Stone

Eight years after its Australian debut, Stone was wheeled onto the British circuits by distributors clearly chasing the audience that made the Mad Max cycle so successful. But any comparison with those films - or its true American ancestor Wild Angels - reveals that this is strictly a moped of a movie. To be fair, L plates are on display: it's a first feature for director Harbutt, who also produced, co-stars, and co-scripted. Stone himself (Shorter) is an undercover cop who infiltrates a gang of bikers known as The Undertakers (they bury their dead standing up 'so they won't have to take anything lying down'). His cover eloquently blown - 'This cat's a pig, man' - Stone ingratiates himself by riding a mean machine. Much footage of bikers abusing less than picturesque locals - cadging ciggies, stealing sauce-bottles, and so on - follows until suddenly it's all over. Like its hero's 'Levi originals', Stone badly needs the piss taken out of it.