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Rolling Vengence (1987)

Every vigilante has a story behind them, one usually involving the murder of loved ones by some criminal or criminal organization. The vigilante takes a vow to avenge the deaths, then proceeds to do so, but always meeting resistance from either a loved one or the police, or the target, or themself.

In Rolling Vengence, the lead character (can't remember his name or the actor, so let's call him Jim) is a trucker in training. We works for his dad who just bought him a new truck. One of their clients is the owner of a biker bar (Ned Beatty), who hails from down south somewhere. He has 5 hillbilly sons (whose mother was likely their aunt, if you catch my drift), who like to drink and party and scuttlebut around the streets.

One day the five boys are riding around in their pickup truck (with sporty gunrack on the rear window) and they drive Jim's mother and two sisters off the road, killing them. Jim and his daddy are really pissed off when the boys get off scott free, and they go to the bar and have a little tussle with the inbreds.

The 5 boys, up to their usual tricks, decide to take revenge for the bruises they recieved, and they throw cinder blocks off a bridge onto Jim's daddy's truck, causing an accident which kills him. Now Jim's really upset and he builds a huge monster truck and puts a giant drill on the front. He proceeds to destroy the inbred's used car lot, their bar and ultimately them. The smart guy he is, Jim manages to pin the blame on one of the redneck sons and takes off for a lovely life with his girlfriend.

Quite simply, Rolling Vengence is the ultimate redneck movie, but with suprisingly good characterization. It's like a t.v. movie (which isn't too surprising since the director, Steven H. Stern has been doing tv and tv films for over 25 years). The big truck simply ruins the dramatic though, and turns a somewhat good film into a rather silly one.



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