Movie Review: Torque

If you think Fast and Furious was pretty darn fast, you haven't seen the new motorcycle actioner Torque. And talk about a really "hot" film set...the whole cast went to motorcycle boot camp and ended up in the California desert sweating in tight leathers in 101-degree heat!

In Torque, hot biker Cary Ford (Martin Henderson) left the country months ago having hidden several motorcycles belonging to Henry (Matt Schulze) a tuff drug dealer and leader of the Hellions cycle gang. Ford is back in town looking for girlfriend Shane (Monet Mazur) and Henry wants his bikes back. Seems they have more in their tanks than gas. When the bikes aren't turned over to him, Henry frames Ford for the murder of the young bro of Trey (Ice Cube)..leader of another crew called the Reapers.

Now Ford has to outrun Henry and an FBI agent (Adam Scott) who is on his tail as well as Trey, who wants revenge. With the help of his own crew Dalton (Jay Hernandez) and Val (Will Yun Lee), Ford takes off across the desert hoping to get a second chance with Shane and prove his innocence but only if he can outrun his enemies.

Is Torque a deep, heartfelt character study film with sparkling, brilliant dialogue? Uh, only if "you're dead!" And "let's ride" are your idea of great prose. What this actioner accomplishes is a visual assault... in a good way. The music video styles of director Joseph Kahn are applied here threefold and you get a totally stylish, in your face and bangin' on your eardrums roller coaster ride. By Kahn's own admission, this isn't rocket science. It's a comic book!

Watching the over-burnt bright colors and the fantasy, "I'm riding a speeding cycle through a developing Polaroid picture" effects and the "is it real or is it CGI" stunts, you have no time, during the film's 81 minutes, to be bored. Cute guys in tight leather abound. Martin looks like a young Kurt Russell (go rent Big Trouble in Little China) and hot Latino Jay Hernandez is no slouch. Ice Cube has great fun throwing us a quivering- lipped, evil stare for most of the film. For the guys, Monet Mazur is the hot blonde wrapped around a cycle when she's not wrapped around Martin and Jamie Pressly is the dark Goth biker babe licking her lip stud and wearing a leather bustier!Curvy cutie Christina Milian appears briefly as a hottie lookin' for biker boy action.

Hey, if you are up for a mindless comic book thrill ride, as the message on Martin H's. leather-clad chest says.. "Carpe Diem".. Seize the day and hit the theater! If nothing else, you can have fun counting the product placement ads in almost every frame!

For a blistering, brain-frying ride.. 3 out of 5 stars..

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter