Torque 1.5 / 4 stars PG-13, 81 m Starring Martin Henderson, Ice Cube, Monet Mazur and Jamie Pressly. Directed by Carl Franklin. Opens tomorrow.
In the vein of past successes like the two "Fast and the Furious" films and misses like "Biker Boyz," "Torque" combines a highly stylized flashiness with thugs and plenty of female eye candy.
"Torque" is clearly an attempt at being a box-office draw in a relatively uninteresting time for film releases, as studios have already released their Oscar hopefuls and are saving their big guns for the summer.
While "Torque" isn't meant to be an intellectual endeavor by any means, it lacks any ingenuity and takes few risks, resulting in a very run-of-the-mill product. The flashy camera effects are as much of a problem as the hackneyed dialogue and, worst of all, the film surprisingly is highly unaware of its camp. This makes "Torque" more boring than funny or action-packed.
The handsome hero Cary Ford (Martin Henderson) is a biker on the run. He's running from gang leader Trey Wallace (Ice Cube), who believes Ford murdered his brother. However, in truth, he was set up by rival gang leader/mullet-wearing hick Henry (Matt Schulze). Ford has to prove his innocence to Wallace as well as to FBI agent McPherson, played by Adam Scott, who looks eerily like Ashton Kutcher. (And, coincidentally, his character's questionable motives may cause the other characters to wonder whether or not they're being "punk'd".)
For a movie where a character is defined by what band T-shirt he or she is wearing (Ford spends the entire film in a black Ramones shirt, while Henry's evil henchman wears a Motorhead shirt), it doesn't play up its silly side enough.
"Torque" is by no means a celebrity vehicle either - Ice Cube is the film's only real big-name star. Instead, it attempts to showcase its young cast. Leading man Henderson does a decent job with his two-dimensional character, while the usually good, or at least decent, Ice Cube is dreadful, becoming more of a parody of his earlier gangsta rap days.
Pseudo-celebrity Jamie Pressly is ridiculous as China, the Goth biker who is constantly licking her lips in every scene no matter what the context. She even gets into a catfight on wheels behind impossible-to-miss billboards for Pepsi and Mountain Dew. At this point it is unclear whether to watch the movie or run to the concessions. This shameless commercialism is unfortunately the least of "Torque"'s problems.
The action sequences, especially the final chase scene, are poorly edited, lending them little or no continuity. This results in tight shots of tires, speedometers and eyes squinting in seemingly random order at break-neck speed.
There is absolutely no dramatic narrative that drives the action sequences, and, even worse, these sequences look painfully unrealistic. The overuse of digital effects is getting completely out of control, which is evident here as sequences in this movie are practically cartoons. If studios continue to churn out unrealistic effects, the "wow" factor will soon wear off and audiences will no longer accept this over-dependency on digital effects.
It's not as if "Torque" is aspiring to be a great dramatic film, but it gives up on any sense of campiness or irony to make it fun or interesting. The film just sits there in all of its commercialism and mediocrity.
In short, "Torque" is an unentertaining mess. It's neither fast nor furious, but rather, stuck in neutral.
