5 comments about Girl on a Motorcycle.

1. Forget the love story. If you're a real biker you'll love the flick for the asthetics of motorcycles and the feeling of riding in the wind. It features a very nice Norton and a Harley. This movie will be appreciated by those who lived in the 60's and rode bikes. I highly reccomend this video to all us older bikers!



2. This is NOT a really good film. It IS amusing and entertaining. The motorcycle scenes are not blue screened, which helps a lot. Marianne Faithful, a former Mick Jagger lover, stars in this, and there are a few naked shots, but nothing to write home about by todays standards. Certainly not enough to earn an "X" rating as it did on release in the US. The sound is nice for mono, and the Harley actually sounds like a Harley, something that you do not always get in movies. There is a lot of pshycadelic footage that may have been really trippy in the 60s, but looks really dated today.
   
   Ms. Faithful is acceptable as an actress, with a running voice-over through much of the film. She isn't great however, and some of the lines make me laugh. When she takes off to go see her lover and cheat on wimpy hubby (think Satan's lover Chris from South Park), she starts the Harley and yells, "I turn myself on!" When I'm riding my own bikes around, this sometimes pops into my head and I yell it out loud (ONLY if wearing a full face helmet) and crack myself up.
   
   There are some nice touches. The film is shot very dark while The Girl is in France where she lives with her husband, but once she enters her lover's country, Germany, everything becomes much more vivid and beautiful. There is also one nice 360 shot of The Girl on the motorcycle. Not exactly Matrix, but still, at least they tried.
   
   The pacing is a little slow, and it seems to last longer than its running time. Its one of those movies (not films) where you can read a magazine while you watch. If you take Girl on a Motorcycle for what it is - a fun but dated movie from the 60s - it is a nice enough diversion. Compared to better films, even Easy Rider, it is less compelling.



3. Imagine Diana Rigg joining "Easy Rider's" Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda for a ride across France and Germany and you will have a pretty good idea what "Girl on a Motorcycle" looks like. Made one year before "Easy Rider"; this is an amazing 1960's road movie that includes hip camera angles, groovy music, a leather suit and a Harley Super Glide.
   
   While low-budget, it is not a thrown together "B" Movie but a thoughtful existential trip inside the mind of a flawed character who happens to be a sexy woman. On close examination, what appears to be yet another fruitless examination of the mysteries of female discontent is really a more expansive study of the human condition. Rebecca, the main character, illustrates life as a process of choosing between comfortable security and the need for freedom and excitement; a daily struggle with guilt and its consequent self-destructiveness, and the seductive lure of risk. Motivations familiar to almost all serious motorcycle riders.
   
   In voice-over, Marianne Faithful gives us Rebecca's story in a series of flashbacks, with minimal scenes of conventional dialogue. Most of these work very well although there is a ski weekend flashback about midway through the film that looks more like a travel advertisement than a movie scene. And while much of Jack Cardiff's film is beautifully shot, the action sequences are somewhat clumsy looking and obviously low budget. And there is excessive reliance on the Elvis movie technique of projecting moving scenery(shot by the second unit) with the star pretending to be cruising along the road while actually stationary in the studio.
   
   Cardiff was very creative with the editing and came up with some great match cuts, typically used to bring Faithful out of her frequent flashbacks/dreams. In one we see her lover slowing pulling open the zipper of her suit, then the film cuts to the tread of an Army tank moving past the place where she has been napping by her motorcycle.
   
   Cardiff's technique was quite revolutionary at the time as his camera has a love affair with the leather suit , the motorcycle, and Faithful's eyes. His extensive use of very tight shots is extremely effective and the most pleasing thing about the film.
   
   Faithful is on screen in almost all the scenes and gives a surprisingly good performance. Alain Delon as her lover gets a fair about of screen time (all in flashbacks). I've not been able to take Delon seriously as an actor since his performance as a character named "Baldy" in Dean Martin's "Texas Across the River" in 1966. Plus I get him confused with Jorge Rivero and his almost identical character "Capt. Pierre Cordona aka Frenchy" in "Rio Lobo". Maybe they are the same person and used two names as a tax dodge.
   
   Both the VHS tape and the DVD include a nice stills gallery and a couple trailers.
   
   All in all I recommend this film. It has thoughtful themes and many well-shot scenes. If you like motorcycles, a sexy body in and out of a leather suit, the most beautiful eyes ever, and cute freckles you should view this film.
   
   Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.



