Biker Boyz

The days of Harley-Davidsons mastering the road are over. Nowadays color and plastic coat the fastest and most coveted motorcycles in the land, and `Biker Boyz' heralds the passing with unrestrained glee.

Set among African-American biker clubs in Southern California, the film follows Kid (Derek Luke), a prodigious young motorcycle racer, in his quest for the title of `King of Cali,' currently held by Smoke (Lawrence Fishburne), leader of the Black Knights bike club. Smoke hesitates in accepting Kid's challenges, citing that Kid is not a member of a legitimate club. In one scene, Kid addresses Smoke's assistant with anger and frustration: `Are you racing? Or are you just blowin' smoke?' Kid begins his own club (the aptly named `Biker Boyz') and sets out for the crown of fastest biker. The rest of the film follows a sort of formula we have seen before, with the underdog taking on the inhumanly skilled antagonist at the end. Though the plot is weak, the talent both onscreen and off push the film into something the script alone could not hold. The actors, for the most part, excel in their respective roles. Fishburne turns what may have been a trivial role into one exuding sincerity and masculinity, holding to an effectively pensive and reserved demeanor. His presence on the screen legitimizes the film as not just another `Days of Thunder.' Fishburne's charisma must have extended to the rest of the cast, as even Kid Rock, who made his film debut in 2001's deplorable `Joe Dirt,' portrays his character with gusto and road-wise scruffiness. Director Reggie Rock Bythewood makes his presence felt in the film. Bythewood made a splash at Sundance a few years ago with his debut `Dancing in September.' With `Biker Boyz,' he manages to pull off something slightly extraordinary: he makes motorcycle racing entertaining. The camera freewheels around smoking tires, colorful racing suits and bouncing nightclubs with dizzying ease. His film is loosely based on a feature from the Los Angeles New Times on the biking subculture in California, and Bythewood tries to bring a sense of biker culture to the screen. The nonfiction foundation of the film shines through, displaying a bizarre sense of camaraderie between cyclists similar to that of a fraternal order.

Despite its basically inane premise, the movie is not all bad. The poor title and plot outline summons memories of `Rollerball' and the like, but do not be deceived. `Biker Boyz' inspires some sense of genuine excitement and intrigue. As entertainment, it works on the same level as last year's `Spider-Man.' It cannot be praised as a piece of art, but the craftsmanship of the film is undeniable, which grants it a begrudged recommendation.

If you want to see a pointless story, dragged out over a full 1hour 50 minute film, then check this out, I can honestly get what was the plan, fast and furious but on bikes instead, but every moment you feel a story is coming or we might be getting somewhere with this film, it is simply either forgotten, or just falls flat. I would have said the only redeeming part was the fact Laurence fishburne had been involved in the project, but even his storyline is just dull. If we could have a son of anarchy type of film mixed to fast & furious then this could have worked, but this is typical sort of films coming out in the early 2000's, still this film is better than Torque. I would say, if you want something on that pays no attention, something you want on when doing work, or just not actually watching the film just doing other things then check it out, but I wouldn't recommend actually watching the film, as the story itself as mentioned just isn't really there, several cliche are thrown in during the film. Good luck if you do choice to watch.

Well, to start off, I have to say that Biker Boyz isn't a good movie. However, it is better than the other recent bike movie, Torque, if only because it tries to do something with itself. But it fails none the less, perhaps for being too ambitious. The bike crowd watches the movie hoping to see realism and some good racing. Instead they get straight-shot drag style races, which in real life involve little to no actual talent on a machine. Also, they'll be racing 160 mph one minute, and dead stopped the next. It takes some time to come down from speeds like that. The movie also frequently ignores the force of wind that would be present at high speeds, with the racers hardly tucked in at all. The final race, much like many in Torque, takes place on a dirt road. Apparently they aren't aware that these high end bikes are often called street fighters.

