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David (David Marshall Grant) is ecstatic when his brother Marcus Sommers (Kevin Costner) visits home in St. Louis. Marcus is concerned about David failing at school. Their father died from a cerebral aneurysm and their mother is concerned that David also has it. There is family friction. Marcus works in sports medicine and convinces David to join him at Wisconsin State University. Marcus, his girlfriend Sarah (Rae Dawn Chong), and Leslie (Jennifer Grey) work for Dr. Conrad (John Amos). David gets a clean bill of health but he mistakenly assumes that he has the aneurysm. David, Marcus, and Sarah travel to Colorado for the bicycle race Hell of the West. Along the way, David picks up ex-hippie hitchhiker Becky (Alexandra Paul). Their biggest opponent is Sarah's ex Muzzin, friend Jerome, and the Soviet Belov.

There are a couple of interesting new actors. Costner is pre-success and Jennifer Grey is pre-Dirty Dancing. The brotherly conflicted relationship is great. This has some family drama but the second half is where the bicycling sports fun exists. It explains the strategy rather well and the racing is done with drama. The racing looks great and the vista is beautiful. This is a solid bicycling movie.

Don't write this off just because it's a bicycle movie; it's more than that. If you happen to like bike riding, this is an absolute must-see. But even if you can't even function without training wheels (like yours truly) there's still a lot to love about American Flyers.

If you liked Breaking Away (a bike riding movie from 1979), you'll be happy to hear American Flyers was written by the same person, Steve Tesich. In American Flyers, two brothers enter into a bike race, and during the training and the race itself, tensions run high! Of course, there's romance along the way, and some brother banter that leaves audiences conflicted about whose side to take.

John Badham's gentle directorial touch is seen in this film; the actors work off each other with a wonderful rapport and have a strong sense of their characters, part of Badham's signature in his directing. He's also known for creating interesting and intense action scenes. Watch the bicycle race scenes to see what I mean!

Continuing my plan to watch every Kevin Costner movie in order, I come to his final movie of 1985 American Flyers.

Plot In A Paragraph: David Summers (David Grant) trains on his bicycle every day, hoping someday to be as good a racer as his older brother Marcus (KC) Relationships are explored as two brothers compete in a gruelling bicycle race, named "The Hell of the West"

Directed by John Badham, American Flyers is brilliantly shot, nicely paced and the bicycle races are exciting (despite the obvious ending) especially during a frightening scene when someone loses control of his bicycle high up in the mountains.

The performances are all interesting, and well played. KC is more subdued here, than his flashier turns in Fandango and Silverado, but it's a performance with depth. with solid support from the lovely Rae Dawn Chong, John Amos and Alexandria Paul

It has a few problems, such as it leaves a lot of unanswered questions, what did or didn't the mother do, during the last few weeks of their fathers illness and did one of them actually have the hereditary problem?? It's never disclosed. Then the villain of the piece, one minute he is a giant A-hole, then you think he's not that bad, and maybe a bit misunderstood and just angry. Then he attempts to murder someone, and you think WTF?? I suspect some scenes with him may have been left on the cutting room floor.

All in all, American Flyers is a feel good movie, that has a real story with believable characters facing some serious problems.

OK. not a cinematographic masterpiece, but there are some great nuggets from a lost period in American bike racing. The film came out in 1985, the year that Greg Lemond broke into the Tour de France and beat his teammate Bernard Hinaut, though The Badger got to win it (Lemond won his first the following year). And the Coors Classic was the best racing outside of Europe, with Team 7-eleven breaking into the continent. The Muzzin character with 7-11 was modeled directly after Alexi Grewal, who won gold in the 1984 Olympics and won the Bob Cook Memorial race up Mount Evans twice. He also had emotional/anger problems. The Soviet team was brought in after the cold war tensions and the Olympics, though they should have been a French team to make it accurate.

You might even see a banner in the first stage south of Boulder with a Denver TV station logo and "Coors Classic" that didn't quite get hidden.

A mushy movie, predictable turns, geographic mistakes in the footage, and some weak acting, but a good movie if you are in, or love, American road racing--and remember how it started in the Rockies.

