Essex Biker Boy
Motorbikes are in Nick (David Essex) and his brother's blood, whilst Nick prefers the thrill of motor racing his brother is a fan of motocross. But Nick is dealt a heavy blow as after returning home from losing to loud mouthed American Bruce McBride (Beau Bridges) he learns his brother has died in a biking accident. Following the funeral his brother's girlfriend Tina (Diane Keen) insists that Nick takes the prototype which his brother had been working on, a high tech dream machine. Nick, with the help of friend Cider Jones (Clarke Peters), sets about racing and having a shot at being No. 1 at the world championship at Silverstone.
There are movies which are timeless; "Silver Dream Racer" is not one of them. But this is the sort of movie which would have some nostalgic charm for anyone who watched it back in 1980. You see beyond the appeal of the leading trio, the music and the bike what you have left is mostly a routine underdog story as we follow Nick, whose pit crew is his friend, compete against the hot shot American Bruce who is cocky and arrogant as well as a danger to others with his win at all cost racing style. The only difference would be the ending depending on whether you get to see the original UK version or the make the crowd happy US version. I won't explain what happens but which version you watch changes the tone of the ending to "Silver Dream Racer".
But as I said; "Silver Dream Racer" has some nostalgic value and I am sure fans of David Essex will love this movie no matter what as he plays the ducking and diving underdog in this with his ducking and diving charm. We also have the disco scene from back then as well as a pretty decent soundtrack which stands up much better than the look of the prototype bike. But we also have Beau Bridges who is pretty entertaining when it comes to being the cocky American whilst Cristina Raines is certainly an attractive actress. But all these characters have little in the way of depth and are as forgettable as the movie is.
What this all boils down to is that "Silver Dream Racer" is the sort of movie which is most likely going to entertain those who watched it when it was released back in 1980. But beyond that this is a routine under dog story with some scenes which are unsurprisingly dated whilst David Essex plays a version of himself in it.
