American Flyers

American Flyers
by John Badham

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DVD details

Actor: Alexandra Paul, David Marshall Grant, Janice Rule, Kevin Costner, Rae Dawn Chong
Director: John Badham
Brand: Team Marketing
DVD: 2 Sides, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-12-21
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video

DVD Reviews of American Flyers

DVD Review: nastalgic
Summary: 4 Stars

I saw this film years ago, The story line is a good old fashioned battle against all odds to victory. Good movie.

DVD Review: Good but not the best
Summary: 4 Stars

This movie was recommended to me on Flixter, because I liked Breaking Away (Widescreen Edition). I really liked the movie (it stars a younger Kevin Costner) and has a lot of cool biking scenes (Kevin Costner trueing a wheel). However, the movie is a little cheesy and predictable. If you're looking for a great movie, I'd pass this one up. If you're looking for a great biking movie, American Flyers is good, but Breaking Away is great.

DVD Review: Racing Scenes
Summary: 4 Stars

I enjoyed this movie more than I did Breaking Away simply because it had more racing scenes. I also enjoy true stories but the bike action was the best part!

DVD Review: Old Memories
Summary: 4 Stars

A small film that I saw first as a young father, "American Flyers" overcame, for me, its weaknesses in plot (a bit hackneyed) and script (overly obvious) with an unabashedly sentimental ending that, against all my better judgment, arrowed straight to my heart. What can I say? This film got to me.

Kevin Costner and David Marshall Grant play brothers, Marcus and David Sommers, estranged by circumstances surrounding the illness and lingering death of their father. A sports physiologist, Marcus blames his mother, played here with two notes by veteran Janice Rule (her last film), for her lack of strength during the final days of his father's illness. (The father died by cerebral hemorrhage and has passed a predisposition to one or both of his boys.) Younger brother David has forgiven his mother her frailty for he remains at home with her, a bit adrift of commitment. Sparks fly when Marcus returns home to challenge his younger brother to make something of himself by training for a brutal bicycle race, the "Hell of the West." (The "Coors Classic" by any other name.)

As expected, competitive cycle training slowly binds the boys, while the spectre of sudden illness redeems the family dymanic. Yet for me, this film breathes for those of us who have stuggled to overcome family dysfunction to find the thick, life-giving blood beneath. The family Sommers' final hug, still shot, with that 38-special-like song from Glenn Shorrock, like a dream from the Eighties, rising over the credits, it gets me everytime.

DVD Review: Do you know the two actual bike racers in this movie?
Summary: 3 Stars

Eddy "the cannibal" Mercxx was the person who started the race. They used his nickname for the principle bad guy in the movie when they called him the "cannibal".
The other real bike racer is the hitch hiker, girl friend of David. Alexandra Paul. She is an ironman triathlete in real life, although that came later in her life than when the movie was made.

Description of American Flyers

Sports physician Marcus persuades his unstable brother David to come with him and train for a bicycle race across the Rocky Mountains. He doesn't tell him that he has a cerebral tumor. While David powerfully heads for the victory, Marcus has to realize that the contest is now beyond his capabilities. / Features great views of the Rockies and an insight in the tactics of bicycle races.

American Flyers could roughly be referred to as a cross between Breaking Away (also written by Steve Tesich) and Brian's Song. Sports physician Marcus (Kevin Costner, sporting a ludicrously big mustache) coaxes his flaky brother David (David Marshall Grant) into doing something with his life and training for a grueling bike race in the Colorado Rockies. The scenario is complicated, though, by family frictions and the fact that the brothers' dad died of a cerebral aneurysm that has been handed down to one of the brothers. The two train rigorously for the big event (part of their routine involves outrunning an angry pit bull every day), then pack the van and head West. Marcus's girlfriend is also the ex-wife of his main rival in the race circuit, providing a bit more intrigue. Veteran action director John Badham (Saturday Night Fever, War Games) excels during the bike-race segments, capturing the breathtaking scenery and the demanding nature of the event nicely. The film is somewhat hobbled, though, by the screenplay and character development; the film plays a bit too much to the sports-movie clich? and the dysfunctional-family story seems like a lengthy prologue to the race. Also, try not to be too bothered by the annoyingly dated soundtrack, and this should be a fairly entertaining, unpretentious little film. --Jerry Renshaw

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