Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: August 23, 1991

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

36	METASCORE Generally unfavorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews

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Negative:

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Critic Reviews

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Owen Gleiberman

It’s engagingly junky entertainment with a healthy sense of its own ludicrousness. Read full review

Scott Tobias

Part of what’s made this middling action movie so durable—besides its ready-made “Movies For Guys Who Like Movies” template—is how endearingly uncool Harley and Marlboro are, as a biker and a cowboy who don’t really belong to any particular time and place. Read full review

Chuck Bowen

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man is one passable joke stretched out over 98 minutes with nothing in the way of a real movie to support it. Read full review

Vincent Canby

Mr. Rourke and Mr. Johnson handle their roles with more ease and humor than can be accommodated by a movie so stuffed with mindless fistfights, gunfights, helicopter chases, explosions and leaps from tall buildings. Read full review

Kevin Thomas

Rourke and Johnson are worthy of better, as is Australian director Simon Wincer, best known for his Emmy-winning direction of the miniseries Lonesome Dove. Read full review

Christopher Harrison

The overall mood of Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man may be one of good-natured idiocy, but it's hard to fault a movie for being stupid when stupidity is its one and only raison d'etre. [23 Aug 1991]

Mark Caro

By all rights, this material should be far more insufferable and less entertaining than it is. [23 Aug 1991, p.H]

Juan Carlos Coto

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man is lightweight, small-screen stuff. It has some genuinely funny moments, especially in the comic repartee between Johnson and Rourke. These guys have a likable chemistry, and they might be worth teaming up again. Next time, let's hope they have a script. [26 Aug 1991, p.C3]

EmpireKim Newman

For a while, its crassness is amusing, but as the plot sets in, it gradually turns into a stultifying bore. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Don Johnson and Mickey Rourke preen and posture on motorcycles and off in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, a futuristic action adventure that feels desperately like a vanity project. Read full review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

This egregious collection of cock-waving cliches is the silliest piece of macho camp since Roadhouse. Read full review