Biker Boyz

In Biker Boyz, Laurence Fishburne and the elite of African American acting talent are poorly served by a shoddy screenplay and a director who thinks he's making The Fast and the Furious by way of a slight riff on any number of old school westerns. Imagine this unholy union and you're some way towards imaging the harsh realities of Biker Boyz.

Fishburne is Smoke, the "King of Cali" (California) and the leader of the Black Knights, a gang of motorcyclists. While they're certainly not in the same badass league as others, the Knights aren't complete wusses and regularly hold street races. Although he hasn't lost a competitive run in yonks, Smoke's crown is coveted by a youngster called Kid (Derek Luke). After Kid's father, who was Smoke's mechanic (Eriq La Salle) gets killed; Kid blames everyone else for his old man's demise. Huffing up his rebellion, he forms his own gang and sets out to dethrone Smoke.

Taking itself far too seriously, Biker Boyz rams home its moral message with a tad less subtlety than a Schwarzenegger excursion. Like Barbershop, it's refreshing to see a mainstream film largely populated by African American actors where violence and gangsta antics are at a minimum. However, the problem with Biker Boyz is that it doesn't have the momentum or good sense to avoid the worst excesses of the coming of age melodrama, right down to the hero's vindication in an overwrought finale.