I wouldn't normally give a second thought to a movie trying to ape Fast and the Furious and various Michael Bay movies (or even a first thought), but Torque combines empty flash with stupidity in vaguely inventive ways. Sure, it's a lot of music video quick cuts and constant tough guy posturing (Ice Cube's scowl gets a ludicrous workout here), but there are moments of dumb visual invention and moments of hot biker chicks hanging around for no reason.
The glue that almost holds it together is Jaime Pressly in arguably her greatest role apart from her gratuitous nude scene in Absolution, playing some evil biker goth chick named China. Her entertaining character proves the perfect foil for the good biker chick Shane (played by the beautiful Monet Mazur), and this leads to a truly great chick-on-chick bike fight that defies both gravity and common sense. I am of the opinion that more dumb movies need to start defying gravity and common sense. Two dimensional characters are often a curse, but they can also be a blessing in disguise if properly freed from the constraints of drama and logic.
I am about 99% certain that Torque is an intentional parody of action films. It's just that they forgot to tell anyone that it was a comedy. No movie could accidentally be this over the top. I hope it someday becomes the cult classic it deserves to be.
ReplyDelete@Erin
ReplyDeleteMaybe the script was a serious and the director wasn't. It's hard to tell.