Biker Boyz

What's the Plot?

California. On it's streets exist a secret society - underground motorcycle clubs. These groups meet to party and to drag race for money, bikes, pride and placement amongst their peers. The undisputed "King of Cali" is the undefeated racer known as Smoke (Laurence Fishburne). The leader of The Black Knights, Smoke relies on his friend and mechanic, Slick Will (Eriq La Salle) to keep his bike in winning condition. However, when Slick is killed in a freak racing accident, his wife Anita (Vanessa Bell Calloway) tries to ban their son, Kid (Derek Luke) from entering into the sport that took him away from them. Kid has other plans though; he wants to win Smoke's helmet and earn the coveted title of "King of Cali" for himself. Before he can do that, he must prove himself as a racer to be able to challenge other bikers, let alone Smoke. So, despite his mother's wishes, Kid starts his own gang - the Biker Boyz - with his friends Stuntman (Brendan Fehr) and Primo (Rick Gonzalez). Soon they start to work their way up through the challenges, coming ever closer to the prize - Smoke's helmet and title. However, just as Kid gets his chance to take, on Smoke, Anita delivers some news that will forever alter the way that the master and the prodigy will view each other. Will they still race, and if so, who will cross the finish line first ?

The Review

There are some key factors that will decide on whether you will like Biker Boyz or not. If you're seriously into motorbikes, and I do mean seriously, then you'll probably love the film. Not for it's plot or dialogue, but purely for it's action sequences where the camera lovingly moves across the bikes that look and sound very expensive indeed. The Fast And The Furious did the same thing with a plot ripped off from Point Break (loud and fast cars with pretty little thought into the characters or dialogue) and Biker Boyz appears to have followed suit. Except that they haven't even bothered to rip off a plot from any film, no matter how simple.

Thrown into the mix for the "lads" who are into their bikes are the obligatory shots of babes, from an opening sequence of a fit woman's bum wiggling across the screen with a tattoo "can you ride this" on her thigh to a Bikini Biker's Babes fund raising event where they wash down all the guys bikes. Not totally in the stone age, there is a bloke on hand to wash the girls bikes but there is only one of him compared to the multitude of "bouncing babes." Now, if you're looking for a film to challenge or stimulate you, then a twist that's straight out of a popular soap (someone finds out that they've got a kid that they never knew about), or a well crafted choreography sequence where Smoke's entourage arrive and dismount from their bikes at the same time, means that Biker Boyz is not for you.

If you're going to be upset that the likes of Fishburne, Orlando Ones (Evolution), Lisa Bonet (Heart) and Dijimon Houston (Gladiator) are completely wasted in this teenage-boys dream flick, then again, this might not be the kind of evening to spend your money on. However, if you like your flicks simple, easy. loud, senseless and very, very silly, then make your way from the carpark having unstradled your Suzuki, and head on into the cinema... and add another Oscar to the total below.

STEVE'S SCORE