Now I guess I am doing movies about biking now. Oh well, it could be worse, I could be reviewing shitty movies like I did during the entire month of November. Now this movie, this is a gem of a film, one that is tied more so to my childhood as I remember the soundtrack more than the film itself. I will jump into that after the page break, but suffice to say, American Flyers is a surprisingly entertaining film about feuding brothers who just bike their ass off, but mainly that fucking soundtrack was sweet and I remember that more than anything else.
It takes a fierce three-day bicycle race up in the mountains to reunite two formerly feuding brothers in this film written by Steve Tesich, the creator of another cycle movie, 1979′s Breaking Away. This film will please the cycling lovers out there, as it includes actual footage taken from the famous Coors International Bicycle Classic, held in the Colorado Rockies. The plot revolves around the suspicion that one of the two brothers — either the pragmatic sports doctor Marcus (Kevin Costner) or the impudent, driven David (David Marshall Grant) — is likely afflicted with an inherited tendency toward cerebral aneurysms. ~ Rovi
OK, so the movie itself is more of a paint by numbers sports movie in that the two leads are at odds with one another, but through some bro on bro cycling, they become brothers once again and compete in the Hell on Wheels competition. That is pretty much about as plain as you can get, but the whole subplot of the cerebral aneurysms kind of would have made for a much more compelling story if it didn’t randomly pop-up here and there when it suited the plot. Also you get to see Kevin Costner with fucking sweet 80s stache and also Rae Dawn Chong is in this movie, yes that wonderful lady from Commando is also in the movie. This had everything.
While I have only have a few things to say about the actual movie, I most remember that damn soundtrack. It is pure 80s synth/techno/beat music that just works on so many levels. I can’t remember how many times I would be downstairs in the basement as a kid and I would hear this soundtrack playing as my dad was on the stationary bike. I mean just listen to this stuff:
84">Fuck man it was like I was listening to some epic Top Gun shit, but even the soundtrack had some more sweet 80s tunes in terms ofme douche guy who is the total stereotype of a sports villain. The movies is about racing and you get to see a lot of it, so that should be great for bike racing enthusiasts as it also showcases some bike racing techniques. Overall, not a bad flick from the 80s vault.
