A lot of pensioners reaching their twilight years downsize to a bungalow, turn the radiators on full and watch Countdown on a permanent loop.

Not Burt Munro. There's no high-backed plastic chair for him...but the cracked leather seat of a 1920 Indian Twin Scout motorbike.

Munro is the New Zealand legend who packed his bike into a crate, shipped it over to America and set a world speed record on the Utah salt flats in 1967.

For 30 years director Roger Donaldson (Thirteen Days, No Way Out) had dreamt of bringing Burt's eventful life to the big screen.

Now it's here with Anthony Hopkins - who first worked with the director on The Bounty - playing the determined old duffer in all his glorious eccentricity.

Kindly and non-judgemental, his disarming affability ensured he made his journey from his cottage workshop in Invercargill to Utah without mishap.

However, he had his fair share of hurdles to overcome - a shattered axle, America's bewildering bureaucracy as well a dicky ticker and a dodgy prostate.

On the other hand, the road trip had its compensations - simple friendships with a transvestite motel receptionist, a roll in the hay with a farmer's widow and a warm welcome wherever he fetched up.

When he gets to Bonneville, it seems his dream could be dashed at the last moment when track safety officials baulk at his bike - a 42-year-old bone-shaker held together with kitchen cabinet hinges and tyres fashioned with a carving knife.

There's no prizes for guessing Burt overcomes these hurdles and - in an impressive piece of film-work - hares across the salt flats to claim his place in biking folklore.

There's an appealing innocence in a feelgood caper that sends out the message that if you treat people right they'll respond in kind.

Hopkins - whose accent zooms off to Somerset from time to time - gently imbues Burt with a common decency and prickly respect that's difficult not to warm to.

It may sometimes steer a little to close to Disney, but there's plenty of mileage to be had from this particular vehicle.

Tim Evans