I try not to leave big spoilers in my review below - but you may/may not want to read it
I watched the movie last night - we had a string of thunderstorms and had no satellite TV reception anyway.
The movie is pretty good. It was obviously made on a small budget and with donated props and largely amateur actors, but in spite of that the end product is pretty good. Not hollywood level by any means, though I have certainly seen some Hollywood movies that were far, far worse. Running time is about 87 minutes, which isn't hard to sit through, and I personally think that if the spent a bit more time on some of the supporting character's development it would have really helped. The plot line I think could have been made thicker and more interesting, but the character interactions were still pretty good! The "philosophical angle" of the movie - which this movie purports to be a deeply philosophically oriented one - is a bit vague and underdeveloped at times, but it is still one that we can relate to - Bars can be a community, and where there is often much more than just a simple exchange of cash and booze. The film makers did achieve some goals in that respect, but I felt that they could have done even more with it. The DVD also contains a section of deleted scenes/outtakes which in some cases could have helped if left in the finished product, and in other cases they really didn't seem to fit at all. All the bars and towns seen in the movie are real places in Montana, Idaho, and Utah. Some of the shots of scenes in the mountains are very beautiful.
The motorcycle in the movie is a modified/bastardized R60/2, with a rather odd looking front fork, wheel and headlight assembly that appears to have been lifted from a period H-D sportster. It has an Velorex/Jawa type sidecar attached. It seems weird looking, but they do drive it around alot in the film. The film makers use the sound of the bike in the film's soundtrack and not dub in some H-D Vtwin or 2-stroke bike sound, thank goodness! Unfortunately, we don't get to relate to the bike as a character in the story so much - it is either running steadfastly across the desert or through the Rockies, or it is breaking down with puffs of white smoke at inopportune times. Hmmm.
Still, if you like BMW airheads, bars, and small budget films, this is pretty good. There are some sequences that remind me of some hallucinogenic scenes in Easy Rider, and I suspect that the film makers may have been trying to channel a bit of that ethos, even though most of them are a bit young to have seen the movie within 10 years of its release. These scenes in this movie were mostly superfluous, I think.
Watching it did give me a bit of an urge to finish up my sidecar project though, toss in a sleeping bag, tent and a Dobro, and hit the backroads for a spell, looking for mermaids (you'll get the reference if you see the movie). I'm headed to a small local club BMW rally this weekend, so the timing there was great.
I'd give the movie 3 out of 5 stars - which may not sound very good, but it does have a certain appeal.
You can buy the DVD direct from the source on the website for $20 - there is some sort of discount code entry but at the moment I didn't find the code to use.
The movie doesn't show any MPA rating, but it would certainly get an "R" here in the United States - there is certainly foul language, some nudity, and brief violence, and some sex scenes... But whadda ya expect from a bar & bike movie? It is NOT however, anything like watching a "Sturgis" movie..
Happy riding!
Mike
Topic: Another movie featuring a BMW airhead & sidecar (Read 2608 times)