SUPERCROSS: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
Working-class Californian brothers Trip (Mike Vogel) and K.C. (Steve Howey) work as pool cleaners while sharing a dream of becoming champion supercross racers. Their contrasting personalities lead them to follow different paths to this goal: K.C. becomes a "factory" rider for the corporate-sponsored Team Nami, while the free-spirited Trip enters the same competitions as a self-financed privateer with the aid of small businessman Earl (Robert Patrick) the father of his girlfriend Piper (Cameron Richardson).

Review by Jake Wilson:
Like comparable skateboarding and surfing cheapies, Supercross exists for its sports sequences - awkwardly spliced-in footage of stuntmen on motorbikes - and for no other reason. Though I can't claim much personal interest here, I can respect the film's purity of aim, something now found in few other genres of American cinema. Beyond the corporate logos and the stadium crowds, the scenes that stick with you are as timeless as any Western: two guys tearing around off-road desert foothills and raising clouds of dust. Given the mayhem on the track, the narrative is surprisingly tranquil: a simple fable that extols co-operation, integrity, small-scale enterprise, and brotherly love.

These values, too, seem consciously old-school: there are few traces of modern pop culture or youthful rebellion. Steve Howey as Trip suggests a poor man's Owen Wilson but the character's unruly traits are restricted to reckless riding, a taste for pizza and a tendency to goof off while cleaning pools. The stress on clean living and hard work certainly contrasts with recent skating movies such as Grind or the local Deck Dogz - though it's not clear how the anti-corporate slant fits in with all the product placement. But objecting to such contradictions would be as pointless as criticising the amateurish acting, writing, and direction. Supercross has its charms for those who appreciate cinematic innocence, and as a love letter to its subject certainly registers as sincere. I can't predict how the target audience will react, but they ought to be happy: how many supercross movies do they get?

Published April 13, 2006