4. I'm not too familiar with the specifics of Faithfull's upbringing, or lack thereof, but I did find this to be a rather autobiographical fare at best. It's a rather deep look at her character's life, and how it seemed to be pararelling her own. The first scene has her dreaming of being in a circus performing in a leather motorcycle suit, and a person as her husband is whipping her, and the children are laughing at him and her, and then there's a man in a chair who looked like a psychologist who was laughing at her. I found all of this intriguing as you could say that the psychologist was acting like: "We are responsible for the choices we make in our lives." Hence the laughing. I am still trying to learn this as after living life as a victim all these years, and being raised to believe that there's a good person and bad person, and that there's a right way and a wrong way, and those who do wrong are bad, and the victims are good. I see that when Faithfull puts on her suit, and rides away on her motorcycle, and tries to find herself. The question is: "What Is Herself?" She was married to a school teacher, but it turns out to be a loveless marriage as he is too reasonable, and too wishy-washy in her eyes. He may had been the best thing for her, but she'll never know. She left him to go join a man who turned her on in everyway, and including the motorcycle. Had she had a happy life would she had turn to the motorcycle the way she did? Well as I said this could very well be her life story as she had a father who seemed wrapped up in books, and was rather distant towards her, and Faithfull was brought up in a Utopian Commune, and her father was a lover of words. Perhaps that's why she married her husband because he was a school teacher, and perhaps why she was going to her lover the one who turned her onto the motorcycle as he was also into words, but not as much as her husband. Faithfull's character seemed as though she was trying to free herself from the chains of her father, but wanted a man who was like her father in the sense he had a spine in which was a quality or trait that appealed to her, but not to be critical of her. Her husband was not critical of her, but he was also spineless as he didn't even question it when her lover gave her a motorcycle for a wedding gift. Her lover pleases her in every way, but he lost his first wife in a crash, and since then emotionally he was devoid of love for another woman, and just used Faithfull's character to get by pretty much, and what more he knew she'd come to him, and that was probably why she ran away because her lover was right. He knew he pleased her, and so with her needs she would come to him. In the end she tried to focus more on the bike as she knew she would not have a future with either man, and she certainly didn't want to go home to a father who was going to chastise her, and make her feel stupid for having an affair with a man before she was supposed to be married to her boyfriend. She focused on the motorcycle as the link to her lover, and she rode it till death did they part. Faithfull's character is a product of a person who's parents didn't make children feel loved.....especially when a parent died. Here's some for example:
   
   
   1. Scrooge: His mother died while giving birth to him, and his father never forgave him, so he shut down, and focused on making a success of himself to atone for his self-esteem that was shattered by his father because of bitterness.
   
   2.Jenny: From "Forrest Gump". After the death of her mother her father began to rape her something awful to where she pretty much had run away from the man who trully loved her, and would get herself in one scrape after another in a quest to find herself.
   
   
   3. Forrest: He spent his life pursuing the love of his life only to have her turn him away everytime, and so with everything bad in his life weighing heavilly down upon him he would spend three and a half years of his life running back and forth across the U.S. and in some ways it helped him to come home to himself. This is what I do with my reviews.
   
   
   I know that this could've inspired "Easy Rider", and to me it's a better vehicle than "Easy Rider". The use of flashbacks, and dreams were done rather well in this movie, and the colors also were used splendidly in the sex scenes, and the scenes of euphoria. I also feel that something else is noteworthy, and that's the acting job where it's done in the second person alot. This is an intriging and underrated movie that is a good self-examination film. Fortunately, Faithfull's life did not turn out the way her character's did in this film.



5. Marianne Faithfull is a stunner in her role as discontented young newlywed.
   
   The scenery is gorgeous and her beauty fits right along with it, as she rides from Switzerland to Germany, to see her lover played by Alain Delon, who gave her the bike as a "wedding gift".
   
   He plays a manipulative, ungrateful, unappreciative professor interested in her "free love".
   
   The hallucinatory scenes can be a bit bothersome, but on the whole there is meaning to this film and also the chance to see beautiful Ms Faithfull
   fresh, young,so alive and so gorgeously sexy.
   
   See it !

4 comments about Unleashed: Extreme Motorcycle Stunts.

1. I am a fanatic of these types of videos, have almost 50 of them now. But this DVD is amazing - best one yet! It kept my attention from start to finish, great content, good music, many funny parts, and best of all - insane stunts. I am a new d-Aces fan.



2. I just wanted to let everyone know that I own this DVD and it has been in the top of my collection for some time now. I can't really explain it, the DVD is so action packed and solid, I would suggest this to anyone that rides motorcycles, or to anyone that doesn't.



3. Great GREAT stunts, but after the first 15 min, it's the same raiders, doin the same stunts, again and again, could be much better video



4. Unleashed is ok. It is mainly a guy doing wheelies and stoppies throughout the whole 55 minutes of the dvd. There is some cool stuff in it. I am not saying the riders aren't talented, I'd just like to have seen more variety.

4 comments about American Chopper Season 6 - DVD Set (Part 1).