Kevin Costner and David Marshall Grant are a pair of brothers named Summers who are not the closest pair going. Both are bicycle racers. Costner was a champion and has now retired from the sport and is a sports medicine doctor. The other one is a talented racer but a playboy and won't settle down to train for the sport and has no great career ambitions.

It's Costner who gets Grant to train seriously by promising to come out of retirement and race with him in the great Colorado bike race known as American Hell because of the stark barrenness of the landscape they race on. What Grant doesn't know is that Costner has an aneurysm which can break at any time and cause instant but painless death. It gives Costner an added incentive to get Grant to straighten up and fly right.

There are some nice scenes with Costner and Grant and Janice Rule who plays their mother. Their dad died of this same thing and the tendency to aneurysm is inherited. There's a couple of women attracted to the Summers boys, Rae Dawn Chong and Alexandra Paul who become biker groupies. I suppose every sport and every musician has them.

The cycling scenes are beautifully photographed in Colorado and are worth seeing the film alone. But the essence of American Flyers isn't sport or scenery, it's the conflict between the brothers who come together in the end as good families do.

You might want to take up cycling yourself after seeing American Flyers.

Not a frequently shown film, but a highly recommended one. A good chance to see Kevin Costner early in his career; you see the spark that made him into one of Hollywood's most prominent actors. Also an early chance to see an odd type of performance from Jennifer Grey, before "Dirty Dancing." You don't have to be a cycling fan to enjoy this poignant movie.

As a few other reviews have stated, this is a different kind of costner. An earlier, less-famous costner. He was very good in this, i didn't see the end coming either. The fact that there isn't many well known faces in this film is what makes it so watchable, because you have no pre-conceived biases due to not knowing any of the actors. You just concentrate on the storyline & what they're doing, instead of thinking about all the other stuff they've been in. The music was brilliant as well. Some f*cking breathtaking cinematography on the mountain race scenes. A simple film, executed well and with a satisfying ending. Also took me a while to realise his teacher was the guard from "lock up" & the owner off McDowells restaurant from " Coming To America" LOL.

Knockout photography and a winning performance from Costner stand out in this well made film about a school dropout who rivals his doctor brother in Rockies bicycle race.

This sentimental film which one reviewer terms a "cult classic for cyclists..." is disappointing. Yes, as a former cyclist who was racing at a time long before cycling was popular, it does have some scenes that bring back memories of the adrenaline rush of riding in the pack (I was usually well at the rear) and the long hours of training. The scene where they have to sprint past a pit bull is memorable too, but most cyclists can outsprint dogs. However, when you compare this film to the 1979 Breaking Away, it doesn't stand up. Frankly, I found the theme of an athlete with a potential life-threatening condition to be a bit over-wrought and excessive sentimental. David Marshall Grant has his day in the sun alongside Costner and gives less than a memorable performance. Rae Dawn Chong is, as always, charming but the rest of the cast fades away. This is not a bad film and is one that could have been outstanding, with a bit of work. It's too bad that Hollywood too often makes films based on sport stories which avail little about the sport itself. Indeed, their portrayal of the sport winds up being what they (Hollywood marketeers) think main stream America thinks the sport looks like. This film was made before cycling was brought into the public eye by such outstanding American athletes as Davis Phinney, Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong. My impression that the reviewer who chose to deem this film a "cult classic for cyclists" did so because there wasn't much else out there to fill that bill.

I thought maybe a movie about cyclists might be different, and entertaining, as many Kevin Costner movies are, but I didn't find much to like in this film. Constantly bickering brothers complaining about each other's past family sins, grew tiresome fast. I wanted to ground their "fliers" before they ever got airborne.

I didn't much of the cast nor their characters and the story was basically somewhat boring and very much clichéd with the illness angle. In the end, this was a lot more of "chick flick" than a sports film. The only redeeming quality was the wonderful Colorado mountainous scenery. Speaking of 'redeeming," thankfully Costner redeemed himself, sports story-wise, with the classic "Field Of Dreams" a few years after this.

This bike movie was like a flat tire: a pain in the butt to put up with.

