Welcome to The Daily Cup a movie blog/writing project by Kyle B. Dekker, presented by Hot Chocolate Media. You can read series concept here. The basic rules, Kyle must watch 365 movies in 2018 and write about all of them. 292 of them have to be movies he's never seen before. Thanks for reading.
With the right amount of stupid movies can bring me real joy. When a movie is going all in on a concept, no matter how silly I have great respect for the filmmakers. When your movie is about a trio of kids who ride BMX bikes and thwart some criminals whose character names are Whitey, Mustache, The Boss, and The Creep, your dumb movie becomes one of my favorites. BMX Bandits (1983) is an undoubtedly stupid movie that is pure fun from beginning to end.
Directed by English-Australian genre mainstay Brian Trenchard-Smith who once said, “Sling enough mud at the wall, something will stick." BMX Bandits is the story of P.J. (Angelo D’Angelo) and Goose (James Lugton) two BMX kids who befriend BMX lady and badass Judy (Nicole Kidman). The trio is in desperate need for new bikes and gear. Their luck seems to have hit when they find some police grade walkie-talkies, which they sell to other kids. Little do they know these walkie-talkies are illegal for civilians (I don’t know if that’s actually true, but in this film it is) and are the key tool for a band of robbers who need them to pull off their big heist. The film then is a long drawn out chase scene off the criminals trying to catch our trio of heroes as the kids outsmart and out ride them all over Sydney.
Just imagine being this cool as a kid.
The action sequences in this film are a thing of pure joy. The fact that they sell that “professional BMX bikers” performed all of the stunts, but you are 90% sure 14 year old you could’ve done most of them tells you enough. We follow the bikers along the beach, through a shopping mall, through a golf course, down a water slide (not nearly as cool as your mental image right now), across boat docks and more. At one point in the middle of the film one of the chase scenes is nearly 15 minutes long. This movie knows it is doing zero budget Hal Needham and it gives zero fucks if you think that. To add to the excitement the bikes make laser sounds when they zoom by the camera.
This film feels like they took a bunch of ideas from 12 years olds who really like telling stories, and made it work. One of the scenes plays like a G rated kids horror movie (yes those were once a thing, check out Amblin pictures in the 80s) in a graveyard. The bad guys are also fond of themed masks to hide their identities while committing robberies. A trope so cool Edgar Wright used it again in Baby Driver. The plot mostly works, but the real star is the mashing together of fun scene after scene and the playfulness of the character tropes.
If you are a fan of silly movies or “good bad movies” this one will scratch your itch. It’s ready made for drinking games (try surviving this film if you take drink everytime someone says the word “reckon”), packed with the thickest most delicious Australian accents, and is the feature debut of Nicole Kidman. This is a must watch with a group of friends, sit back, and get ready to laugh. I reckon you’ll like it.
Tally
Movies new to me watched: 42/292
Other movies: 9/73
Total movies watched: 51/365
Have your own thoughts or opinions on this movie? Comment below or contact Kyle at kyle@hotchocolatemedia.net or on Twitter at @kbdekker.