BMX Bandits
Tags: storytelling

Plot synopsis:
After a successful Sydney bank robbery, with the robbers wearing pig masks and brandishing shotguns, the man in charge, The Boss (Bryan Marshall), plans a further and larger payroll robbery for two days later worth at least $1.5 million, hoping that he can trust his less-than-competent gang headed by Whitey (David Argue) and Moustache (John Ley) to do the job properly, with anyone who doesn't answering to him.
Two young BMX experts, P.J. (Angelo D'Angelo) and Goose (James Lugton), meet Judy (Nicole Kidman), who is working as a trolley collector at the Warringah Mall during the school holidays in order to be able to buy her own BMX bike, and accidentally get Judy fired from her job when they crash into trolleys pushed away by the local "Creep" (Brian Sloman). The three go out in Goose's dad's runabout on the harbour searching for cockles to sell in order to fix their own crashed bikes, as well as getting Judy her own, and stumble onto and steal a box of police-band walkie talkies that the bank robbers were hoping to use to monitor on police traffic. Ironically, after stealing the box, the kids pass Whitey and Moustache who are on their way in their high-powered motorboat to pick it up.
Judy, P.J. and Goose sell the walkie-talkies to other kids in the area. The Bayside Police are able to hear the kids using the walkie talkies. Judy, P.J. and Goose are also unaware that the robbers know who stole the box. After they are spotted and chased late at night through a cemetery by Whitey and Moustache wearing monster masks (going formal, according to Whitey), they manage to escape. The next day, P.J. and Goose pick up their newly repaired bikes whilst Judy buys her bike. Judy is caught the next day by Whitey and Moustache while getting a second walkie talkie for The Creep, but escapes with the help of P.J. and Goose. The goons chase the Bandits in a cartoonish chase across opportunistic sites around Sydney, including a memorable escape down the Manly Waterworks water slides, complete with BMX bikes.
The trio are finally arrested but escape police custody and, with the help of the local kids, launch their own plan to foil the planned payroll robbery. Using the walkie-talkies, the Bandits pinpoint the meeting place for the robbers, then proceed to ambush and apprehend the robbers. The Boss, Whitey and Moustache escape in a removal truck with Judy as a hostage, with P.J. and Goose taking chase. They cause the truck to crash, with police soon arriving to arrest The Boss, Whitey and Moustache.
The police build a BMX track as thanks for the capture. In its opening meeting, the BMX Bandits sweep the main awards.

Review: We were mostly BMX fanatics and figured we'd be running out of the cinema pulling pretend stunts on our handy imaginary bikes but alas we'd kinda just wheeled out, a little let down.
I was too harsh on the pic as a kid coz i thought it pandered to a younger audience but now looking back on my days as a kid it's got some innocent magic like those british children's film foundation pics.
Nicole Kidman is a star and her fellow BMX bandits form a fun team but it's the pursuing criminals that steal the show with their manic and obviously improvised actions and dialogue.
I'm sure that there have probably been a lot more adventure films centered around BMXing than just BMX Bandits or Rad, but those are all that I have seen as of this writing.
And while I thought 'Rad' was far too embarrassingly cheesy and was initially skeptical when I picked up BMX Bandits, BMX Bandits blew 'Rad' right out the water as far as acting, story, humor, and even action sequences.BMX Bandits is something like an Australian version of the Hardy Boys (plus one girl) mystery on wheels.
A case full of sophisticated walkie talkies which yield not only a pretty penny as they sell them to the neighborhood kids, but also a lot of trouble as they are chased by their skilled, gangster owners who wish to retrieve their finds and punish the kids for taking them, as well as the cops who think something much more is going on when their radio frequencies are interrupted with the conversations of the three teens on their walkie talkies.Despite the family film theme, the movie lacks much of the corniness common to the genre, the decade, or the BMX theme.
The filmmakers were willing to be a little more daring with the dialog and the story, probably trying to appeal to audiences older than just the pre-teen market and do so in an often humorous manner, thanks mostly to the witty retort of Goose (James Lugton), one of the three main teens.
I have similar feelings about this movie as a lot of the other reviewers.As kids, my friends and I used to rent it at all opportunities.
Of course having Nicole Kidman in one of her first movies ever is also great fun to watch.
