Motorcycle Movies
A List and Review of Some of the Best Motorcycle Movies... and maybe a few not-so-best.
If you're looking for a list Motorcycle Movies and Motorcycle Movie Reviews, you've come to the right place.
Here is an ever-growing list of notable movies of/by/for bikers, including a few words about each. **Warning**: movie reviews may contain spoilers. Let's face it, we don't watch most of these movies for the story line - and Biker Movies aren't known for their surprise endings.
We watch to see our cinematic heroes and the machines that they ride. Of course, the occasional pretty, young passenger doesn't hurt.
image: Easy Rider Movie Poster
The Wild One
Where better to start than the one that started it all?
The Wild One is a cheesy 1950s subculture movie, but it's a really well-done cheesy 1950s subculture movie. That alone is worth the price of admission.
A great movie, 5 bikes out of 5.
Motorcycle Movie Rating Key
Great movie, 5 bikes out of 5.
Good movie, 4 bikes out of 5.
Fair movie, 3 bikes out of 5.
Poor movie, 2 bikes out of 5.
Bad movie, 1 bike out of 5.
Easy Rider
Where The Wild One made people sympathetic toward Bikers, Easy Rider made people want to BE Bikers.
Easy Rider was and is the quintessential Biker Movie for Baby Boomers. It's dated but in no way stale.
A great movie, 5 bikes out of 5.
Best Biker Movies of the 70s
In the early 1970s, filmmakers were cranking out Motorcycle Movies by the dozens - most were pretty bad; some were OK; very few were actually good.
The three Best Biker Movies of the 70s are:
Easy Rider - for the life style
Psychomania - for the bizarre
The Hard Ride - for the Choppers
Wild Hogs
You just don't run across very many good, comedy movies with motorcycles.
I didn't have very high expectations for Wild Hogs. I like my Biker films to be kind of rough-and-tumble - something that these four main characters are not. Not to mention that they're kind of on the back side of their popularity curve. It's not that I don't think an actor can make a come back, it's just that, since this plot seemed so unusual for these actors, I was afraid that they may have become desperate. I was wrong; this is probably my favorite comedy motorcycle film.
Good movie, 4 bikes out of 5.
Genre:
Action Movies, Comedy Movies
Directed by:
Walt Becker
Starring:
Tim Allen
Peter Fonda making a cameo appearance.
Biker Boyz
Biker Movies enter the 21st Century.
It was inevitable - just as Import Tuners have largely replaced Detroit Muscle Cars in today's films, it was just a matter of time before Rice Burners moved in on Custom Cruiser Bikes' turf. Biker Boyz has lots of bikes, lots of action, good cinematography... If this is the future of Motorcycle Movies, I'm OK with it.
Great movie, 5 bikes out of 5.
Ghost Rider
There's a flaming skeleton, riding a motorcycle and it stars Nicholas Cage. What could be better, right?
That's what I thought when I saw the preview for Ghost Rider. What I realized as I was watching this film is that it's not really a Motorcycle Movie; it's a comic book Superhero Movie - and as a general rule, I don't like comic book Superhero Movies. Ghost Rider's motorcycle is more like Spiderman's webs than like Batman's Batmobile. Even Superhero Movie fans will agree that there shouldn't have been a sequel.
OK movie, 3 bikes out of 5.
Genre:
Action Movies
Directed by:
Mark Steven Johnson
Starring:
Nicholas Cage
Peter Fonda as the Devil himself.
The Motorcycle Diaries
A Motorcycle Movie with English sub-titles.
I enjoyed Motorcycle Diaries more than I thought I would. It definitely doesn't follow the testosterone-pumping pattern of typical U.S. Motorcycle Movies:
- First, it's a bit unsettling for me to see two men sitting so closely together on one motorcycle... on purpose... and it was only a 500cc motorcycle at that. I know, Jack Nicholson sat behind Peter Fonda in Easy Rider, but at least they weren't spooning!
- Second, there is no motorcycle in the second half of this movie.
