Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Black Angels (1970) * 1/2 (out of 4)Jimmy is a young black male who hopes to one day be the leader of the all-black motorcycle gang. This leads him to attack a notorious white biker known as Chainer. Chainer, understanding what the kid is trying to do, gives him a good beating but nothing too serious. This here sets off a chain of events that lead to the black gang thinking that the white one is about the wage a war.Laurence Merrick isn't a name that is known by many but he directed this film as well as a couple other notoriously bad movies. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO COUNT Dracula? and MANSON are two really campy movies and both of them are more entertaining than this film, which is obviously trying to cash in on the success of films like EASY RIDER and THE WILD RIDE. Obviously this low-budget exploitation picture can't match either one of those pictures and there's just not enough going on here to keep it more entertaining.The biggest problem with BLACK ANGELS is that there's just not enough going on to keep it entertaining throughout its running time. I say that because the film could have made for some campy fun because of the racial angle that it takes but sadly very little is done with the plot. The highlight of the film happens very easy on when the "young" guy tries to show up the "old" guy and it leads to a fairly funny and entertaining fight.For the most part the cast members are good enough for this type of film and that includes James Whitworth who would later gain fame playing Jupiter in Wes Craven's THE HILLS HAVE EYES. The film also offers up some minor nudity and violence but there's just not enough here to save the picture.

While many have compared this to levels of an Ed Wood film; I would agree regarding the lesson learned from Ed Wood films which seems to be lost here. Just because a film is poorly made that doesn't mean it's not entertaining. This film is great within the realm of down & dirty exploitation trash. It manages to offend and show all forms of humanity at their worst. Everyone gets slammed particularly minorities. Women here are all masochist drug takers, gays get slapped around, Caucasians are strictly white trash; the only dignity shown is amongst the Black Bikers although they too are a vicious, violent lot. Acting wise; it's not nearly as bad as an Ed Wood film. The fight scenes may not be particularly well choreographed, but they are nasty and loaded with dirty low-blows. Plenty of good looking bikes, enthusiastic aggression, sex and drug enjoyment. Truly a blast of eye candy trash.

I always wanted to see "The Black Angels" because James Whitworth and Channon Scot,the director of lost and forgotten Bigfoot horror flick "Sasqua" were in it.Channon Scot during our "Sasqua" interview told me about "The Black Angels":"'The Black Angels' was the 1st feature film,I,Big Jim Whitworth and others that were in "Sasqua" did in,I believe,1969,if that's when they landed on the moon I got the year right.We shot that in 14 days at Paramount Ranch and all for a $1 a piece and never got to change our clothes.The director Lawrence Merrick wanted us to really feel like a biker.We stunk for all that time.That's when we met the Manson family and that's when one of our buddies took a 16mm cam and filmed them on the Sphan Ranch.Afterwards is when they committed all those crimes".The film tells the story of a fierce rivalry between two motorcycle gangs:the white Serpents and the black Choppers.It's pretty dirty and exploitative as it features rape scene,stabbings and even wild cats attacking people.If you are a fan of bikersploitation sub-genre you will enjoy "The Black Angels".7 out of 10.

Unbelievable! It's way too good to be true why my local Video Update store carried this VERY RARE biker flick on the shelves. Those who storm through mail-order B-movie companies will recognize this as THE BLACK ANGELS. If you get a chance to rent anything tonight, be sure to look for the out-of-print title BLACK BIKERS FROM HELL. It's the same movie only issued under a name change. That being said, I must tell you that it's the WORST biker flick I've watched in history, and one of my all-time worst movies in the history of motion pictures. The early 70s is THE fad-filled era for terribly horrendous drive-in films that lasted only a single run. Forget PLAN 9! This is just bad as it can really be!Best described here as plainly plotless and pointless, it carries a title not fully pertaining to the fictional Black Angels. Please notice the laughably corny dialogue spoken, but listen for this crazy weird line: "This time, I'm gonna kill your Frenchy you filthy no good egg-sucking finger-licking snot-picking scuzzy-faced rut!" (say it REAL FAST!). Aside from the new trend of racial (but still campy) violence it presented, nobody wins all throughout the show. For those having faith in excessively bad cinematic taste, I greatly urge some of you to give THE BLACK ANGELS a shot! Then, you and your buddies will soon be convinced why PLAN 9 doesn't reign as "The Worst Movie Ever Made"!