Out of Nothing (2014) User Reviews

For the cycle enthusiasts most of all...

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 23 September 2017]

"Out of Nothing" is a documentary about a group of guys who live in the Pacific Northwest. While they work a variety of different jobs, what draws them together is their love of motorcycles and a desire to set a land speed record. The film follows them from working on their bikes to going to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to try their chance at the record.

I am definitely not the best guy to watch this film, as I've never driven a motorcycle nor am I especially inclined to do so. I say this now because it had to affect how much I enjoyed the movie. And, I am sure folks who love cycles would be especially drawn towards this film….and would get more out of it. Now this is not to say I didn't enjoy the story. No, it was reasonably interesting and the film was very well made…with a professional look you often don't see with documentaries. My only complaint is the music, as the volume seemed a bit loud and it dominated much of the film. Again, however, as it's not the sort of music I usually listen to, perhaps this should be kept in mind. Overall, we have a nice, well-made film that is worth seeing.

By the way, the thing that stood out most for me about "Out of Nothing" is the fact that one of the producers is Ryan Stiles. If his name isn't familiar, he's a frequent (and hilarious) performer on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"…and it surprised me that he was involved with this project. I can only assume he's a nut about cycles….but you really would expect him to be involved in something with more of a comedic spin to it!

Fantastic film!

[ditoo · 10/10 · 28 September 2014]

This film was an inside look of what it takes to build and race a bike on the Bonneville Salt Flats. It was very well done and gave you a sense of what it is like to try to break the record, as well as everything that goes into the design and build of your bike. The teams profiled in this film were not the big name people you hear about, giving it a common man - anyone that wants to give it a try can do it feel. The cinematography and editing were excellent, as well as the music and the panoramic views of the great salt flats! What a beautiful and desolate place! The stories behind each of the people profiled were very interesting. I never knew the different types of bikes that could enter and the modifications they could make to them in order to compete. I learned a lot from watching this film and I highly recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in motorcycles or racing! Really enjoyed this film!

Wow - real people, real (fast) bikes, what's not to like!

[atoyne-73471 · 10/10 · 3 March 2015]

From the opening credits - which are great in themselves, to the final scene, Out of Nothing guides you through the highs and highs of a group of wonderfully fanatical bike builders who's only(?) dream is to go fast at Bonneville. Hats off to the Director and Producer for this work as it manages to meld both hardware i.e. bikes and software i.e. people into a real life story which captivates from the get go. Production values are high end (while I guess the budget was not so). The film has a superb balance between the technical accomplishments of the guys and their own humanity. Brilliant stuff from all at P51. I recommend this film to all and I look forward to seeing what these particular filmmakers are going to do next time.

I'm Jealous of these Men

[golfers_r_me · 10/10 · 25 February 2018]

I'm 40 yrs old and I have no hobbies. That's why I watched this movie. I wanted to watch men who actually do stuff. Unlike myself, who does nothing.

I intently watched these men, trying to determine how they differed from me. The leader of the gang was syrupy sweet. His brother evidently had psychological issues. The brain seemed like he wouldn't be very fun to have a beer with. Last but not least we have the guy I'd end up punching if I ever worked with him.

From the age of zero to out of the house, my parents spent a total of $800 on me. To say that being a tightwad is in my jeans is an understatement. What was the most aww inspiring about these men is the sheer avalanche of money they spent on their motorcycles. I can hear my mother passively aggressively right now "hmmm...must be nice to have that kind of money." The claustrophobic guy appeared to have 3 or 4 kids. Where does all this money come from?

The angry man who would have received one of my punches had I worked with him was evidently the richest of the four. Ironically (or, expectedly) he got his hair gel on clearance at Target. He seemed to be aware that the camera caught this, and made an attempt to hide this. This was only humorous in retrospect as it wasn't until later that they revealed his vast wealth.

