Blu-ray Review: BMX BANDITS

As a kid who grew up in the 80's with early HBO, I vaguely remember BMX Bandits.  There were a ton of these child-focused adventure films back in those days.  In the US we had films like The Goonies, while in Australia, they got BMX Bandits.  A pretty fair trade, and watching this one again for the first time in at least twenty years, it holds up pretty well as a piece of nostalgia, and a pretty entertaining one at that.

Brian Trenchard-Smith was the go-to guy for Australian mayhem in the late 70's and early 80's.  Many of his films are featured in the recent, and wildly entertaining in its own right, Not Quite Hollywood documentary on the Australian exploitation boom of that period, which is why his participation in this piece of mostly sugary fluff is a bit odd.  The film was written and initially designed as a way to get young butts in seats, but not much more.  What Trenchard-Smith did was turn a potentially forgettable idea into a riotous adventure film for kids that plays with danger at a distance, rarely ever putting anyone in real jeopardy, but giving just enough thrill to keep things interesting.

Much is made of the fact that this was Nicole Kidman's first feature film role, both then and now.  She is front and center on the poster and in nearly every shot, even though she wasn't really anyone of consequence back then.  Again, Brain Trenchard-Smith saw something there and ran with it and the film benefits from it.  Her character of Judy, is the impetus that keeps the film moving, by her side she has a pair of boys who are quick with a joke, but mostly forgettable.  Sure, she probably smiles too much and wasn't in any danger of winning any awards, but the camera absolutely loves her and the screen lights up every time she is on it.  It really is amazing to see.

The plot is pretty thin:  A group of bad guys steals some walkie-talkies.  Three young adventure seekers find the walkie-talkies and rather than turning them in, they decide to sell them to try and make a few dollars.  The bad guys find out, decide they want their walkie-talkies back, and the chase is on.  Boy, howdy, what a chase it is.  While it isn't much to hang an entire film on, the premise gives Trenchard-Smith a lot of room to play creating really run action sequences, tons of BMX stunts, and yes, even a few very big explosions.  In fact, the final half of the film is really just one enormous chase scene broken into two pieces.  "Put BMX Bikes where BMX bikes don't belong" seemed to be the order of the day, and BMX Bandits accomplished that goal in style.  My goodness, what style it was.

Half of the fun of watching BMX Bandits in 2011 is the parade of ridiculously garish outfits, bikes, and colors that just don't exist anymore in the twenty-first century.  The color scheme of the film is dazzling, especially when it came to our heroes BMX outfits.  The colors leap off the screen in a way that, according to Trenchard-Smith himself, they didn't even do back in 1984.  It is really remarkable, and only one of many facets of the production that make it a memorable viewing as an adult.  There is also the typically cheeseball pop music scoring, including the theme, "I'm Ready to Fly" by The Papers.  Holy Christ, if you leave the menu on this disc on for more than about 30 seconds you will have that song running through your brain for DAYS.  But hey, it has me still thinking about BMX Bandits, so I guess it worked!

At the outset I compared this film to The Goonies, and I think that is about the closest comparison I can make for BMX Bandits to a US production.  Sure, there were other films vaguely in the kid-action genre, Cloak & Dagger being a personal favorite, but none had as much action as BMX Bandits did, not even The Goonies, really, which was more about suspense and adventure than action.  BMX Bandits is a supremely fun ninety minutes, and one that I intend to revisit with my young son very soon!

The Disc:

Wow.  When I first announced this title coming to Blu-ray in a Video Home Invasion column a few months back, I had no idea we'd get as beautiful a visual experience as we have here.  The colors I mentioned above are stunning, they leap off the screen and grab you by the eyeballs.  In addition to that, the print looks remarkably sharp and stable for a nearly thirty year old marginally successful film from any country.  I feel confident in saying that never has BMX Bandits ever looked this good on home video anywhere, and possibly not even in theaters back in 1984!

The sound is less impressive, but totally faithful.  With this picture we get an English DTS-HD Stereo 2.0 track that is unremarkable, apart from its lack of faults. There are no audio dropouts, no crackles, no hiss, all in all, a solid reproduction of the original theatrical sound.  In addition to the regular audio, Brian Trenchard-Smith provides a loving, but at times critical commentary track that not only provides a good background on the film, but also a few instances where he thinks he could have done better.  Pretty solid, and ported over from the Australian double-disc special edition from 2010.

Also ported over are the other major extras. First off is an entertaining featurette that manages to interview most of the major people on the creative end of the production including BTS, his writers and producers, and the actor who played Goose in the film.  This is pretty entertaining and gives a fairly comprehensive overview of the production from conception to cult status.  It is about forty minutes long and a decent watch.   Also included is a very brief bit from Nicole Kidman appearing on a TV program called Young Talent Time as promotion for the film, she was only sixteen at the time.  It should be noted that this is her only appearance outside of the film on the disc, she apparently doesn't think much of BMX Bandits.  Lastly we've got a few trailers for other Severin films and a short teaser for BMX Bandits.

This movie is a hoot!  Great creative action sequences make the ninety minutes blow by and keep things light enough to keep this film firmly in the young adult section.  I think this film is criminally underseen, and this Severin Films Blu-ray is a marvelous way to rectify that!  Highly Recommended for those whose inner adolescent never gave up the ghost! 

Severin Films' BMX Bandits will be available on all region Blu-ray and DVD on March 15th!