Masters of Menace Reviews

Illustrious alumni of the Second City comedy troupe united for this low-mileage spoof of motorcycle clubs. Despite the big wheels in the cast, MASTERS OF MENACE scarcely skidded through theaters, and soon parked in the home-video junkyard. The Roadmasters are a scruffy, beer-swilling, fun-loving bunch of cyclists put on probation for their antics. If they leave town they'll be thrown in jail. "Everybody thinks bikers are just dangerous, greasy dopeheads," complains gang member Gypsy (James Belushi). These greasy dopeheads celebrate their unexpectedly mild penalty by riotously partying, and Gypsy wraps up the revels with a dangerous cycle stunt that kills him. Buddy (David Rasche), the Roadmasters' leader, declares that to give Gypsy a proper burial his body must be escorted by the entire gang to the deceased's family in Las Vegas. When the Roadmasters thus break probation, Nixonian prosecutor Hoover (Ray Baker), who has sworn to destroy them, tries to bring the force of law--including napalm--down on the rowdy convoy. The outlaw heroes' cross-country trek turns into a plotless, pointless and artless string of bits and guest-star cameos by the likes of John Candy, George Wendt and Dan Aykroyd, the last funny for a few seconds as an Evel-Knievel-type whose jangled bones creak with every move. That's the height of sophistication compared to the slob and sex jokes scattered throughout. David Rasche's central performance is an utter void. The actor, who did a turbocharged DIRTY HARRY parody in TV's "Sledge Hammer," hardly has any juice here--he's more of a laid-back surfer dude than a hog-ridin' Hell's Angel. Sorry, wrong genre. And too bad, because the 1960s jam of rebel biker flicks, from EASY RIDER to SATAN'S SADISTS, constitute a most worthy subject for satire. The filmmakers completely fumble the opportunity, and reach the point of desperation with a campfire scene involving a talking bear who lectures the Roadmasters on their place in the universe. The story's punchline has the gang reaching Gypsy's boyhood home only to find that his relatives moved away ages ago. It's as side-splitting as it sounds. (Violence, substance abuse, profanity, sexual situations, nudity.)