Reviews

It is fast paced, occasionally hilarious and actually the action is pretty dope.

With none of the charm or wit of most cultures satires of the wealthy, this is just a grim watch. Poorly edited, awful score, and awful people as central characters, the only way this has been highly rated is merely because it represents an under represented community in cinema. I believe their are better stories to tell than this travesty. Booo

I had forgotten what it was like to be surprised and enraptured by a film, to be taken to another place visually and aurally.

Maybe it is because I knew nothing about this film before I watched it - I found it, an old recommendation on my 'to watch' list and say it was available, and so pressed play, so tired was I of looking for something to fit my mood - but I cannot understand why some people didn't connect with this movie. Maybe they had some expecations that were unmet.

For me though, I was pulled along, telling myself 'it is too late, I'll watch it tomorrow' before being dragged into another beautiful and perfectly timed (in length) scene.

Originally I was just enchanted by the music, composition and the hint of a story unfolding, but as it unfolded I was surprised to recognise and be involved in the distantly viewed and stilted portrayal of emotional damage and love.

I haven't seen this good a film for years, and it will stick with me

I turned it off after 15 minutes. Whoever wrote the dialogue should be... well you know what.

Gordon Bennett, the exposition is torturous, stupid beyond bearing. I love good fun action, but this is beyond dumb - it is utterly, irredeemably cretinous

This film is all well and good to be played in the background of bike cafe, but as a viewing experience for the dedicated watcher it is poor.

The lack of narration and the constant jumping around to different places means there is no suspense, emotional engagement or even attachment to images that you're viewing. You may as well be watching someone play a computer a game.

It would not have been difficult to get interviews that highlighted the history the sport and went briefly over the races that were shown.

I know bike messengers are monosyllabic cool kids but even they could have given this enough context to make it an interesting movie.

I am desperate to find out about the races, how they were started, who won them, how people plan out the routes, and what happened in each of the races that are shown in the movie.

Alas I am afraid I may never find out, and that is the true tragedy of this film.

I can see that there is some artistic merit here (though historically they've got some things wrong about punk and hip hop), so it is not to be written off, but I couldn't past the third episode.

Not only is it slow and ponderous, with an overuse of flash backs and forwards but the central character is impossible to empathise with.

He is neither a hero nor anti hero. (spoliers) I feel sorry for him being a recovering drug addict, but he seems to be weak spirited before he even returns to drug use, incapable of making decisions or having any faith in himself.

maybe this is a realistic portrayal of a successful man gone wrong (though I doubt), but it is totally unedifying and mind numbingly boring to watch. Occasionally the boredom is broken with frustration.

Even the fast forward button couldn't help me with this one, there was nothing redeemable about it as an entertainment experience.

Except, perhaps, Olivia Wilde.

There are many things that people have missed when people have given this film a mediocre score. The romantic chemistry between the two has to be built quickly because there is so much plot to fill in, yet it has to be convincing. This it does so smoothly that it is completely undervalued by audiences, yet how often have we seen this done badly - or not even attempted.

It is one of the first proper revivifications of the noire/caper genre, and is done so slickly, with great music, little quirks in editing, great pacing and simple understated performances that it seems easy to overlook these things and just enjoy it.

If you look beyond the plot (which is fun btw, it has several different strands that unfold at different paces using a mixture of flash back and time shifts alongside conventional plot devices which was quite unique for the time) there is something put together really fluently which few film makers achieve nowadays. Suspense, character development, romance, action and intrigue.

Personally I consider this a far better film than the Oceans films and it helped me fall in love with J'Lo as a teenage lad, despite her never really making another good movie, and really me falling in love with the character and the situation.

Noooooo, just noooooooooooo!

I was disappointed that they were only ever in one scene together, but in many ways it would have been the perfect legend if they had have only done that scene. it is a brilliant scene, two actors at the top of their game struggling against each other to control the scene - amazing.

If they were to make a film together it should have been earlier on in their careers when they were stronger performers, but if they had to do it now they should have picked summat far better than this.

It is moronic, it has no suspense, the lines are so clichéd it is toe curling, they both are mediocre in it at best - though given the material it may not be their fault.

It has pretensions of being summat smarter which is really unforgivable when it is so ploddingly obvious.

destroy every copy of this film and pretend it never existed.