Just as in Easy Rider, this movie is about a journey of discovery; the motorcycle just makes the trip more fun.
Good movie, 4 bikes out of 5.
The World's Fastest Indian
A 70 year old man, on a 40 year old motorcycle and a shoe-string budget, doing 200 mph on The World's Fastest Indian - and it's a true story!
Great movie, 5 bikes out of 5.
Beyond the Law
A police officer goes under cover to take down an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang from within - and it's a true story!
Beyond the Law has a lot going for it: the whole good-guy-flirting-with-the-dark-side thing, motorcycles, action and the old, less flaky, Charlie Sheen. Hairstyles are a little dated and there are conspicuously few tattoos, but over all this is a pretty realistic-looking movie.
Good movie, 4 bikes out of 5.
Psychomania / The Death Wheelers
A Biker Flick, British Horror Movie and Zombie Movie all in one! It's a one-of-a-kind.
Psychomania (1973) is a great movie and should be better known.
The Living Dead, a gang of young motorcyclists, unlock the secret to immortality and, literally, Raise Living Hell in a sleepy little town. Great action, great British and Japanese motorcycles, great story line and a weird cinematic flavor that could only come from a 1970s era film (think Clockwork Orange meets Grind House).
Great movie, 5 bikes out of 5.
Genre:
Horror Movies
Directed by:
Don Sharp
Starring:
Nicky Henson
Mary Larkin
Ann Michelle
Roy Holder
Denis Gilmore
Miles Greenwood
Peter Whitting
John Levene
Beryl Reid
Priest
Motorcycle-riding, martial-art Priests that battle vampires in a post-apocalyptic, steampunk, spaghetti western setting?... Awesome!
It's like watching "Road Warrior", "the Matrix", "Iron Monk", "the Good the Bad and the Ugly" and the good parts of "Van Helsing" all at the same time.
So, what kind of motorcycles do the Priests of the future ride? Flat black, rechargeable, turbine powered one-offs with nitrous, off course. Yeah, I know, but it is a fantasy movie after all (remember the whole vampire thing?). They look cool - kind of like an engine with handlebars and two 300-series tires tires attached.
I know what it sounds like, but you're just going to have to trust me - Priest is a pretty good movie.
Good movie, 4 bikes out of 5.
The Hard Ride
The Hard Ride is one of the truly great Biker Movies to come out of the 1970s. The story was fresh and the cast was mainstream but the real stars of this movie today are the bikes.
This movie has about 20 of the best looking 70s-era Choppers that you've ever seen, complete with:
- Candy metallic-flake custom paint
- King and Queen seats with 6' high sissy bars
- Up-Sweep Exhausts that are just as high
- Crazy-long, twisted fork Springer Front Ends
- 2, sometimes 3, headlights - square of course
Great movie, 5 bikes out of 5.
Motorcycle Gang
So... why am I reviewing this Motorcycle Movie that nobody has ever seen nor heard of? Honestly, three reasons:
- because it's been too long since I've updated this post.
- because I'm a big Busey fan (usually Gary Busey but Jake Busey will due).
- because Carla Gugino has actually become a legitimate actress, despite this role.
Motorcycle Gang isn't really a bad movie, but it was a made-for-TV movie released by Showtime in 1994. In other words, you've never seen, nor heard of it before.
- The good: Busey kick-starts a Harley V-Twin and smoothly opens a Balisong Knife
- The bad: the whole, bizarre "Almost-Rape Scenes" where you're not sure if the "virgin really wants it, or not." That kinda' went out in the 1930s.
- The ugly: The simple truth is that you're probably never going to see this movie unless you have Netflix.
Wait until your wife's gone to bed, grab your favorite adult beverage and enjoy.
Good movie, 4 bikes out of 5.
Mask
A movie full of sensitive emotions, big hairy Bikers and... Cher - what does it sound like to you?
Well, despite what it sounds like, Mask is not the Brokeback Mountain of Biker flicks. It is a reasonable blend of biker culture and chic flick. Unfortunately, "reasonable" very often parallels bland.
