American Flyers
American Flyers
PG-13 | 16 August 1985 (USA)
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When Dr. Marcus Sommers realizes that he and his troubled, estranged brother David may be prone a fatal brain disease that runs in their family, he decides to make peace with his sibling, and invites him on a trip to the Rockies. There, the brothers bond over their shared enthusiasm for cycling and decide to enter a grueling bike race through the mountains. However, Marcus' health soon begins to fail, and David must compete without his brother at his side.

Reviews
Catangro

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

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Allison Davies

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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Scotty Burke

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

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Celia

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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Mr-Fusion

"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.

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Tobias Feltus

American Flyers is one of those films which - sadly - has fallen victim of the great triad of cinematic failures: poor acting, illiterate script writer and a soap-opera editor.Arguably the plot-line and directing is pretty good. The last half hour or so is almost great. Good cycling. The directing carries the excitement of the action, and the goal of the film is almost reached.Kevin Costner has never been known for his acting abilities, and frustratingly the rest of the cast follows suit with panto-style delivery which is cringe-worthy at best. Coupled with this, is the sloppy editing reminds me of soap-operas, where delivery is followed by an infinite pause, stunting the suspension of disbelief (of a natural conversation). The dialogue is often so bad that it is not even funny. Anger is expressed by Thriller style glary eyes and raising your voice. Remember this, young actors.

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derekryter

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.

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Scott Burns

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.

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