Despite all that, there's actually an effort to tell a story. It's an admirable effort, but many of the parts just slow the movie down. It's often a painfully slow movie. Odd, since it's about a bunch of guys that race at speeds in excess of 100 mph. The story is a coming of age one, for both Kid and Smoke. They are both forced to confront issues, and in the end reconcile them. The biker clubs are set up to mirror, I think, a sort of community, and therefore Kid's efforts to rise in the clubs are supposed to represent his finding his place in society. The pieces are there, they were just poorly assembled. Folks most likely were expecting a quick, guilty pleasure like the Fast and Furious movies, and instead got a slow movie with mediocre action sequences.

The acting isn't nearly as bad as most are saying. It's not Fishburne's finest moment but it's not like it stained his reputation or ability, just look at his fine work in Mystic River. The writers made an effort to have three-dimensional characters. For example, After Dog's dirty racing forces Kid to drop his bike at the track, he lends him his own bike to take on Smoke. Granted, it's for his own reasons, but it's not like he's the evil villain parody going "mu-ah-ha-ha" off in the corner. I have to agree with another user that said it portrays black Americans in a positive way. They're not all stereotypes, they have their own personalities. Smoke is confident, but level headed. Soul Train seems the stereotype, but we see a totally different side of him when we find he's a lawyer.

So, it's not a good movie, but it makes an effort to be one, which counts for something. For all it's lack of realism, it gets points for not having the absurd stunts that Torque did, like flipping a huge street bike (with a helicopter jet engine, mind you) mid air, and riding on top and through the passenger sections of moving trains. Biker Boyz isn't good by any means, but it's not quite that bad.

Kid is the son of Tariq aka "Slick Will", engineer to Smoke, who is the leader of the Black Knights motorcycle group and a legend on the streets. When Tariq is killed in a motorcycle accident, Kid drops off the scene for six months but returns determined to become more than just a prospect. His ultimate aim is to challenge Smoke himself and make his mark by taking down the biggest dog there is but first he must go legit and set up his own motorcycle gang with friends Stuntman and Primo.

Opening with a really nice tracking shot (or series of shots, I'm not sure) this film had my interest early on but very quickly blew it. With an obvious and predictable establishing scene, the narrative arch is established and thus I began my weary trudge from start to finish, through countless music video scenes, unconvincing dialogue scenes and loads of motorcycles. It is very basic stuff and it never aspires to much. The characters are cut out of cardboard and the dialogue is awful, this might cut the mustard if the film was an out and out action film but it isn't. Instead it is supposed to be a character driven film and thus it is a big problem for it to not have characters or convincing dialogue. Sadly it is a mess in regards the writing and plotting and only the forgiving will find the material worth two hours of their time.

The action is pretty weak. I didn't think any of the races were exciting and although they are well done, all of them could have sorely used the emotions of the characters to feed into them. As it is the failure of the plot means that much of the film is lacking and feels rather pointless. Occasionally it hints at depth and humanity but the occasional spark is totally drowned out in a sea of noise. The music video goals of the film are met but personally I'm glad not to be in the demographic sector that is tricked into thinking that this makes for a good film.

The cast are mixed, containing people that I expected better from and people that deserve stuff like this. Fishburne may well have expected more from the film because at times you can see him reaching, sadly he cannot achieve the impossible and any glimmer of a good performance is swamped. Luke struggles from the start. He is pretty and charismatic here but he can't deliver emotion and understanding that isn't in the script and his narration is terrible. The support cast are roundly average with obvious performances from Jones, Hounsou, Fehr and others. Good is sexy but pretty vacant while I'm not sure why Bonet bothered to turn up for so little.

Overall then a fairly pointless film that shrugs off any character potential it may have had in favour of MTV visuals, clunky dialogue and mostly average performances at best. You can see the potential in the story but across several aspects the film fails to deliver this potential and just churns out a totally unnecessary film that doesn't deserve any of your time.

The movie is barely even entertaining unless you are with a group of drinking buddies making fun of it. The only reason to watch the forced plot, weak dialogue, music video camera work waste of time is if you love motorcycles, and like watching stunts performed on them. Even then, if you really want to see that, just go get a specialty film. FOR BIKE ENTHUSIAST ONLY.