OK movie, 3 bikes out of 5.
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man
I didn't want to include this movie, but reader demand dictates that I should. Here goes...
This is not a motorcycle movie. This is a movie about two handsome guys playing a game of macho dress up. The story line is a jumble of tired scenes that movie writers turn to when they have no original ideas of their own. The interaction between the characters is awkward - annoyingly so - with pauses in the dialogue that lead me to believe that the actors didn't spend much time working on their lines.
Suggestion to the Hollywood powers that be: STOP MAKING MOVIES WHERE A HELICOPTER WITH MACHINE GUNS SHOOTS UP A SKYSCRAPER IN A MAJOR CITY! Just because it worked once in The Matrix doesn't mean that it will ever work again.
An old friend is having money problems. Harley and Marlboro decide to rob the bank that's causing those money problems. The bank turns out to be a front for a major drug dealing operation. All of Harley's and Marlboro's friends are killed by the drug lord's henchmen. Harley and Marlboro get even, get away and, somehow, everyone that's still alive leaves with a smile on their face.
Poor movie, 2 bikes out of 5.
Stone Cold
History has not been good to the mullet. Likewise, Hollywood has not been good to the Boz (or maybe the Boz hasn't been good to Hollywood).
Brian Bosworth was a big name in the 80s and Stone Cold tried to cash in on the name. Unfortunately Bosworth wasn't a great actor and his old performances haven't improved with the passing of time. Still, this movie is not without its fans (there was even a sequel: Cold Stone 2 - Heart of Stone); I'm just not one of them. If you want a cop-infiltrates-biker-gang movie, I suggest Beyond the Law.
Poor movie, 2 bikes out of 5.
On Any Sunday
On Any Sunday is a documentary covering all types of motorcycle racing in the early 70s (back when 650cc was a big engine). While not the typical motorcycle drama, it is fun to watch - especially if you like older bikes. Very reminiscent of The Endless Summer - not surprising once you've realized that Bruce Brown directed both. According to the feedback that I've received from my readers, this is a really popular movie - much more popular than I would've guessed.
OK movie, 3 bikes out of 5.
Genre:
Documentary
Directed by:
Bruce Brown
Starring:
Steve McQueen
and a bunch of Motorcycle Racing Champions from the 70s
The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Runaway Ralph
Motorcycle Movies for the Kids
Animated movies based on children's books of the same names - rated for ages three through nine but I'd say closer to three than nine. The production quality is low and they're so old (Runaway Ralph stars Ray Walston and a very young Fred Savage), that I just can't imagine these movies successfully competing against anime and modern video games for a nine-year-old's attention. Buy the books instead.
Bad movie, 1 bike out of 5.
Motorcycle Movies from the 60s and 70s
The late 1960s and early 1970s were a great time for Motorcycle Movies - not great movies, but a great time. There were literally dozens of movies released over a 5 year period; most of these were completely unmemorable. They were kind of like Anime is today - hundreds of titles, but few that are actually any good. The movies from this period that I consider worthy of being singled out are reviewed above. To the rest, I give a general...
OK movie, 3 bikes out of 5.
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Why OK? If you're a nostalgic motorcycle enthusiast, these movies are good enough to see. If you're not into old school, these aren't for you. Most are on Netflix.
The standard 1960s/1970s Motorcycle Gang Movie plot: a gang of bad-guy bikers does something bad to 1 good-guy biker. Then the good-guy biker gets his revenge.
Angels From Hell - 1968
The Glory Stompers - 1968, starring Dennis Hopper
the Peacekillers - 1971
The Hard Ride - 1971
Devil's Angels - 1971
Chrome and Hot Leather -1971
Cycle Savages - 1969
The Miniskirt Mob - 1968
Angel Unchained - 1970
Upcoming Motorcycle Movie Reviews
The Great Escape
Streets of Fire
Torque
City Limits
Mad Max
Hell Ride
Machine Gun Preacher
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