The Bikeriders
“I’ve been thinking, I can’t run this club forever. I built this from nothing. This is our family. You and me, kid” - Johnny
This quote from The Bikeriders hints at the film's look into loyalty and brotherhood. While the trailers showcased thrilling motorcycle sequences and battles between clubs, I will say I was surprised by the actual product. I was expecting a lot of Austin Butler and Z and I agree, every second that wasn’t used showing Austin Butler riding was a wasted second of the movie. This movie was definitely not what I expected. The film focused on the story within the story, where I went in expecting it to be an action thrill ride. Now, I can’t say there wasn’t action, but sadly if you saw the trailer, you saw basically all of it. Along with that, I did not expect it to follow the writer of a book in the 60’s instead of focusing on the story of Johnny, Benny, and Kathy. The grainy, documentary style cinematography adds to the film's authenticity and I think it does work, but you have to be expecting that type of movie to enjoy it to the fullest.
As stated above, Austin Butler from the moment he is shown leaning against a pool table had me fully… engaged… but the movie went a route that almost wrote him out at times. It leaned on Jodie Comer, who I did think was great, but left me wanting more of Butler. I think they also had two great performances from two great actors, but decided to tell us about the love between them instead of letting us experience it. Maybe I am focusing on the wrong things, but I know what I want! It may seem like I hated it, but I definitely didn't. I thought the story did captivate me at times with the changing dynamic of the Vandals. I also hate motorcycles, so the fact I am saying anything positive means the movie had to do something right. Despite my initial disappointment at the lack of action, I did find myself invested in the story of the Vandals. Period piece and motorcycle lovers will undoubtedly enjoy The Bikeriders, and fans of slow-burn character studies with a historical twist may find themselves surprised and engaged, but overall I was left wanting.
-J
The trailers had E and I pretty hyped for the Bikeriders, but as it turns out the marketing geniuses managed to shove every single action sequence, of which they were only about 4 or 5, into that trailer. That meant what we were left with to fill in the rest of the movie was, frankly, just a whole lot boring nothingness. A rather tame tale of a romanticized bike club. This tale’s pacing was strange too, as it was chopped up repeatedly by Jodie Comer’s character, who is being interviewed and is the one telling the story. So you have this kind of slow burn of disappointedly few action scenes, that is constantly interrupted by this interview that just really did not work. Aside from that, Tom Hardy and Austin Butler were phenomenal, as expected. It’s not every day you get two of your “Must Watch” list actors in the same movie, and they did NOT disappoint. As Jord mentioned, Austin Butler was criminally underused, and we got surprisingly little of Butler on a bike? Like that’s what we were here for people. If this had been marketed a bit differently, I may have been a little more generous to this movie, but even giving it the benefit of the doubt, it disappointed.
-Z
