Of Bikes and Action Flicks. Review on Torque Movie

Torgue: Two sports cars race each other across deserted highway stretch. It?s a neck-to-neck fight. They switch to turbo mode. And just as the frames show them at breakneck pace, a bike and its rider materialize out of nothingness and drives through the two cars at a blinding pace, so fast in fact that a signpost whirls like a turnstile (to show the message CARS SUCK).

Pretty much sets the tone of this out-and-out tribute to the world?s post powerful nitro-powered bikes. Martin Henderson (who plays Ford) turns out to be the rider who?s up against an awful lot. Ably assisted by his two buddies (don?t know their names, don?t care), he ruffles the feathers of the Eagles (bossed around by Ice Cube), catches up with old flame, Shane (Monet Mazur), all en route to LA. He is framed for Trey?s (Ice Cube) brother?s murder by Henry James (Matt Schulze ) whose bikes he has stolen. Two ?unusual? FBI agents also pursue him. Watch the movie to find out why exactly they?re unusual.

In the end it is a free-for-all and Ford and Shane walk away from it all virtually unscathed. Most bikes in this flick, sadly, have no such luck. As for whether you should watch this movie or not, depends on how much you love bikes or have been bred on ROADRASH and MOTOCROSS (two very popular computer games) or not. It?s a given that these bikes leave you drooling all throughout. While watching this movie you are reminded of one really eerie thing ? that while the US of A continues to kick up dust all around, it has to have the best of the best stretches of roads anywhere in the world, or so the movie has you believe.

The movie consistently reminds you that another day, another place and this might have been ROADRASH: THE MOVIE or something like that. The movie has its light moments, but the humor never grows on you. And somewhere along the way, you lose track of what the whole fuss is about.

The action scenes are pretty well choreographed. Henderson acts convincingly despite looking like a choc-boy. Ice Cube gives it is his best, but apparently his best ain?t enough. The others are just flies on the wall.