It might be sad to sit back nowadays and reflect on the decline of Kevin Costner's career, but back in the '80s and even the early '90s he was a personable leading man whose films were generally enjoyable. Take this sporting drama from John (WarGames) Badham, for instance. American Flyers is an enjoyable cycling drama from the pen of Steve Teisch, in which the gruelling hardships of professional cycle-racing is combined with a story about two brothers rediscovering each other. There's also a key plot point about a hereditary disease which may or may not affect one of the brothers. The story is never hugely engrossing, but it serves its purpose insofar that it gets the audience interested in the relationship between the two siblings, and provides a fairly exciting climax in which one of them has the chance to win a gruelling race.
Lazy David Sommers (David Marshall Grant) lives in St. Louis and spends his days watching kung fu movies, dating girls, and riding his bike. His brother Marcus (Kevin Costner) is a more successful and motivated type, who works in a high-tech gym as a sports physician. The brothers lost their father to a hereditary illness, and Marcus is quite worried that David may have the same problem. Marcus persuades David to come into the gym and undergo some medical and physical tests. The results seem OK, and a relieved Marcus invites David to join him in competing in a gruelling bike race in the Rocky Mountains, aptly named "Hell Of The West". The guys are joined by their respective girlfriends, in Marcus's case Sarah (Rae Dawn Chong) and in David's case Becky (Alexandra Paul). After a road trip to the Rockies, during which they bond quite closely, the Sommers brothers enter the cycle race. They're up against the likes of fiercely competitive Muzzin (Luca Bercovici) and Russian powerhouse Belov (John Garber). Then, halfway through the race, Marcus is unexpectedly struck by a haemorrhage it turns out that he, not David as originally feared, is the one who has inherited the illness that killed their father
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Costner gives a perfectly likable performance in this movie, but it is actually Grant who has both the stronger role and the more interesting character. It seems very strange indeed that Grant never became a big name, and spent the rest of his career as a supporting player in largely forgotten films. On this evidence, he has the looks, the personality and the acting ability to have been more successful. The story moves at a decent pace, the first third dealing with the medical tests carried out on David, the second third showing their road trip to the big event, and the final third dealing with the race itself. The last section of the film is probably the best, with a genuinely absorbing race sequence that undeniably ends on a predictable note, but manages some real excitement along the way. The cycling footage seems quite well done too (I'm a non-cyclist, but it looks convincing to me). All in all, American Flyers is an enjoyable sports drama about a sport rarely touched upon in the movies. It's no classic, but it passes the time very pleasantly indeed.
