Remember that scene in "Mad Max: Fury Road" where the one war boy is given Immortan Joe's own pistol, has his teeth chrome-painted and told "I will carry you myself to Valhalla!" then he's thrown up on the war rig and promptly stumbles and loses the pistol? And Joe's brilliant response, "Mediocre!" totally deflates the war boy? That's what this movie is, except it's the audience that gets deflated by this stumbling mess.
What has happened to Hollywood that nobody can write a decent screenplay anymore? I just don't get it. The acting is fine (especially Jodie Comer - she is a revelation; and Austin Butler is imminently watchable even though he hardly says anything), but there just isn't any meat on this corpse for them to dissect.
The first few moments of the movie were promising and I felt like, "Yeah, throw him up on the rig, go war boy!" There are a few really nice shots of cool vintage items with a slick song in the background. It reminded me of Tarantino and my pulse quickened. Unfortunately, that was the only time I was inspired by this at all, because it promptly stumbles and has Austin Butler getting assaulted in a bar for being a biker. Really? This tired cliche? And it never got better.
A few points to discuss:
To start with, the bikers in this club wore the "1%er" patch. I am in no way anything like an expert, but from what I understand that patch was worn by true criminal biker gangs. This movie never ever tells us anything about that aspect or even mentions what the members do for a living if they aren't criminals. In fact, we are not privy to their personal lives except in the most superficial of ways - we don't even see Butler and Comer's characters get married. Where these guys truly criminals? Because this felt exactly like an after-school club they joined to put on their college applications. If they weren't a criminal organization (which the true gang this was based on was), then those guys were in it purely for the love of motorcycles. But that is not communicated at all. Zero love. There are a few moments where the movie gestures toward it, but they are fleeting and far far from passionate or inspired. We are never made to feel that love.
In fact, for a movie called "The Bikeriders," there is precious little about bikes or riding. I was never once inspired by this movie to go out riding. Never once. No cool shots of them riding, just one chase scene that again, was nothing but a cliche. It doesn't explore whatsoever the ins and outs of being a bike rider in Chicago. We don't see one winter day in this movie - yet it takes place over some ten year time span. What do these bike lovers do when they can't ride? Chicago winters suck. Not a single word about it. They liked to get together and race, but we aren't privy to any of the race ins and outs. Even - and this is a very telling point - Jodie Comer's character mentions the "rules" of the gang twice and how all-important they were. We are NEVER told the rules. WTF???
This was more uninspired garbage from Hollywood. Passionless, overly cautious, mediocre... like most of everything else from the big studios these days. I was so disappointed. I went home and watched a few late 60s and early 70s biker films on Amazon Prime. One that I really liked was called "Angels from Hell" - a super b movie that does more in any given five minutes to show the culture of an outlaw biker gang than "The Bikeriders" did in the whole 2 hours. Even Kathryn Bigalow's first movie "The Loveless" is better than "The Bikeriders" for communicating the mindset of outlaw bikers.
People compare this movie to "Goodfellas" and I don't get that at all. There is nothing whatsoever dangerous about this movie. Nothing whatsoever traumatizing. Also nothing whatsoever inspiring.
I guess I'll have to watch Fury Road again... this one is more like feeble road. Six stars just for the acting and costumes, but I'd probably go 5.5 if I could.