American Flyers should not be passed over by non-athletes just because bike racing is a central part of the movie. Sure, its a must-see for all cyclists due to the great racing sequences and thrilling ending(great movie to watch when you're cycling indoors!), but it's also a moving story of two brothers. Theirs is a complex relationship which never borders on sappiness. It may not be perfect, but American Flyers delivers great action and acting and a moving story of the inseparable bonds between brothers and their mother. Don't pass up the chance to see this forgotten gem

This movie is like a problem child - at times inspired, but all too often frustrating. Two brothers compete in a gruelling cross-country bike race, while at the same time re-forging the brotherly love that had been fractured earlier. Great idea, fantastic bike racing scenes and a hissable villain (racing for another team.

However, the whole movie is dragged down by a number of concurrent story-lines that don't really bring much to the table - the coach and his son, the relationship between one brother and a hitch-hiker, and most of all, the cringe worthy Complicated Hollywood Disease That Invariably Proves Fatal that one of the brothers may be suffering from.

If this movie was an album, I'd keep skipping to the scenes tracks that shine through the remainder - the 'torture test', the race with 'Eddie' and all of the final race scenes.

Overall, worth a look, and it will also give your girlfriend something to cry about.

Mr. Furley is walking by the kids' apartment suite when he sees the door is open so he decides to snoop. He overhears Jack telling Chrissy that he'll never make it to next Tuesday. Furley thinks it's some kind of health crisis. Jack's actually talking about having to wait another 3 days for his Amazon delivery to arrive.

That standard Three's Company plot device is pretty much the hook in American Flyers.

Except this movie is about a couple of brothers who like to race bicycles. Kevin Costner is a 20-something doctor who sports a moustache to make him look older and smarter. David Grant is the younger brother. There are some female adornments who add nothing.

Written by an arts-school grad. To appeal to emotionally stunted teenagers. Photographed with the artlessness of a coloring book. And directed with the skill of a middle-school Christmas pageant director. It even comes with more than one obligatory (for the 80s) montage.

American Flyers is bland enough to be a Very Special After School Special. The most shocking thing about it is that somebody so stiff, so dull, so hopelessly whitebread as Kevin Costner could have an enduring career as anything other than a semi-reguiar on a daytime soap opera. The guy has all the charisma of untinted paint.

This movie is just a great film. It's about love, life, and family. It's also about being the best you can be. The two brothers in this movie, one who is very sick and one who is racing in a cycling race in the Rocky Mountains, and he has his brother in his heart the whole time. Both are cyclists, but Kevin Costner's character cannot race. The other character, who I don't think I have seen in any other movies, is just awesome, and the love for his brother made me cry. I remember this movie from the 80's when I was just a little kid, and I watch it everytime I see it on one of the premium movie channels. Rae Dawn Chong is also in the movie as Costner's wife or girlfriend, I forget which one, but she also gives a great performance here. The movie is mainly about racing in Colorado, but it's also a touching story about commitment to those you love, and it's a movie I will never forget.

There are very few bicycling movies out there and I was happy to find this one. The quality of the filming is lower budget and the story is slow, but the acting is good as Kevin Costner never disappoints. It's facinating to take a look at the challenges and struggles behind a cyclist as this heart warming movie brings it to screen.

Although this movie is definitely deserving of it's weak rating here, I still find myself enjoying it. Despite the lazy cinematography and tired "against-all-odds" plot that they didn't try to improve upon one single bit, it must be the cyclist in me that can't help but watch. (my bike is almost the exact same as that used by david grant).

The character building bordered on tedious and they had to throw in a short-prognosis-with-a-twist device to try to prop it up. And I'd still like to know what the point of "Randolph" was. Apparently just something to make his father appear like some over-the-top fitness guy... Kevin Costner, as usual, did his one trick.

I get to be Siskel AND Ebert on this one.

Two-dimensional characters, hammy acting, a disease-of-the-week storyline, and absolutely no surprises earns this one a "thumbs down".

On the other hand...I have another thumb, and this one is way up! Director John Badham ("Saturday Night Fever", "Blue Thunder") really knows how to use the camera when things are in motion. In this case, it's a bicycle race with Colorado National Monument as the spectacular backdrop. Throw in the pulse-pounding soundtrack by Lee Ritenour and Greg Mathieson, and you can almost forgive the sappy soap opera.

