Strong and Moving!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Many times as I sat watching this god-awful film it sure looked like there really wasn't a script. In many places, it looked as if the director, if there was one, just told everyone to 'wing it'--and often the actors talked over each other, spouted gibberish or just talked to hear themselves talk. In addition, sometimes the actors did things that made almost no sense--giving further evidence to the idea that there was no script...or even plot. This is especially true for at least the first half hour of the film where most of it just involves a biker gang running amok. Amidst all this, there is a plot that keeps trying to appear that involves Cameron Mitchell trying to get his pregnant girlfriend to marry him. Eventually the two plots intersect as the two are eventually terrorized by the evil bikers--but in the interim there is still more rambling and pointless prattle. All this makes up the last 2/3 of the film. Not a whole lot more to it than this. Amateurish and silly throughout but not outlandish or silly enough to make it fun for bad movie buffs.

J.J. Weston (Bruce Dern) belongs to a biker gang that includes a man named Bunny (Jack Nicholson). He runs into an old college buddy named Paul (Cameron Mitchell). Paul is living with Karen (Diane Ladd) who's pregnant with his baby. The biker gang get Paul and Karen alone on a beach. They beat up Paul (for no reason) and propose to marry Karen to Bunny. J.J. wants to stop this...but how? Boring and stupid biker flick. A terrible script really sinks this one. The biker gang acts and sounds like no biker gang I ever heard of. The dialogue is stilted and the basic plot is just so stupid it's mind-boggling. The part where J.J. starts a "marriage" between Karen and Bunny is just beyond belief. This is only of interest for the cast. It has a pre-stardom Nicholson (wearing the most annoying striped pants I've ever seen) and a very young Dern and Ladd (who I believe were married at the time). Their acting is great but it can't help the horrendous script. A curio at best.

I think that "The Rebel Rousers" is not even close to the worst biker movie ever made. I think this is quite good on a low budget. Bruce Dern is always cool and my hero Jack Nicholson is the best "Rebel" I think this beats the hell out of "The Wild Angels" which even though the talented and groovy duo of Dern and Peter Fonda were in it. I think "The Wild Angels" is the worst biker film ever made, not "The Rebel Rousers". Granted that I wish that there were more scenes of actual motorcycle riding and that most of the movie took place on a beach. I enjoy the opening music of the movie and the location in which the film was shot. Jack Nicholson is delightfully sadistic as "Bunny" especially where he beats the hell out of Cameron Mitchell. The biggest kick I got out of seeing Jack in this movie is his black and white striped pants. Bruce Dern is out of sight as the "Rebels" leader, "J.J." Bruce is much better in this part than his role as "Loser" in "The Wild Angels" which reminded me of Terry Kiser in "Weekend At Bernie's" where they all drag Bruce's dead body around.

The strange behavior of various characters in this movie made me wonder if this might be a parody of biker movies. It was funny when the stereotypical dumb, lazy and cowardly Latino deputy was on screen. He and the sheriff were the only law, and at one point even the sheriff wasn't around. The bikers could have taken over and terrorized the town. And yet they weren't as mean as they could have been, which was never really explained. It was like there was an on-off switch deciding whether the bikers were going to be violent, or funny, or whatever. Some of them were more peace-oriented than the others and tried to get the meaner ones to behave. What really made no sense was the reaction of Cameron Mitchell's character to the bikers. At first I thought he and Diane Ladd were giving good performances. Now I have to wonder. I can say this much: I enjoyed the music that was played in the scenes where Cameron Mitchell and Diane Ladd were together, and of course the funny deputy.Other than that, what was this?