Dreadfully Boring

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man is a film not for the serious and not for the serious minded. This modern version of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid casts Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson as a pair of devil may care bikers who live by their own rules and cross back and forth between the law and being outlaws. Sometimes they blend the line real close.Because some tight bankers are trying to foreclose on a favorite bar hangout of their's, just for a lark these two decide to rob the bank that's giving them the grief. Just like in Charley Varrick it turns out to be a syndicate front that not only launders money, but keeps the drugs on premises including a new designer drug that these two walk off with the prototype.I will say that Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson have the same easy going chemistry that Paul Newman and Robert Redford had. They make a somewhat silly plot easy to digest. Daniel Baldwin of the thespian Baldwin family also looks like he's feasting on the furniture playing the head bad guy. There's a gimmick involving a pair of old and patchworn boots that Don Johnson wears. In that final showdown with Baldwin those boots actually play a part in the climax.This one is one to enjoy and not get too cerebral over.

Directed by Simon Wincer 1991 this film, and let's admit it, is a a wonderful comedy even though it was not supposed to be one. Truly, who takes his film seriously?Even though this film is a biker film and produced in a time where being a biker was an ''in'' thing, we follow two men who live their lives the myth of what a biker life is: Freedom, drugs, alcohol, cheap hotel rooms, clash with the underworld, all the clichés of the biker world are united in one film.As humour and to defy the underworld which both men do by entering a bank where drug dealing is king, there is a scene or a parody of the Vietnam war with the helicopter shooting the bank. The use of the helicopter is a tribute to the Vietnam era.Secondly, the abandoned air field with airplane derelicts again seem to portray the vestiges of the Vietnam era. Probably the abandoned airfield is a symbol of the decrepitude of the biker era that was once a dream to be attained for many.The end of the film where Harley Davidson (Mickey Rourke) leaves his long life friend Marlboro Man (Don Johnson) to live a new life picks up a beautiful woman considered a Biker woman who would be bored by a mundane life and the myth of the biker picking up women is a cliché that is still in the dreams of anyone dreaming of becoming a biker and the freedom associated to this world.

Ug. This film is not great. It's also not quite good, either. Hambone acting from everyone involved, with writing to match, makes it a good candidate for "Bad Movie Night". While it may find some merit in this regard, more isn't really deserved. The from-the-gut pat lines from Rourke and Johnson left me rolling my eyes. How Johnson finds his ex riding down the road is a mystery to me. Did I miss something? I do like Tom Sizemore, but his paper-thin bad-guy role is very tepid at best. I will say that Daniel Baldwin was better than I thought he would be. Even as cheesy as his performance was, I liked him. The method in which he and his mates appears is very much a cheese soaked experience. Have I mentioned the cheese? There is some. Much. And more. No, no. I'm full. Please stop. No..?Oh, I sat through the entire film and even paid attention (note title). Lots of folks rave about the buddy connection points of this film, but I thought it was vapid and ridiculous. Comic book style. It's certainly not the worst film 'evar', but it also never got over the hump of gaining my favor, but I guess you (The Reader) know that by now. For a brainless semi-action tough buddy film, it's okay, but Tango and Cash (7of10) would be a much better one in that genre. Check that one out. I give this one a 4 of 10.

A couple of easy-going buddies carry out a robbery. They use too much explosive when carrying it out, but they get away with the loot unscathed. Shortly after, though, they discover they're being relentlessly hunted down by those they have stolen from and go to ever further lengths to evade capture, even jumping from a ridiculous height into a body of water… Nope, we're not talking Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, we're talking Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, the palest of imitations.Actually, that's not quite true: this movie is more of a rip-off than an imitation. While it's obviously not meant to be taken too seriously, it departs so far from the real world as to be unrecognisable to most people. Harley and Marlboro (let's call them Bike and Fag for short) decide the only way their friend can afford the exorbitant rent on his bar is by robbing a bank. Presumably a certain amount of planning went into this heist but we, the audience, are privy too none of it. Having successfully diverted an armoured car (manned by the world's two worst security guards), our heroes are in the midst of transferring their loot when a car filled with serious looking dudes in full-length Kevlar suits and machine-guns turns up. It's these men – not the law, who are nowhere to be seen throughout the film – who track our boys down for the rest of the movie. Actually what I wrote about the lack of law in the film isn't quite true - there's some love interest for Fag in the shapely form of a policewoman (instead of a teacher), who is getting a little tired of his wandering ways, which was presumably an attempt on the part of the writers to inject a little pathos into the proceedings.I felt quite sorry for Mickey Rourke (Bike) and Don Johnson (Fag) here. They're the best things about the movie – which admittedly isn't saying much – and they try really hard to generate some of that Newman-Redford chemistry, but, with lines such as, 'Better to be dead 'n' cool than alive 'n' uncool,' to speak they just don't have a chance. Take my advice: if you're in the mood for a buddy movie stay well clear of this mess – go and see the original Butch and Sundance – or even Turner and Hooch for that matter