Le gang des BMX

OK, I'm 54 years old and what am I doing watching a movie like this... Remember how as a kid you liked to watch more adult-themed movies so you could fantasize about what it would be like when you grew up? Well, I sometimes watch a film like this so I can fantasize about what it was like when I was a teenager. It's one of my guilty pleasures. The only thing I don't miss is the teenage angst. Fortunately this movie didn't have too much of that, it was just fun.

The BMX sport which later became a craze was just getting started when I was in high school, and it was interesting to watch here. The film is not Oscar material, and some would consider it a hokey teen exploitation film. Thankfully there was not any noticeable bad language or explicit sex. One reviewer said it fits into the "so bad it's good" category. Maybe, but for me anyway it seems a little better than that.

Also, as an American I found it more interesting to watch because it's an Australian movie. I bought it in a five-movie collection DVD I found in the bargain bin at WalMart, and I wasn't really paying too much attention to who was in it when I popped it in to relax one evening. As I was looking at the girl, I thought, "She looks kind of familiar with her Aussie accent... what the...could it be? It's Nicole Kidman!" Her presence made me keep watching to see how she handled her earliest film role.

The criminals in the movie start off as real badasses, with ominous music playing in the background (which later becomes amusing). A couple of them quickly degenerate into "Home Alone" style bad guys ineptly chasing the two dudes and Nicole all over the city (including going down the tubes of a water slide!). The teenagers could now identify them, and had taken the walkie-talkies (remember them?) the crooks needed to tap into the police band radio frequency to stay ahead of the cops. In the police station there is a police woman who seems willing to be sympathetic to the teens. I thought she was hot. When the chief's back is turned, she bites one of her fellow officer's ears. I envied him.

All in all, I enjoyed this movie, and if you don't expect too much from it, you might also. The scenery is really good to look at, and the sunny seaside city really lifted my spirits. The exuberance of young people having a good time did, too.

Excellent movie. Great stunts. Horrible villains. I'll never forget watching this with my friends. It made us want to catch bad guys and then race bikes. The music is just as much fun. Everyone should see this at least once.

I have similar feelings about this movie as a lot of the other reviewers.

As kids, my friends and I used to rent it at all opportunities. I can still remember fighting in the car over who got to look at the cover!

I watched it again a few years back. The plot seemed silly. The acting was no longer brilliant. Overall it dropped about 2 stars!

But I still enjoyed seeing it again. It was good memories. Of course having Nicole Kidman in one of her first movies ever is also great fun to watch. Who'd have known she'd go on to become such hot property.

P.s. She must spend a fortune keeping her hair straight!

This family film involves three juveniles (including a very tall, very lovely, Nicole Kidman), wacky criminals, and even wackier cops. It reminds me a lot of the films Disney made for TV in the 1970's. Kids of course would not last long against guns, but movies are about living out our fantasies. What better fantasy than fighting crime on BMX while checking out the lovely scenery and lovely Nicole Kidman?

BMX Bandits is an Australian story and movie. The local kids who are BMX riders need some cash to buy new bikes after an unfortunate wreck. Three of them in a small boat find a heavy box tied to a rope and submerged, upon confiscating it find it filled with walkie talkies. They figure they can sell them to the local kids to raise some cash.

At the same time a group of crooks had hidden the walkie talkies, special models with a private police band, that they were going to use in a heist. So most of the movie has the crooks chasing the three BMX riders, two boys and a girl, to get the walkie talkies back. As such most of the movie includes slapstick humor and chases through most unlikely places, such as a shopping mall, a Rugby game, a water slide park, a golf course ... in each case narrowly avoiding getting caught. There is also an extended scene at night in a cemetery which didn't really add too much to the story.

So it is just a silly movie, the entertainment value is marginal, maybe mostly for kids. But the reason I watched it is for Nicole Kidman, this is one of her first movies filmed when she just just about to turn 16. For her inexperience she actually does very well in the role and shows the beginning of acting chops which has made her one of the best of her generation.

I found the entire movie on Youtube streaming with no commercials. The movie comes across really well with good cinematography and mostly very vivid colors.