I would reply, "Show me BMX Bandits, one last time." Obviously, this will never happen, as I have no loved ones, and in fact will probably die alone.
But enough about me.BMX Bandits is an unparalleled achievement in cinema history, ranking right up there with, "Out of the Body" and "Birth of a Nation." It basically features a nubile NIcole Kidman (in tight BMX pants ;-) ) and her band of mates, Goose, and P.J. Confused?
Look for a wizend David Argue (remember his role in Gallipoli?) as the colorful crook, "Whitey." Watch as him and his partner-in-crime, John Ley (Mustache) are unable to kill three kids on bikes.
Nicole Kidman stars as one of the teenage BMX bandits and a check-out chick at the local supermarket.
And the goons'"scary" halloween masks!80's children classic!A total stinker - but in the "it's so bad it's good" category.Plus a must see for all those Nicole fans out there..
I and my brother rented this movie for our birthdays for, I don't know, something like five years in a row.
OK, I'm 54 years old and what am I doing watching a movie like this...
Remember how as a kid you liked to watch more adult-themed movies so you could fantasize about what it would be like when you grew up?
Fortunately this movie didn't have too much of that, it was just fun.The BMX sport which later became a craze was just getting started when I was in high school, and it was interesting to watch here.
It's Nicole Kidman!" Her presence made me keep watching to see how she handled her earliest film role.The criminals in the movie start off as real badasses, with ominous music playing in the background (which later becomes amusing).
Most of the movie was filmed in Manly, NSW, Australia which is a coastal town not far from Sydney.
A ferry ride across sydney harbour away, in fact.The BMX track at the end of the movie, just before the credits roll is actually Hickeys Lane BMX track which was located in Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.Penrith is a city west of Sydney and I lived there from 1984 to 1989.
I have fond memories of riding my BMX at Hickeys Lane and it's great to actually see it in a movie.If you play the BMX track part of the movie slowly, you can see the Blue Mountains in the background behind the park.In the end credits there is a thank you message to Western Sydney BMX Club.
This is the point where the plot just steps out of the way for the real purpose of the movie: exhibiting "rad" BMX stunts (most of which are just jumping off conveniently placed ramps around the city).So, these criminals chase these three kids all over the city, basically destroying their own car in the process, to get these radios back; I guess it would be too much trouble to just buy new radios.
This ends up being one of the longest chase scenes in cinematic history.With all that being said, the movie has great entertainment value because its just so damn cheesy.
This family film involves three juveniles (including a very tall, very lovely, Nicole Kidman), wacky criminals, and even wackier cops.
Kids of course would not last long against guns, but movies are about living out our fantasies.
What better fantasy than fighting crime on BMX while checking out the lovely scenery and lovely Nicole Kidman?.
Since watching this I have seen a mature guy, maybe in his twenties, with a pedal bike that seemed to have motor bike wheels and that seems a big step up to my city cycling tyred ATB, but maybe not for the stunt cycling that is in this film.
Even though there was little bmx'ing going on, it was still more than any film at the time.
- Check.The story in "BMX Bandits" is very simplistic and thus requires very little from the audience in order to keep up to speed.
And this time they do it on BMX bikes!The acting was as to be expected for a movie and script such as this.
But it was funny to watch a very young Nicole Kidman in a movie such as this, of course.Everything here just reeked to high heaven of the 1980s, and with good reason.This movie would indeed have been enjoyable back in the 1980s when BMX bikes were hot and in, but not so much today..
Maybe that's why this movie leaves stronger impression on me than it should, or maybe it's because of 16 years old Nicole Kidman.
Plus, the sixteen year-old Nicole Kidman (in her Big Screen Debut, no less) is terrific.
(Angelo D'Angelo) are two bike riding buddies who wreck their prized vehicles, after which they encounter young supermarket employee Judy (Nicole Kidman).
Soon two of the baddies, a bumbling duo named Whitey (David Argue) and Moustache (John Ley) are hot on the kids' trail."BMX Bandits", as directed by the ever reliable Brian Trenchard-Smith, never pretends to be anything other than what it is: carefree escapism for the younger crowd.
The reasonably funny script by Patrick Edgeworth (based on a screenplay by Russell Hagg) has a decent payoff when the kids go on about horror films they've seen and the head villain (Bryan Marshall) expresses disdain for the kind of thing that youngsters watch for entertainment!The pop score is irresistible, and Trenchard-Smith did a fine job of putting a smile on this viewers' face and keeping it there, right through the end credits.Eight out of 10..
