It's a strange world that Torque is set in. A subculture of ugly, tattoo-riddled men who nevertheless attract a rare breed of biker chicks who look like supermodels. Male stereotypes strut their machismo and deliver racially slurred dialogue, labeling everyone a chink, cracker or black-ass. Despite this society apparently existing in Southern California, it still rings so utterly false that I couldn't buy into any of it.
Leave it to music video director Joseph Kahn and Neil H. Moritz, "the producer of The Fast and the Furious" according to the ad campaign (though he is only one of eight credited Torque producers), to help pollute our multiplexes.
Our protagonist, Cary Ford, is played by Martin Henderson, a scrawnier, poor man's Kurt Russell, featuring much of the scruffiness, less of the charm, and none of the intensity. Some six months before the story begins, he was framed in a drug scandal and fled the country. He's one of these people whose callous attitudes about life and responsibility are constantly getting him into trouble with everyone he runs into. Now he's back and looking for more.
The convoluted plot involves rival gangs, drugs, a murder, corrupt officials, more framing, and plenty of PG-13-rated innuendo. You needn't worry about the specifics. What's surprising is that a music video director was able to make this setup fairly easy to follow, at least until the incoherent finale, complete with the requisite slow-motion shot of a character composedly running from an explosion.
The PG-13 rating is crucial, as the film is obviously aimed at teens. It's permeated by a snide attitude that equates hip with intelligence. The characters' motivations are all on a level teenagers can appreciate, rebels who secretly want to fit in. By their nature, they are loners, riding solo, yet they all belong to gang families. Even Ford, the ultimate loner, rides with a small group of friends.
Ford's girlfriend (Monet Mazur) is the ultimate in adolescent fantasy: a biker chick who knows mechanics, can take care of herself and looks like a magazine cover model. At least gang leader Ice Cube realizes this is trash and overacts accordingly, sneering in every direction.