1. Season 6? I thought we were up to season 4. I love this show but my god what a mess the DVD releases are.



2. If you are a die-hard fan of American Chopper, you will like this. However, the dvd production values are horrible!!!! There are no menus. There are no extras! You have to speed through the first episode to get to the second episode because there are no menus. ALSO, Bill Murray is NOT featured on these dvds as it says in the description. I don't know who produced these dvds, but they are horrible! You'd be better off taking the money you would spend on these dvds and subscribing to cable television where you're guaranteed to see all the American Chopper episodes! Very disappointing!



3. The dvds are definitely manufactured by someone different than the first 3 seasons. The dvds are really bad in the fact that they are out of order on the disc (episode wise). I also had a disc arrive that did not even work. The best part is that the cheap producers did not use any anti-burning techniques, so you can burn / copy them all you want. Might save you some money if you don't want to pay the 30 bucks per set. I would ask around if I were you before buying.
   
   On a good note, the show is still excellent and provides lots of entertainment. I love American Choppers. I just hope they choose a better company next time to release the dvds, just for their sake, because pirating is going to be an issue with seasons 4-5-6 (which I bought).



4. This set includes 3 disks with 2 shows per disk, total of 6 episodes. The episodes are:
   
   77 Wendy's Bike 1 Originally Aired: 6/5/2006
   78 Wendy's Bike 2 Originally Aired: 6/12/2006
   79 Sunoco Bike 1 Originally Aired: 6/19/2006
   80 Sunoco Bike 2 Originally Aired: 6/19/2006
   81 Bill Murray Bike 1 Originally Aired: 8/7/2006
   82 Bill Murray Bike 2 Originally Aired: 8/14/2006
   
   I believe these sets are privately produced by Amazon, definitely not by the Learning Channel's production company. This is a bare bones set. NO special features, not even a disk menu to choose episodes on each disk. Discovery did much better with seasons 1-3, these new sets leave much to be desired, and at around $5 per episode, the price is steep. Still fun if you want to have these episodes. Come on Learning/Discovery- you can do better than this!!!!!

3 comments about Joey: 1952-2000.

1. I really enjoyed this video. It's got racing and interview footage throughout Joey's 30 year career. A fair bit is from the last few years, but it's the early stuff that's magic.

   Joey's funeral in Ballymoney is very touching, and I didn't realize just how hugely he was loved in his home Ireland.

   This is a good tribute to a real hero.




2. In a golden age of motorcycling, it's a shame Hollywood continues to put out so much motorcycle garbage (Torque, Biker Boyz, etc) when the life of Joey Dunlop would make such a great movie, appealing to those who aren't motorcyclists or racing fans (Kudos to Ulster TV for producing this great documentary).
   
   There is so much to enjoy on this DVD: the slow-motion ballet of a great road racer, beautiful scenery, soul-stirring music, the "scary fast" sound and speed of big bore sport bikes (and the smaller 2-strokes) on bumpy, twisty, hilly public roads that have been given over so that true roadracers can ply their craft. Don't be surprised if you find yourself cheering Joey on when the odds seem against him!
   
   A truly reverent look at the life and accomplishments of an eminently likeable individual with a never say die attitude, who continued to confound opponents with his ability to win a young man's game at his age!



3. Joey may not be the greatest motorcycle racer ever, but hes the greatest man to ever race a bike!!!!!
   In America, road racing means racing around short circuits, but in Ireland and the isle of man, road racing means racing on roads at easily over 200mph and 1 lap is 37 miles long, need i go on!!!! great onboard lap with joey, some great footage from the early days, and also a very touching funeral!!!!!
   
   just brilliant

1 comments about GlobeRiders Silk Road Adventure.

1. Even though the scenery and filming was excellent, I give this video only 4 stars because some of the scenes (not riding, of course) get a little long and drawn out. I do know it is about the cultures too, and so it is one of my favorites. Am I too selfish if I want my m/c videos to have 90% riding?

4 comments about American Chopper Season 6 DVD Set (Part 2).

1. Season 6? I thought we were up to season 4. I love this show but my god what a mess the DVD releases are. It seems that even Amazon doesn't know much about these new releases.



2. The dvds are definitely manufactured by someone different than the first 3 seasons. The dvds are really bad in the fact that they are out of order on the disc (episode wise). I also had a disc arrive that did not even work. The best part is that the cheap producers did not use any anti-burning techniques, so you can burn / copy them all you want. Might save you some money if you don't want to pay the 30 bucks per set. I would ask around if I were you before buying.
   
   On a good note, the show is still excellent and provides lots of entertainment. I love American Choppers. I just hope they choose a better company next time to release the dvds, just for their sake, because pirating is going to be an issue with seasons 4-5-6 (which I bought).



