Flying Metal

directed by Bryan Gerstenberg and Mike Stone

starring Tony Hawk

Shrapnel Films

 
I don't really want to say this tape is "gratuitous", but no other good word comes to mind. Not that "gratuitous" is a bad thing, mind you, because there's nothing worse than looking for your particular fetish while dredging though hours of filler material. Here's the story -- imagine a large group of young men with dirt bikes and a death wish. These gents make their vehicles do stuff never intended by Suzuki, including running them over 160 of open water. Yep, Jesus did it with magic, these guy do it which horsepower and cojones.

Beyond the amateur levitation, we get about 45 minutes of bikes, cars and skateboard stunts with guys fighting, falling down, showing off their road rash, and bleeding. The bloopers are as big a part of the entertainment as the successful stunts, along with a riveting metal sound track. The music features the sort of tattooed artists that make any normal parent yell "TURN THAT NOISE DOWN!" before you even get the tape out of the box. My favorite band was "Meat Rocket," if only for the name. There's precious little dialog, only a few females appear in the tape, but every rider/athlete gets a white title block with his name, and a few slices of their 15 minutes to show off their war wounds.

While watching this is fun once or twice, this is best used as a TV background for a party that might break out into unplanned but happily anticipated violence. And, the wrap-up is a world record 14-semi trailer jump on a motorcycle, although they DO put them side-to-side, and not end-to-end. A minor nit, to be sure, but then he MIGHT have missed, and then you could have seen this guy's green splint X-ray.

Shrapnel Films: http://www.shrapnelfilms.com

Carl F Gauze