As I grow wiser I appreciate that there's an infinite number of ways to do things, such as drink coffee. I must say, tho, that I was utterly transfixed by the way the syrupy sweet man drank his coffee. He neatly placed three white ceramic coffee cups on the counter, added cream and sugar, then filled each one to the brim with hot coffee. For his wife? Gf? Somebody else in the gang? Nope. He very adroitly picked all of them up like a barista and began to take them outside. "Where the hell is he going" I thought to myself. He then gets in his truck. What the?? A few moments later they show him grabbing another cup as he says something like "round 2." This is when it hit me: those are to-go cups? This man conservatively spends tens of thousands of dollars a year on motorcycles, and he's never considered and/or can't afford a travel cup?

All in all this was a bad a** documentary. I'm very jealous of these men.

No, just no

[sdegussem · 1/10 · 19 April 2016]

I cringed the whole time through. Felt like a cinematic circle jerk of four self obsessed bikers and a director who's stupid enough to not be at least a little bit critical and put things in perspective.

The structure of the narrative is ridiculous and boring; every single step of the event is explained four times through the eyes of every biker. Four times of people grumbling about how awful their jobs are and how they love their bikes more than anything in the world, we all got the cliché point the first time around, let alone watch the same message four freaking times. The 'climax', being the race itself, is an awfully stretched narrative and lost all its momentum and the small bit of suspense that it might have had. At that point I was actively hoping none of them would succeed in their goals.

Because besides a director who doesn't know what he's doing, very bad writing and cliché one liners, these displayed people were so awfully irritating. They possessed no self deprecating humour and only talked about themselves and their bikes as godlike superior things. They were glorifying each other and believed every single word they were saying. It was so uncomfortable watching this unmasked ball licking and deluded interviews. Unironic quotes as 'Nobody does it because they don't have the balls' and 'Our names belong in the history books' cringed the s*** out of me. Instead of adjectives as 'passionate', 'driven' and 'camaraderie', this film shoots immediately to 'arrogant', 'self-obsessed' and 'grandiloquence'. Thing is that a good documentary should be able to pull in an audience with any subject by making an interesting narrative, interesting characters and an interesting cinematography. A good documentary should make an audience excited about the rarest and most difficult of subjects. This film makes biking a seemingly nerdy obsession of some weird cocky and frustrated guys. Now, I know that can't be true and that the film wants to do the opposite, but yet, it reinforces this idea. And it's not just me. Every single person in the audience of the screening of April 16th (10 people) had the same feeling. Three of them, one of which was actually a biker, ran out of the screening way before the ending. He just couldn't bear it.

Biking already has the connotation of being part of a very macho culture and this movie even tops that. In about 60 minutes in the film, it shows female bikers only 3 times, 2 times of which the focus of the shot are boobs and the other time ass. The director must have realised that at some point 'cause towards the end there is a small and completely out of context small interview with a female biker but it doesn't make up for the blatant sexism.

The last point I want to make about this film is the lack of continuity in cinematography. It feels very eclectic because of the lots of different used cameras and the very visible variable quality of the images. Some of the shots were so bad in quality I thought it was shot on an iPhone. Also, the amount of time lapses of the Bonneville lake were too many and too dense. They aren't nicely spread through the narrative but just thrown at the audience without thinking.

Normally I don't bother with writing reviews about films. I just tag them for later personal reference and go on about my day. But having seen this absolute turd of a movie and then reading positive IMDb reviews and ratings written by probably people who were involved in the project, I felt the need to let the world know this movie is the worst.

Nicely done movie about useless machines people wasting time for

[danteniusek · 4/10 · 23 June 2017]

They want to go fast, and they go as much as 166MPH. Jesus, Mary and Joseph - production Suzuki goes much faster, and its comfortable, and you don't have to lie down to drive it, and it goes on normal road, you don't have to go to salt flats for lousy 166.... Don't get me wrong, it is a very nicely done document - that's all it is, nevertheless, this is document about absolute useless mediocrity and wasting life in areas that there is nothing to invent - production companies do it well for small money, and they do not spend year by year by year - whole year to perfect mediocrity at 166.

4 is all by make, i took 6 back - 5 for weak topic, 1 for poor choice of it...

Boring Flick

[ravendaj · 2/10 · 1 December 2021]

I love motorcycles, but this movie is a dud. Blue collar workers spending most of their time obsessed with building motorcycles to race on the salt flats. Very top level presentation. Nothing spectacular here! Okay...moving on.