English
Gamereactor
movie reviews
The Bikeriders

The Bikeriders

Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, and Jodie Comer team up to document a motorcycle club's fall from grace.

Subscribe to our newsletter here!

* Required field
HQ

Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Tom Hardy in a film about an increasingly violent motorcycle gang in the American Midwest. As far as an elevator pitch goes, there's not much here that doesn't excite me and fill me with rampant anticipation, and it's also precisely this that left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth after sitting through The Bikeriders sub-two-hour story.

HQ

This film is, in a similar vein to writer and director Jeff Nichols' previous efforts, a bit of a character study more so than anything. It's an adaptation of Danny Lyon's book of the same name that follows the events of the Vandals Motorcycle Club and documents how they went from humble and quite honest beginnings to becoming a crime paramount of the Midwest spanning countless members. The movie explores this approximate eight-year-run by focussing on three main characters; Hardy's club founder Johnny, Butler's rising and crazy young member Benny, and Comer's Kathy, the paramour to Benny and the very woman who clearly sees the club fading from a family to a crime syndicate. These three characters are incredibly detailed and well defined, but they also lack a bit of energy, which puts a strain on the pacing of The Bikeriders.

You see, this movie is wonderfully acted, with nuanced and quality performances headlined by the leading trio, but it also doesn't offer much else. The story has its moments, especially as the gang hits its key turning points towards its criminal future, yet it also struggles to command the attention of the viewer for its full runtime. For a movie that is objectively, in this day and age, quite short for a drama, this film feels like it goes on forever, and perhaps that's down to the fact that very little really happens or because beyond the core trio of characters there's not really much of a story worth telling or following. Either way, The Bikeriders has clear pacing problems, problems that can't be saved by the cast proving their excellence.

This is an ad:

In particular, it's Comer that stands out among the rest. Butler is fine as Benny, but he also presents the same kind of performance we've seen from the actor before, where he presents a silent but brooding type of individual that the ladies swoon over. The same can be said about Hardy's Johnny. If you've seen his take on the Kray Twins in particular, you know that Hardy rarely disappoints here but also gives the same gruff yet commanding take on a character, albeit with a Chicagoan accent sprinkled on top. Comer is the star of the show. The queen of accents, as she has been dubbed, presents the most believable and real individual in the entire cast and even though the story isn't about Kathy, you find yourself most enthralled by this woman's account of the events at hand and how she perceived the Vandals' fall from grace. This is Comer's world, and we're just living in it.

The BikeridersThe Bikeriders

I appreciate that this is a pure-blooded drama without the need for special effects or green/blue screens. This is on-set work where the cast are just tasked with doing what they're best at, and The Bikeriders does thrive for that. But it's also not the easiest of watches. There needs to be more to chew on here, as otherwise you will struggle to maintain focus before the credits eventually roll. It seems like Nichols also faced a few issues with presenting some of the core story elements too, as perhaps the biggest and most important development in the entire film is hugely foreshadowed and then fails to surprise when it arrives. Essentially, the power is taken out the punch before it lands.

But all in all, The Bikeriders is a perfectly fine drama. It won't leave you wowed or blow you away, but there are elements, mostly relating to the performances, which stand out and impress. In an age of rather filthy special effects gobbling up and overwhelming film, this is a bit of fresh air, even if it doesn't quite stick the landing.

This is an ad:
06 Gamereactor UK
6 / 10
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

Related texts

The Bikeriders

The Bikeriders

MOVIE REVIEW. Written by Ben Lyons

Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, and Jodie Comer team up to document a motorcycle club's fall from grace.



Loading next content