Robyn Rhodes

You didn't have to persuade me to go see this movie once I saw Austin Butler was a lead! He is a rising star and this movie only solidified that in my mind. I was also curious because I grew up in Chicago and live in California, both of which feature prominently in this movie's history of biker clubs/gangs. I definitely had a lot of preconceived notions about what kind of person would be in a biker club. This movie surprised me. It has really warm, touching laugh out loud moments and darkly violent moments. It was interesting to learn the history of the biker club: a dad wanting to make a club for men to feel part of something. But things take a turn halfway through the film when the club gets bigger and other people's personalities, mental issues, sinister motives and power plays begin. The movie captured the look and feel of the time it was set in very well and the camera absolutely loves Benny (Butler) and Johnny (Tom Hardy) and their bromance which has a toxic element as well. The only thing that was distracting was Kathy's (Jodie Comer) accent. Her acting was great but I found her accent distracting (she's British irl) - I come from the Midwest and never sounded like that! Also I would have liked to see more scenes of Benny & Kathy's marriage. The story is told from Kathy's point of view and while it is a movie about two loves, hers & Benny's and the love between Johnny & Benny, I didn't feel like the audience saw the relationship between Kathy & Benny develop enough to truly believe them as a couple. I think we were to assume they were the love of each other's lives without any background, which was frustrating. I love that this movie is based on a book of interviews done with real people in biker clubs and you get to see pictures of what happened to them irl at the end of the movie. I didn't expect to like this movie as much as I did and I actually had my mind changed about bikers in general.

I don't know that I have ever written a movie review before, but I read so many negative reviews about this movie that I almost cancelled our tix. So I did go in with a steadfast love of Kevin Costner (as well as all things Yellowstone) along with extremely low expectations for this movie. And just to be clear, I'm not a western movie person. I do enjoy Yellowstone but that's about it. My husband grew up with a love of Westerns and wanted to see this so we went despite the reviews. I am SO glad we did. I really do not get the negative reactions to this movie?! It's a saga - it says it right there in the name. It is a slow boil, character & story driven, have faith that all the storylines will be connected, kind of movie. There's a lot of action, some violence and the acting was great we thought. Especially the bad guy in this movie (very blue eyes). I felt like we got a true depiction of what trying to settle in the West in the 1800's was really like. There are some love stories that began and some that are brewing. The end of the movie is about a 10 minute preview of things to come in the next movies so you get clued in on where the characters are going. We are excited to go see the next movie to see what happens! The only thing I can think of is that with Netflix we are all conditioned to want 35 minute episodes and instant gratification. I would sum this up as reading an unfolding story in a first book in a (hopefully!) great trilogy. I gave it 4 stars out of 5 because I want to give it room to grow and improve in the 2nd movie. But I thought it was well worth seeing.