THE BIKE SQUAD

Produced by Michael Feifer
Directed by Richard Gabai
Written by Paul Chitlik
Edited by Brett Hedlund
Cinematography by Michael Goi

Ryan - Braden Parkes
Carlos - Wolf Bradley
Ned - Thomas Garner
Jim Moore - Michael Louden
Stan - Michael McConnohie
Earl - Michael Olifiers

Ryan is the new kid in town. He's there to spend the summer with his dad and is really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, his dad just got a new position at the university and can't spend a lot of time with his son. To make up for it he got Ryan a new bike, and then Ryan does have the affections of his golden retriever, Jupiter.

What Ryan doesn't know is that there are a pair of dognappers in town picking up all the strays for medical experiments. And the doctor in charge of research is trying out a new form of anesthesia. The only problem with that is none of the test animals have managed to survive the tests. It isn't long before Jupiter wanders out of his yard and is in the clutches of the evil dognappers. Ryan is forced to join forces with a trio of bike riding local kids who call themselves The Bike Squad. They have to save Jupiter before it's too late.

The basic premise of THE BIKE SQUAD is a sound one. The makers of the film are smart enough to use bright kids in the main parts and shoot on film to make it more palatable to the younger set. For some reason the kids nowadays see video and they automatically think cheap. Or at least my kids do. There are the obvious stereotypes that you find in the majority of kids movies. The girl is always the smart one. You get one fat kid, but not too fat. The dognappers act retarded as if they just graduated the HOME ALONE school of adult acting.

But, is the movie any good? Sure. At least I think so. Being a forty-one year old male I'm pretty sure I'm not the target audience for this kind of picture. It does dumb things down considerably. The sets when we're not at dad's house are pretty bare and cheap. It looks more like an abandoned warehouse than a medical research facility. Especially when the kids find the other research facility and it's just a bait shop by a lake.

And it is amazing how many people are named Michael in real life that are attached to this film. In addition to the producer and the cinematographer, all three of the bad guys are named Michael. There's even another actor named Michael. I'll bet it was chaos on this set when they were trying to direct the actor's using their real names. And, according to imdb.com, there's even a sequel in the works. I'm not sure how that would work since there are no returning actors from this film. Kinda bizarre.

he final thing I'd like to mention is that the director and screenwriter for this flick have only low budget skin flicks. Director Gabai is even the man responsible for the outlandish BLOOD NASTY with Linnea Quigley. So, either these gentlemen are trying to make films for their kids or they realize that with the number of cable channels geared towards children out there, making children movies is akin to printing your own money.

MTI Home Video


Bio Info for Douglas Waltz

In the spare time afforded him between a full time job for the local phone company, Douglas is happily married with five, that's right five, children. He is a staff writer for the Print magazine Cult Cuts and does work for the webzine (www.cultcuts.net). He also publishes his own small press zine called X-Ploitation. In addition to that he's working on an annual publication of short stories from various writers called On The Night Highways. And if that wasn't enough he's about to shoot his first short film, Phone Sex, sometime this summer.