OPENS 27 JUNE, CERT 12A, 111 MINS
Put The Fast And The Furious on two wheels and you’ll have this laughably po-faced tale of illegal street-racing among LA’s biker fraternity. Derek Luke plays Kid, a young speed freak eager to dethrone “King of Cali” Smoke (Laurence Fishburne). To do so, he must set up his own club (the titular Biker Boyz), working his way up the racing hierarchy while keeping true to his late dad’s mantra that you should “burn rubber, not your soul”.
Despite Reggie Rock Bythewood’s flashy direction, this dopey yarn is more Vespa than Kawasaki. Mindful of the homoerotic implications of leather-clad males fetishising throbbing machines, By the wood assigns Luke a tattooist girlfriend to jump his bones and etch a silly symbol on his chest. Mercifully there are enough stunts, trick riding and 100mph wipe-outs to make up for the slack script. Even so, you may find yourself wondering where Fishburne found a bike big enough to handle his flab.