Action Double Feature Part 1: The Nickel Ride – DVD Review

The Flick:

The Nickel Ride is a 1974 crime film directed by Robert Mulligan and written by Eric Roth. Starring Jason Miller, Linda Haynes, and Victor French. Also starring Bo Hopkins and Lee de Broux with supporting roles. In downtown Los Angeles everything comes with a price. Cooper, known as the “key man” because of his large ring of keys, manages several warehouses containing the Mob’s stolen goods. When the Mob has stolen so much that they are running out of space, they send Cooper to negotiate for the new warehouse. His boss, Carl gets nervous and believing the big-hearted “key man” to be more of a risk that an asset, orders him to be watched.

The Nickel Ride starts off with some mobsters dropping off a load of stolen goods to a storage warehouse. They quickly find that the storage unit is full and after an aggressive conversation they warn the warehouse worker that Cooper better watch his back. Cooper is trying to work out a deal with a cop, Elias that can get him a storage warehouse ten times bigger then the ones he already manages. It turns out that Elias is stalling on finalizing the deal.

Cooper gets a surprise visit from Carl questioning him about the new warehouse block. He’s starting to lose confidence in Cooper, so he tests him by asking him to tell a local boxer to fix a fight. When Cooper talks to the fighter, he doesn’t want to throw the fight because he’s won the last four but says that he’ll throw the fight anyways. When Cooper shows up to the fight that night Carl introduces him to Turner, a talkative cowboy. Carl wants Cooper to take Turner under his wing and show him the ropes but Cooper’s not having it. Turner quickly turns into an annoying stalker, that shows up at any given moment. When Cooper plans a meeting with Elias at a hotel near the cabin that he owns, Elias never shows. However Turner does, he’s keeping a close eye on Cooper, he even breaks into the cabin and steals Cooper’s gun. Once Cooper figures out that Turner is there to kill him if the deal doesn’t go through, the paranoia starts to set in. Will Cooper make the deal on time or is Turner going to take him for a nickle ride?

Conclusion:

First off I’ve always enjoyed Jason Miller as an actor. This movie kept my interest but I felt there could have been more to the plot. It seemed to fall a little flat for me. Although, I laughed my ass off when Cooper (Jason Miller) gets slapped in the face by his girlfriend, Sarah (Linda Haynes) and then he totally decks her in the face, knocking her out! I wasn’t expecting it to happen and I just about died of laughter when it did! Turner played by Bo Hopkins was kind of annoying with a dash of creepy. The ending was a little surprising for the most part. This is a pretty solid flick, totally worth watching!

The DVD:

Audio/Visual

The audio and visual are clean, a much needed improvement from the original.

Special Features

The only special feature on this DVD is a trailer of The Nickel Ride. Worth watching for a good laugh! “He’s going for a Nickel Ride.”

The Flick Rating:

The DVD Rating: