Review of Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991) by Carlos I — 01 Mar 2014

Set in the then-future of 1996, Harley Davidson (Mickey Rourke), a rough biker with a shady past learns that an old friend will lose his bar, because a bank wants to build a new skyscraper there and demands 2.5 million dollars for a new contract in advance. Harley meets up with his lifelong friend The Marlboro Man (Don Johnson), a rodeo cowboy living in the past and they decide to help the friend by robbing the corrupt bank and use the money for the new contract. However, after they robbed the bank's armoured car, they discover the cargo they stole is the designer drug "Crystal Dream", not money. Chance Wilder (Tom Sizemore), the president of the band is deeply involved in drug dealing, demands the return of the drugs. A series of increasingly deadly encounters ensue as heavily armed assassins goes on a hunt for Harley and Marlboro...

"Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man" was a critical and financial failure, earning only $7 million at the domestic box office (the budget was estimated at $23 million). It became a cult classic following its release to video. Several of the characters are named after well known products, Harley-Davidson (motorcycles), Marlboro (cigarettes), Virginia Slim (cigarettes), Jack Daniels (whiskey) and Ol' Grandad (whiskey). Mickey Rourke has said numerous times in interviews that he signed on to this film purely for monetary reasons, and this is part of what fueled his descent into self-loathing in the mid-'90s, after it made him "...feel like a sell-out." There´s several references in the film to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969); including trick shots by Marlboro, the sudden appearance of a "super-posse", the reference to Marlboro's hometown, and jumping from a great height into the water. I reckon the idea was to make an updated futuristic version of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", and the idea is partly there, but hardly reaches all the way. The storyline is thin, but I do think there´s a humorous chemistry between Johnson and Rourke. The dialogue is sometimes strange and the action is a bit wobbly and ridiculous at times (the henchmen in long kevlar coats shooting Steyr AUG assault rifles with one hand.....). Despite this, it´s still an ok action movie in my eyes. Not wow, but not booh either.