Posted: 10/01/2003

Bike Squad

(2002)

by Yasmin Hunt

When Man’s Best Friend Is In Danger, Who Do You Call?

I don’t go into a movie-watching experience thinking the movie might suck. I don’t even do that for made for video or TV or B-rated movies. Ok, I lie. When I begin to watch a movie that hasn’t gone to the theatres, I do have an air of skepticism. I brace myself for the shoddy cinematography and the even shoddier acting. That way, I don’t get disappointed. But every so often, I come out of an experience with way more then I came into it. This is what happened to me when I watched The Bike Squad.

People, I’m telling you. This movie could have easily been on the big screen, probably should have been. The quality of the acting was good. The story was so cute and the actors even cuter. The ending got a little sidetracked, but overall, it could have been a Disney movie. Really!

Starring newcomers Braden Parkes as Ryan, Callie Waterman as Lisa, Graham Spillman as Kyle and Wolf Bradley (My Next Funeral) as Carlos, The Bike Squad is about four kids who set on the trail of dog nappers. Ryan and his golden retriever Jupiter have come to spend the summer with his father with the expectation that they would have the entire summer to hang out, but to Ryan’s surprise his father is given a promotion making him unable to spend as much time as they originally planned.

Ryan is pushed into hanging out with his father’s girlfriend’s son Kyle and his two other friends Lisa and Carlos known as the Bike Squad. At first, Ryan’s dealings with The Bike Squad are grim. Kyle doesn’t accept the budding relationship between their parents. But when Jupiter is dog napped by a pair of bumbling idiots with pipe dreams of gambling in the casinos of Los Vegas and sold to a lab for scientific testing, The Bike Squad comes to the rescue. The clock is ticking and The Bike Squad must save Jupiter and the other pets before they become scientific experiments.

The kids are endearing and pull off their roles well. The story is engaging and the awesome shots of fast bike peddling and minor tricks are a welcomed addition. Initially when the movie began, I had been writing some other reviews, but five minutes into the movie, I found myself pushing aside my work so that I could really watch the movie, with no distractions. Impressive.

Also in The Bike Squad are Thomas Garner (Contact, Little Heroes I & II), Stephanie Denise Griffin (Jeepers Creeper 2, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover), Michael Louden (Space Cowboys, As The World Turns), Michael McConnohie (Frog-g-g!, Digimon: Digital Monsters), and Michael Olifiers (Bruce Almighty). The Bike Squad was written by Martin Olmedo (Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County, Who’s The Boss), directed by Richard Gabai (Kickboxing Academy, Virtual Girl), and produced by Michael Feifer (The Bike Squad II, Target).

The Bike Squad will be released by MTI Home Video, a leading independent home entertainment studio, on VHS and DVD October 21, 2003 (prebook: October 2, 2003). Special DVD features include a trivia game, interactive menus, scene selection, movie trailers, and optional Spanish subtitles. The VHS will be available in both English and English with Spanish subtitles. For more information on Bike Squad and other MTI feature films check out www.mtivideo.com.

Yasmin Hunt currently lives in Virginia, watching movies, and wondering how some of those screenwriters got their film deals.

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