Poker Run is kind of an incomprehensible title. In my mind Devil Riders suits it much better for several reasons. Let me elaborate. The movie is about a couple of bored lawyers who, to escape their boredom, go out and buy themselves a couple of Harley Davidsons. In so doing they run across this dubious character who sneaks them into his world for some reason. He also has a sidekick which there would be no reason in hell to get involved with. He’s almost a caricature of what a crazy outlaw biker would look like.

Anyway, one thing leads to another and soon the dubious guy – Ray, kidnaps their wives and invites them to play a deadly game that they must participate in if they ever want to see their wives alive again. So, they are forced to take the bikes and follow the directions given by Ray, which leads to violence and death as they’re desperate to fulfill all of Ray’s desires. This is the Poker Run. Although, I’m not sure which ones are supposed to be the Devil Riders, the victims or the perpetrators. 

Sound Production

First off, I was pretty annoyed with the sound production. It took away a lot of my concentration. Not that it sounds bad really, but it seems like the dialogue was recorded in post production and added on later. This creates a strange sound compared to the sound of the environment they’re in – bars and motorcycles etc. Although I eventually got used to it, it took away something from the setup of the movie and I couldn’t really follow the story. I might  be easily distracted, I don’t know.

Acting wise it’s pretty decent all around I think. It’s somewhat of a mix between exaggerated characters and characters displayed in such a way that it almost becomes laughable. And I don’t mean that in the most negative aspect of the word. It mostly balances on the edge of what I can tolerate and sometimes steps over it. But, even if the acting is ok most of the time, there is a lack of emotions. It’s not very believable that they would act or react the way that they do in the film. I mean, they are subjected to a whole lot of violence, forced to kill and maim and they don’t seem bothered enough by it.

What happend?

I guess you could call this a road, or biker movie at its core. There’s not much action and the basic genre would in my mind be to call it a thriller, even if it lacks the suspense I would have wanted to see. But there’s also some element that forces me to involve a horror etiquette on it too. And that’s why I think Devil Riders might be a better title. There seems to be something supernatural about it, a curse or something else that never ends. It just gets inherited by the next person in line. The Poker Run continues even if the game is beaten, it just takes on a new host and players.

But even that is uncertain. When it’s over I’m still not sure what the point of the story was.