Waste of time

Am I Missing Something?

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

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!

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.

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.

Terrible movie about cycling. Why can't Hollywood make an honest movie about a sport? I think if they would be honest, they would find that people would not be bored (like I was in this one), but more interested in the subject. Costner makes it watchable, but what's with all the hair. Beards, mustaches, etc, I thought being covered in hair was a 70's thing not an 80's thing. They could have left out the disease thingy, people who cycle don't ride around wondering when their head is going to blow up. Where did they come up with that? I suspect this movie ended many careers, and I'm surprised that it didn't bring down Costner with the others. If you are a cyclist you might want to watch it for laughs.