Freebird DVD > Reviews > How much can three men take?

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Great british biker movie .
Disadvantages:	Not to everyones taste .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This DVD came out in June 2008, it is the story of 3 motorcycle couriers based in London.
It stars Fred, Grouch and Tyg, who head to the welsh countryside one weekend to find an elusive hippy and his cannabis farm. But this ends up as a mission rather than a pleasant ride to Wales.
The weekend is fuelled by booze, drugs, air guitaring and a run in with a bike gang.
Fred is played by Gary Stretch who is an ex boxer, Grouch by Phil Daniels who you may know from Eastenders and finally Tyg is played by Geoff Bell.
The bikes featured in the film are a Moto Guzzi ridden by Phil Daniels, a Triumph ridden by Gary Stretch and a Kawasaki ridden by Geoff Bell.
The highlight of the film to me is the standoff of the rival bike gang against our three hapless heroes. This features over 200 assorted motorbikes on top of a welsh hillside, a spectacular site. How this is done is all revealed in the special features of the second disc.

It is produced by David Reid and Adam Bohling who are also the producers of Layer Cake so you know it is going to be a good film.
It originally started off as a stage play by John Ivay who is also the director of this film.

I bought the 2 DVD version of the film, the first disc features a widescreen feature of the film with dolby 5.1 audio and has English subtitles.
The second disc features the same widescreen film but this time in DTS audio. So depending on the capabilities of your home cinema system dictates which version would be the better one to watch.
The second disc features all the added extras that you now come to expect of special edition DVD's.
So the added extras you get are as follows, audio commentary by writer/director Jon Ivay. A documentary on the making of Freebird the movie, Interviews with both cast and crew, deleted scenes, original storyboards, theatrical traler and finally a screenplay DVD-ROM.
You also get a full colour brochure with more details of the film and actors.

All the extra features add up to a disc of 154 minutes extra running time on top of the features running time of 89 minutes.
This all adds up to value for money but shop around for the best price.
I thoroughly recommend it especially if you are a motorbike fan, it has been well received by the press too.
The Sun are quoted as saying "The best biker movie since easy rider"
Bike Magazine say "At last, a proper motorcycle movie", Daily Telegraph "It's the British Wild Hogs", and i agree with all these quotes too.