Who would have thought that Australia, and the king of ozploitation cinema Brian Trenchard-Smith, would produce the movie to capture the zeitgeist of the colourful bicycles.
(Angelo D'Angelo), and Judy (Nicole Kidman), spend their summer holidays riding around on their bikes, attempting to get into mischief.
Once the criminals (crims to use the colloquial term) discover that these pesky kids have "stolen" the items, a hapless pair (Whitey (David Argue) and Moustache (John Ley)), chase the trio around the seaside town, with comic effect.Of course this is a silly film, it is completely unadulterated fun, and doesn't have the ubiquitous saccharine kids of an American "kids" film, and do not fall prey to the kind of posh-kids found in Enid Blyton's Famous Five stories.
I'm going to end on an appeal: Parents out there, let your kids run free, let them get into trouble whilst cycling with friends in a summer sense of autonomy - if you don't believe me when I state that this will enrich your children, then watch this film and see what happens.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com.
"BMX Bandits" has built up somewhat of a cult over the years, the obvious reason being that it involves BMX enthusiasts, as well as the fact that a pre-fame Nicole Kidman is one of the stars.
There is also a bit less BMX racing than you might think - after a few minutes of it at the beginning of the movie, there is no more for the next half hour.
Kids will probably like this movie a lot more than I did, though I think even they will find the movie has more than its share of slow spots..
Decent for What It Is. BMX Bandits (1983) ** (out of 4) This Australian kids film turned a good profit when it was first released and gathered a small cult following but the majority of people are mainly going to know it for featuring a very young Nicole Kidman in one of her earliest roles.
In the film, BMX riders (David Argue, John Ley) and their new friend (Kidman) get caught up with a bunch of bad guys who mean them harm and of course the police are too stupid to figure things out.
There's really not much plot to BMX BANDITS but I'm sure fans of the bike will enjoy this little adventure fantasy a lot more than your average viewer.
In America we got films like THE GOONIES so I think we got the better end of the stick.
Plus, today you get the charm of seeing an Oscar-winner in such an early role and this adds more fun to it than I'm sure the film had when it was originally released.
I'm sure young kids will have fun with the bikes and the adventure but everyone else should probably just stay away..
(That is, unless you're aged about 12 and like seeing kids on BMX bikes foiling dastardly villains.) If you're a fan of Ms Kidman, it will be fascinating to see her at the age of around 15 acting her socks off in a pretty basic kids' movie.
'If we'd grown up in Australia, BMX Bandits would have been our version of The Goonies' quote, fame director Quentin Tarantino.
"BMX Bandit' was a movie that really try to capitalize on the Australians' BMX craze which took off in the early 1980s.
'BMX Bandits' is a 1983 kid film that, probably most famous now, as one of the films that a young Nicole Kidman, starred in, before her big breakthrough role, in 1989's 'Dead Calm'.
Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, the film tells the story of three young BMX riders, P.J.
(Angelo D'Angelo), Goose (James Lugton), and Judy (Nicole Kidman), being entangled with a group of bank robbers, when they stole a carton of stolen police walkie-talkies, the gangsters were using to loot.
Without spoiling the movie, too much, the first thing, I notice about this film is the really bad pacing issues.
Most of the other parts of the film, has the teens doing a lot of illegal acts like stealing fish traps, vandalism, and other crimes to try to get money to get their bikes, fix, after a clichés obligatory nasty, nameless fat bully (Brian Sloman), cause them to wreck, their bikes with shopping carts, yet not their bodies.
Second off, the movie has, this, long pointless really, out of place, horror scene, where the bad guys are chasing the teenagers, through a dark cemetery with scary looking masks.
It's like this movie didn't really had some sort of a identify, during the writing period, until they decided to go with the BMX theme, late in production.
After all, most of the film, has them, playing with the walkie talkies than riding their bikes.
The police in this film, are absolutely useless, and really doesn't do much, besides, play background chitchat and the rolling shenanigans of the Freddy Mercury and Billy Idol, knock offs, bad guys, Whitey (David Argue) and Moustache (John Ley), during the second and third parts of the film, really doesn't match up with the intense opening part of the film, which makes them, looking like a seriously threat.
