"American Flyers" stars Kevin Costner and David Marshall Grant as Marcus and David, two brothers who share a passion for cycling. It attempts to be both a drama and one of those inspirational sports movies that have been done to death.
Right from the start, "American Flyers" is weak in its storytelling. There was some sort of family fallout regarding the death of the brothers' father. Marcus blames his mom for something or other and hasn't spoken to her or his little brother in a year and a half. The reasoning is never made very clear. Anyway, Marcus calls and lets his mom and brother know that he is coming for a visit. He shows up late for dinner and then announces he is already going home the very next morning. All the while, he is quite mean to his mom. Nice guy. It's made all the worse by not allowing us to get to know the mom at all. She is one dimensional and hardly has any dialogue.
The "story" has two main topics. The father died of a cerebral aneurysm and the viewer is left wondering if one or both of the brothers is going to suffer the same fate. The film is also about a bicycle race. I would go more into detail but you can guess what is going to happen right from the start. There is no suspense whatsoever.
Throw in what amounts to a McDonald's commercial part way through the movie and you have a real dud. Rae Dawn Chong and Alexandra Paul also star as the brothers' girlfriends. Both give decent performances but it's all for nothing. Writer Steve Tesich was trying to repeat the success he had with his other bicycling movie "Breaking Away". He had obviously run out of original ideas and this film pretty much ended his career in Hollywood. 2/10
Right from the start, "American Flyers" is weak in its storytelling. There was some sort of family fallout regarding the death of the brothers' father. Marcus blames his mom for something or other and hasn't spoken to her or his little brother in a year and a half. The reasoning is never made very clear. Anyway, Marcus calls and lets his mom and brother know that he is coming for a visit. He shows up late for dinner and then announces he is already going home the very next morning. All the while, he is quite mean to his mom. Nice guy. It's made all the worse by not allowing us to get to know the mom at all. She is one dimensional and hardly has any dialogue.
The "story" has two main topics. The father died of a cerebral aneurysm and the viewer is left wondering if one or both of the brothers is going to suffer the same fate. The film is also about a bicycle race. I would go more into detail but you can guess what is going to happen right from the start. There is no suspense whatsoever.
Throw in what amounts to a McDonald's commercial part way through the movie and you have a real dud. Rae Dawn Chong and Alexandra Paul also star as the brothers' girlfriends. Both give decent performances but it's all for nothing. Writer Steve Tesich was trying to repeat the success he had with his other bicycling movie "Breaking Away". He had obviously run out of original ideas and this film pretty much ended his career in Hollywood. 2/10