First Test Screening Review Of TORQUE!!

Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

Remember... this is not BIKER BOYZ. And it is not 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS. It is Joseph Kahn’s debut as a feature director, and it is TORQUE. And our spy has seen it...

So, Dignan here, just got back from the first ever screening of Torque at the Warner Brothers Lot. 2ND BEST FILM OF THE 2003!!!! Of course I've only seen City of God, Kangaroo Jack, and The Guru, so the competition isn't very stiff. An insanely stupid, loud, destructive, idiotic film...and I enjoyed the hell out of it. This film IS a Roger Corman film...there is no better way to describe it. That is, in my opinion, why I liked this film better than XXX and Fast and the Furious on all levels. It accepts the fact that it is a stupid film, and it embraces it joyfully. Don't get me wrong...it is an absurd film. I haven't laughed this much at a film in a long, long, long time...but it was addictably watchable. The story: There really isn't one. All you have to know is that it involves rival bike gangs, kilos of stolen meth, one insanely hot chick and Ice Cube snarling in every frame. (At one time he actually mutters..."Fuck the Police") On a technical level, it's sure is pretty. I have to give props to Joseph Kahn for making beautiful eye candy. There are a lot of inventive camera work, often aided by way too much C.G., but hey I liked it...most of the time. And just wait til you see the end...it's the 2nd most absurd Good Guy vs. Bad Guy scene that I have ever seen. It's second only to Takeshi Miike's "Dead Or Alive", and it actually feels a LOT like it, so I wonder if it was kind of a tongue-in-cheek homage. Anyway, that's the scoop. Much more energetic and frenzied than I thought it would be, and I actually enjoyed it. I can't imagine Biker Boyz being as fun as this film. I do feel they need to tighten many scenes including the final battle scene in the warehouse...it is way too choppy and you can't tell what the hell is going on. But this is a rough cut (it was actually video projected) so we'll see if they tighten it.

Did that guy seriously just reference Miike in a TORQUE review? Seriously?!

"Moriarty" out.