The Bikeriders is a very okay movie with some high highs but a lot of lulls. That’s okay because the vibes were still badass. Here is my non-spoiler review.

The Bikeriders Review- 3.5/5 Stars

The Bikeriders follows a biker gang started by Johnny (played by Tom Hardy). However, the main focus of the story is on the relationship between Austin Butler’s character Benny and Jodie Comer’s character Kathy. The story is told through the lens of Kathy recounting a lot of these events to an interviewer, played by Mike Faist, who is doing a book on the gang.

The Great: The acting in this movie is great. Tom Hardy has basically never missed so it was no surprise to see him do a funny voice but still crush, as always. Dune: Part Two was all the proof needed that his Elvis role was not just a flash in the pan and Austin Butler is a true movie star. He has insane potential to take on so many different kinds of roles. In my Hit Man review, I talked about how the sky was the limit for Glen Powell as our next major movie star and Austin Butler is right there on that level with him.

Despite these two guys killing it, it was Jodie Comer who stole the show for me. Her Chicago accent was incredible and she is just remarkably charming and charismatic. Her and Austin Butler had great chemistry which always helps but her subtle facial acting in both comedic and dramatic moments was incredible. My biggest takeaway from this movie is that Jodie Comer WILL win an acting Oscar at some point in her career.

The Good: The vibes were very fun in this movie. Getting cool dudes like Austin Butler and Tom Hardy to wear leather vests, drink beer, smoke cigarettes, and ride motorcycles is a cheat code to making a movie fun. Despite the negatives of this movie, which I will get to next, I was never bored because there was almost always something cool happening on screen.

Unfortunately, and it pains me to say this, smoking is so cool. Almost every character in this movie is smoking at all times and it looks awesome. Smoking might be making a major comeback. We have seen Charley Hull take smoking to the LPGA in very cool fashion:

Also the coolest cast in arguably the hottest show in television is going viral for hanging out and smoking cigs together:

I actually haven’t smoked a cigarette in about six years but I left this movie thinking… one couldn’t hurt, right?

The not-so-good: I didn’t want to say the bad because this movie isn’t bad. However, the actual story was the disappointing part here for me. This is of course a true story so there are so many liberties you can take in terms of trying to make it more exciting. However, it did seem like a lot of the time not much was really happening.

There were some major moments that happened to the main characters, however, it seemed like there wasn’t a lot of tension or suspense built up leading up to those moments. It was more like we were just matter-of-factly being told what happened to all of these characters during the years spanned in this movie.

This is another movie this year that is disappointing at the box office and quickly moving to digital which is too bad. It’s not among my favorite of the year so far but it’s still a very fun ride (pun intended) and the sound of the motorcycles through movie theater speakers rules. If you get the chance to see this in theaters before it’s gone I would!