207-Wild Rebels

Film Year:  1967
Genre:  Drama, Crime
Director:  William Grefe
Starring:  Steve Alaimo, Bobbie Byers, John Vella, Willie Pastrano, Jeff Gillen
MST Season:  2

The Movie

A stock car driver is propositioned by a gang of motorcycle thugs to be a getaway driver in their crime sprees.  Initially he refuses, though the police convince him to take the job and be their inside man.

Like Side Hackers before it, I didn't find Wild Rebels entirely unwatchable.  It's a fairly breezy if anti-special inside man crime caper.  It's a little dim, but in all honesty it's more recent counterparts, such as Point Break and The Fast and the Furious, are just as stupid if not stupider.  Wild Rebels is just cheaper and less glossy.  The action isn't quite thrilling, and there really aren't any characters to get behind, but there are some pretty groovy 60's women in some fairly sexy (though sometimes absurd) wardrobe, so the movie has a base sex appeal.  Unfortunately there's not much here for the ladies, as just about every man is greasy and dumpy.

Is that really all it has going for it?  Maybe.  There's not a lot to really say about this movie that feels like it was hammered out really fast.  To be frank it's not compelling because there doesn't feel like it was done with heart but rather "for kicks, man!"  It's a movie made with a simple plot to cash in on the biker fad, so what real criticism can I make?  If that's why it was made then it served its purpose.

The Episode

"I'm in it for the kicks!"  This is the quote that describes the episode from top to bottom, because this episode is just an exorcise in fun.  There's even a late host segment in which Joel explains to the Bots the proper way of enjoying a bad movie and the secrets to having fun with it.  That just fuels the bad movie celebration tone of the show and makes the episode a prime example.  The riffing maintains a playful nature, as our riffers try to follow the film best they can but get a laugh out of it's simplistic stupidity.  The movie's full blown groovy 60's and if you're into that you'll dig the tone the film gives off quite well.

The highlight of the host segments is a "commercial" for Wild Rebels cereal, as Joel and the Bots sing a little jingle.  This segment is easily the most fun of the episode, but the others give an effort.  Joel and Gypsy attempt to recreate a love scene from the movie while Servo and Crow gang up on Joel, and there is also a history of intellectual biker gangs.  Gypsy shuts down important operations on the ship so she can stay coherent enough to get some things off of her chest in a fun opener too.  The Invention Exchange features the Mads' glorious Hobby Hogs while Joel demonstrates 3D pizza.

Oh, and Tom Servo's "hair" has finally grown out too!

Wild Rebels continues season two's mini-biker-thon with a lot of gusto, with a silly movie and a playful riff tone making the episode just a blast.  There's not too much about the episode to separate it from the pack of other solid episode, the kicks are had and that's more than enough.

The DVD

Rhino released Wild Rebels as a part of their Volume 9 collection, with swell video and audio.  There were no bonus features.

Shout Factory is set to re-release this set on January 15th, 2019.