It get weirder for them, as the film had a memorable moment, where the BMX bikers, escape down the Manly Waterworks water slides, complete with BMX bikes, with the villains, coming after them.
The film had a lot of great one-liners from the three appealing young leads, even if their thick Australian accent, was hard to hear, at times.
Indeed, most the movie's music choices, don't really match, the tone of the film, at all.
Overall: While, BMX Bandits offers an amusing good times to '80s freestyle bike culture with some bawdy humor and adventure.
This movie is incredibly inferior to the 1986's film, 'Rad' in every way.
Nicole Kidman is perfect as the BMX riding tomboy, and her two male friends make great comic relief as one is an optimist, and the other is a pessimist.
Whether you're 8 or 88, BMX Bandits is a fun movie to watch.
A trio of teen BMXers(including a young Nicole Kidman)find walkie talkies left underwater by two crooks(David Argue and John Ley)and decide to sell them in the hopes of getting new bikes and body gear.
Communicating on a forbidden wavelength picked up by the police who must apprehend them, the trio might have a chance to get a new BMX rider park if they can help the cops capture the criminals wanted for the robbery seen at the beginning of the film.
Most of the movie has Kidman and male teen pals, Lugton and D'Angelo evading Argue and Ley who pursue them in a car and by foot to no avail.
Director Brian Trenchard-Smith(Dead End Drive-In)gets a lot of mileage out of beautiful Sidney, Australia, shooting all over(and through)the city using all sorts of flashy camera angles to depict bike riding in an alluring manner.
If you are a fan of bike stunts, there are many to salivate over, including a very lengthly race through the city where the teens find constant ways to avoid Argue and Ley who pretend to be detectives(which doesn't fool Kidman, who they actually have cornered and eventually kidnap not once but twice).
Like "The Goonies" after this, "BMX Bandits" features teen kids outsmarting bumbling criminals who aren't very bright and look foolish often.
Would go nicely in a double feature with "Rad", except "BMX Bandits" is a bit more exciting since Trenchard-Smith is allowed to shoot anywhere he wants to in a massive city and does so with a lot of flair.
The storyline is fluff, all the fuss over a cache of walkie talkies, but this isn't some sort of serious crime drama about stolen drugs stashed away, recovered by kids who are in turn chased by a gang of ruthless hoods, it's a teen adventure, mere whimsy/escapism..
We were obsessed with BMX bikes and building fancy bike tracks on our farm as kids and I swear it was because of this movie!!!!!
We totally enjoyed watching this piece of Aussie cinematic history again!!!OK, true, the acting isn't that great, although you can see even here Nicole Kidman has 'it'.
It's a complete laugh these days seeing what scrapes our BMXers get up to as they run from dodgy stupid robbers (it IS a kids movie) who, predictably, stuff up so bad u can only ROFL from laughing.
BMX/car chases, foam, flour fights, hilarious walkie talkie conversations, dumb cops, cool BMX kids and riding and stunts (that my brother perfected)...
Probably the best vintage fiction BMX film.
Nicole Kidman shows her early magical acting skills and the two young lead actors are equally engaging.The story follows Two teenage boys and one young girl (Kidman) trying to get enough money by any crazy scheme to fund their BMX passion.
(the engaging Angelo D'Angelo), and pessimistic mope Goose (an equally likable turn by James Lugton) are a trio of ace BMX bicycle riders who stumble across a carton of walkie-talkies.
Terribly bland, predictable kids flick about a trio of bmx teens who stumble across a stolen stash and have a run-in with crooks and cops as a result.Produced solely to cash in on the bicycle moto-cross craze that swept the world in the early eighties, script is silly and corny throughout and will entertain only very young bmx enthusiasts.
Of course for them there is plenty to look at, with the main chase sequence taking up what seems to be half of the film.Apart form the bmx action attraction there is nothing else on show.
It was just that vile.Not many weeks before, we screened the film "Rad" and were mystified by its pure, unalloyed cinematography and tremendous BMX stunts.
Some users compared "BMX Bandits" to the "Goonies." We all laughed and celebrated the scenes of our young heroes braving the copious traps set forth before them and relished in the memorable characters and musical compositions that would leave us singing these songs for dayswait, sorry, it didn't have any of that.When the credits finally completed rolling across the screen, I rose from my chair and gently flicked the switch to the lights above.