3. This set includes 4 disks with 2 shows per disk +1, total of 7 episodes. Talk about OUT OF ORDER!!!!! The episodes are:
   
   83 OCC Road Show Originally Aired: 8/21/2006
   84 OCC Production Bike Originally Aired: 8/28/2006
   64 On the Road: Europe Part 1 Originally Aired: 10/30/2005
   65 On the Road: Europe Part 2 Originally Aired: 11/7/2005
   68 Make-A-Wish Bike Originally Aired: 12/19/2005
   67 Behind the Scenes Special Originally Aired: 11/21/2005
   66 History of the OCC Originally Aired:11/14/2005
   
   I believe these sets are privately produced by Amazon, definitely not by the Learning Channel's production company. This is a bare bones set. NO special features, not even a disk menu to choose episodes on each disk. Discovery did much better with seasons 1-3, these new sets leave much to be desired, and at around $5 per episode, the price is steep. Still fun if you want to have these episodes. Come on Learning/Discovery- you can do better than this!!!!!



4. the later series get worse of this cable show. Most of the programs are no longer for corporations but for charities as the teautals make themselves look good

1 comments about Motorcycle Gang.

1. Me, my sister and my dad often have different taste in movies but when we caught this movie on cable we were all hooked by this action thriller.
   In it a family on vacation are dragged off course and into a nightmarish reality by a gang of tougher then tough motorcyclist. If I remember right the daughter is abducted by the ring leader played by a charismatic blond dude with a wolfish grin and crazy eyes that make you think oh no here comes trouble! And trouble indeed happens as this innocent Any American family clash with the rough and tough desert land outsiders.

   Will the mom's Apple pie serve as a great weapon(via catapult)? Find out in this exciting movie that seems to give a nod to Greek Myth. It's not only fun but smart! I also suggest the movie Sneakers for an exciting movie to watch.

4 comments about Michael Michael Motorcycle.

1. This is the perfect video for small children who are interested in dirt bikes and motorcycles. It tells a story but shows some great footage of kids and adults riding. The music isn't "thrasher" music like you get in the adult videos (very kid friendly and catchy). I love that this video emphasizes safety when riding. My boys, ages 2.5 and 1.5, ask for this video by name and watch it the entire way through. It's now a staple birthday present for my friends with 2 year old boys!



2. I bought this for my husband and daughter to enjoy together. My daughter is still a little young for a video to hold her attention through the whole thing, but after watching the dvd, my husband (who has been on motorcycles since he was a kid) and I agree that it is very well done. It shows the fun of riding while at the same time teaching kids to respect the safety aspect of the sport. It emphasizes and re-emphasizes safety gear, which as a Mom, I really appreciate.
   I see Dad and Daughter enjoying this one together for years to come!



3. This is both of my boys 6 and 3 favorite movie and has been for years. Worth every penny if you have a child into dirt bikes.



4. My son is only 9 months old and loves this movie. We bought it cause my husband rides dirt bikes and it will be in our son's life also. He loves the sounds and music he can watch the whole movie without losing intrest!

2 comments about Living on the Edge: Riding with the Vietnam Vets Motorcycle Club in Pennsylvania.

1. The video goes back and forth, kinda like the book he wrote. It isn't bad, but it is a cheap film.



2. This is a great movie about bikers, for a change. Even though it does have a few rough edges (after all, it is a demo for a TV series) and a short piece at the beginning to sell the advertising space, the film details the lives of the club members as never seen before, and shows them at work, play and helping the community. I would highly recommend this DVD.

5 comments about Choppertown: the Sinners.

1. I love this movie. There are so many things good to say about it, but perhaps the best thing about this is that they nailed what bikes are about. It is about brotherhood, hanging with your bros, loyalty.... The bikes are amazing, but you don't have to like bikes to identify with the movie. Anybody who cares about their friends will get something out of it.



2. i really liked this movie because it turns conventional documentary structure on its head and really gives the impression of riding along with this fascinating group of people. it felt like one of alex cox's movies "straight to hell" or "sid and nancy" because of the cool organic way the music was mixed in. a great indie effort.



3. When I started to watch this movie, I really was not sure what to expect. I thought that maybe this movie was going to be just another show about putting expensive bikes together. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't anything like that. This movie caught my attention for it was about real people, living real lives, who enjoy building and riding motorcycles. Being a motorcycle rider myself, I can relate to the passion these guys have. I can see it in their actions and over all philosophy of how they live their lives. This movie does a great job bringing this out as well the loyalty these guys have to their friends. This is something that is real, not fake, and should be watched by anyone who rides.



4. One of the best motorcycle DVDs I've seen in years! Shows the life that most of us would love to live. I definitely recommend this DVD to any biker.



5. It's a documentaire, not a movie! But the way The Sinners are shown was very interesting. A bunch of people who are no sissies, but not a 'gang' in the way people think about bikers. It was a pleasure to watch and I can recommend it!