The Sunday Night Film Review - The Bikeriders (2023)

Set in Chicago and about a motorcycle club featuring some 'Hell Angels'-type characters, it interestingly features a couple of Brits in leading roles - Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer, alongside Austin 'Elvis' Butler, who plays the wayward Benny Cross.

I've no doubt Hardy and Comer did a good job of mastering the local accents but it wasn't always easy to understand what they were saying, particularly as they often had a ciggie hanging out the sides of their mouths.

I wondered if Hardy was trying to do an impression of Marlon Bradon from On The Waterfront, but apparently the idea for the club was inspired after watching Brando in The Wild One.

It was set in the 1960s / 70s but there seemed to be some modern agendas being pushed - one character who favoured eating insects over meat, a reference to 20mph school zones (wot, in 1960s America?), and at a time when the Assisted Dying Bill was being considered, that death is no big deal.

I'm not sure that this drama about bikers ever got out of second gear, with a lot of sitting round drinking and smoking going on, and just the occasional fight and bike ride thrown in, but the good cast kept it watchable and there was an unexpected twist at the end.