Not a great movie, but definitely worth the ride.

They only named a couple of filming locations but the McDonald's was located in McPherson, Kansas

This film has been reviewed by many a film and cycle enthusiast alike both highlighting the cycling inaccuracies or weaknesses in the acting or the plot etc etc.

The simple facts are films of this nature are there to entertain and excite you. American Flyers does that with bells on, not only is the soundtrack typically 80's genius, but the landscapes are stunning and the storyline is simple. So all you need do is flick off your shoes, lie back with a bag of popcorn and enjoy!

In addition, you get to see Costners Mo in full 80's glory, some classic old school road bikes, and a treadmill scene that would rival any Rocky training montage.

Any 80's movie fan would and should love this film, and if you don't then I am afraid to say then you have lost sight of what a film is there to do!

When I saw this movie, I had the idea that it would be a standard winter-movie. But it wasn't because it had a surprising twist in it, and the acting of the young Kevin Costner was not bad at all. Furthermore the bike-action scenes where filmed very good, it had a lot of the real thing in it. But the reason why I gave the movie a 6, is because the movie started very slow and the acting of some of the actors was not that good at all. For example the mother of the two bikers, was very poor acted. It could have had more depth in it.

See you later and thanks for reading my comment, Jeroen from Holland(josno1)

"American Flyers" makes for some decent sports entertainment if you fancy competitive cycling; but even as sports movies go, the '80s offered better options. I have to admit, it was on-the-cusp-of-stardom Kevin Costner's confidence in the role that kept me in this game. It wasn't until the 90-minute mark that things actually got pretty good. Not just with those scenic mountain passes, but it also finally attains some of the emotional weight it's been dancing around all this time (which has been mostly McDonald's commercials and a soundtrack right out of a beer commercial). And then it just . . . stops. There wasn't really anything in that last race to get all tense about.

"American Flyers" stars Kevin Costner and David Marshall Grant as Marcus and David, two brothers who share a passion for cycling. It attempts to be both a drama and one of those inspirational sports movies that have been done to death.

Right from the start, "American Flyers" is weak in its storytelling. There was some sort of family fallout regarding the death of the brothers' father. Marcus blames his mom for something or other and hasn't spoken to her or his little brother in a year and a half. The reasoning is never made very clear. Anyway, Marcus calls and lets his mom and brother know that he is coming for a visit. He shows up late for dinner and then announces he is already going home the very next morning. All the while, he is quite mean to his mom. Nice guy. It's made all the worse by not allowing us to get to know the mom at all. She is one dimensional and hardly has any dialogue.

The "story" has two main topics. The father died of a cerebral aneurysm and the viewer is left wondering if one or both of the brothers is going to suffer the same fate. The film is also about a bicycle race. I would go more into detail but you can guess what is going to happen right from the start. There is no suspense whatsoever.

Throw in what amounts to a McDonald's commercial part way through the movie and you have a real dud. Rae Dawn Chong and Alexandra Paul also star as the brothers' girlfriends. Both give decent performances but it's all for nothing. Writer Steve Tesich was trying to repeat the success he had with his other bicycling movie "Breaking Away". He had obviously run out of original ideas and this film pretty much ended his career in Hollywood. 2/10

For me, this is a perfect movie. Don't get me wrong, it's not Godard or Kurosawa, but what makes it a winner is that is that is says exactly what it wants to - with some style and humor. Alternately exciting, sexy, funny, heartwarming and even heartbreaking (yes, really), Badham has created a complete story that doesn't ignore the hard edges of life, but chooses not to wallow around in them either. The acting is first-rate. I can't understand reviews that claim otherwise. This is Costner, Rae Dawn Chong, and even John Amos in their prime. And the cinematography, with wide sweeping shots of the American southwest and pedal-to-pedal racing footage is no less than breathtaking. Any criticisms of this movie seem to be a criticism of the genre in which it was made. But all movies are made within a certain genre. Once you understand and accept the elements of a genre you can get down to enjoying a film for what it is. And for me, this film is a real treasure, one I come back to often.