TORQUE

TORQUE is shamelessly cheesy and improbable, so much so that it almost instantly becomes a guilty pleasure. The fact that director Joseph Kahn and writer Matt Johnson seem to be entirely aware of what they're doing takes away from the unintentional giggle factor this is one of those rare movies that gets away with winking at absurd melodrama without turning into straight-ahead parody.

Cary Ford (Martin Henderson) is a biker who has just returned from a long trip to Thailand, prompted by the anger of evil biker gang leader/drug dealer Henry (Matt Schulze) and the investigation of an FBI agent (Adam Scott), who thinks Cary has been peddling unlawful substances. Cary now wants to clear his name with the Feds and with his girlfriend Shane (Monet Mazur), who has ample reason to be angry with him. Shane's wrath, however, is nothing compared to that of not-so-evil-but-baaaad biker gang leader Trey (Ice Cube), who wrongly believes that Cary has murdered Trey's dense younger brother.

The movie is skip-bleached within an inch of its life, which is a good move creatively. Having the entire enterprise look surreal from the first frame cues us that we're not meant to take it seriously this is TV commercial dramatics extended into a story. At 82 minutes, most of them filled with motorcycle chases, races and stunts, punctuated occasionally by explosions, TORQUE can't be accused of wasting any time. Editors Howard E. Smith and David Blackburn keep things zipping along, while director Kahn and his team come up with a few fairly impressive sequences, such as two women dueling while their cycles speed through traffic, and some great shots of maneuvers on both crowded freeways and open ranges.

Acting is a bit tongue in cheek, but surprisingly good in the circumstances, with Henderson and Mazur both showing intelligent presence and Cube properly surly and formidable.

TORQUE teasingly references producer Neil H. Moritz's THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, but the biker movie turns out to be the more agile of the two. It has the kind of cheery zest associated with old Roger Corman movies it can't be bothered to get real, but it knows how to entertain.