dancers with them. Meanwhile, Jack is taking a shine to one of the biker chicks, played by Sabrina Scharf. Sabrina is somewhat loose, and, to quote Dan Aykroyd's "Point-Counterpoint Character from SNL, "hops from bed to bed with the frequency of a cheap ham radio." Next, they head to a carnival, where some sailors beat up on Jack. Roarke and company find the sailors and lay them out; one of the swabs croaks. Later, at Roarke's pad, everybody goes trippin', and some stoner paints designs on the women in the gang. The fuzz arrive, and tell Roarke to watch his step.

Now it's off to Vegas, as two members of the Angels decide to get married. Just to clarify, it's not two guys - this, after all, is still the 60s. The highlight of the wedding is when the happy couple march through a row of motorcyclists, who sing "Here comes the bride, all dressed in white, yah dah dah dah dah ..." which was amusing, since I can never remember those lyrics either. So it's off to the honeymoon suite (a cheap hotel) where, surprise, another rumble ensues with another gang.

On the trip back to California, one of the bikers forces an old geezer off the road. The driver buys the farm. At a police roadblock, the go-go dancer rats on the biker, and he is carted off. Roarke et al manage to spring him (it's never clear how they do this), and head back to Angels headquarters. Sabrina tells Jack she has a bun in the oven (it's Roarke's). At this point, I noticed there were five minutes left in the movie, and started wondering if there was going to be a climax.

So here it is. Jack confronts Roarke. Scharf turns on Jack. Jack walks away. Roarke goes after Jack on his bike. There is an accident. The end.

Sonny Barger, the President of the Hells Angels, has a cameo. I can only wonder how you become President of the Hells Angels. Is there a primary? Do you have to provide your birth certificate?

I don't know what to make of this movie. The acting is okay, and Scharf is cute. Some parts were entertaining, but there are only so many rumbles I can watch. There are a few semi-psychedelic scenes, but I was too bombed to pay attention. Personally, I am still waiting for the release of "Senior Citizens on Walkers."